Criminal Justice: Statistics, Essay Example

This assignment shall evaluate on criminal justice statistics and its presentation. It shall evaluate on how the materials are presented and indentify instances misrepresentation or common statistical fallacies which make the statistics not to fair or truthful in its presentation.

According to Viklund, (2007) the main challenge on statistical presentation of criminal related data is credibility of the data to be believed that it represent the true picture of the scenario being studied/presented. Benjamin Disraeli a British Prime Minister noted that there are three levels of untruth which exist in the world damned lies, lies and statistics. Hence, this is an indicator on how statistics have gained its self such negative reputation.

The bad reputation of statistics has been brought by pressure of high expectations and the excitement which people get when scenarios’ are presented statistically. The example given in the lecture notes is such a statement like four doctors out of five recommended sweets for breakfast. It sounds good and convincing. “The doctors recommended ” but the statistics does not elaborate on the circumstances which lead to the doctors on one having sweets for breakfast. May be the person who collected the data like talking sweets and he sort recommendations form the doctors on whether to take the sweets in the morning or at during bed time. Defiantly the doctors will recommend sweets to be taken in the morning while if the scenario would be different the recommendations would differ as well. These have been the case in criminal justice statistical data collection and analysis hence being misleading.

The credibility of statistics depends on the size of population which is being studied and how the sample used for the purpose of statistic is selected. There are different methods which are acceptable for obtaining a sample size which is not biased. The sample data would be collected by use of ether probability or non probability sampling. Probability is used when every unit of the population has a chance of being selected this form of selection of the sample size would be accurate if its done in adherence to the  rule of selection (Skinner & Chambers, 2003). However, the size should also be a factor to consider based on the total population being taken in to considerations.

Non-probability sampling would be use for the population which does not have chance of selections. Hence, it’s selection is nonrandom therefore it does not allow estimation of sample error as its with the case of probability selection which is used to measure degree of accuracy by finding the sample error.

In relation to homeland security statistics have been used to represents the rising tides of criminality and possibility of attack by terrorist. An audit which has been done to ascertain authentic of the data for its accuracy has proved that such statistical presentations are not based on facts. Some are presented in favor of political interest or to serve a certain quota (Deflem, 1997).

Justice department has been a victim of presentation of inaccurate data especially on cases on antiterrorism a close scrutiny of their statics reveled that cases of drug abuse/trafficking, fraud, and other routine court cases of which are of interest to the public, government and other organizations to formulate strategies on how to mitigate the vice, are being presented as antiterrorism cases (Eggen, 2007). Hence, case of antiterrorism seems to be rising over the years despite of the efforts to stop the vice.

The record which is also documented by FBI for insecurity and cases relating to terrorism are inaccurate. This has proved that those who compute such statistics have been taking other stakeholders for a ride because they know rarely will they not agree with the findings and even if they do not agree with the results they does not have the machinery to source for date and analyze it to challenge what is being presented. These has been the main challenge in ensuring criminal justice data presentation is accurate and reliable to make decisions which will be workable to solve the problems being addressed.

Misleading information provide by statistics are the contributing factors of formulation of strategies and polices which are not working, not relevant or effective on addressing the reason why they are in place. Because once they are implemented this the time the reality of the situation is known to be different with the expectations or how the statistics has presented it.

References

Deflem, M. (1997). Surveillance And Criminal Statistics: Historical Foundations of Governmentality. Studies in Law, Politics and Society, 17(1), 149-184

Eggen, D. (2007). Justice Dept. Statistics On Terrorism Faulted. Retrieved on January 12, 2010 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/20/AR2007022001566.html

Skinner, J & Chambers, L. (2003). Analysis of Survey Data, New York: Wiley

Viklund, A. (2007). The Washington Post: Justice Dept. Statistics On Terrorism Faulted. Retrieved on January 12, 2010 from http://editoriale.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/idiots-at-doj/