Applied Statistics I

Code:

C108

Acronym:

ESTA I

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Statistics

Instance: 2006/2007 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Course/CS Responsible:	Criminology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
C	39	Oficial Study Plan LC	1	-	6	-

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

This course intends to give students a very good background in statistical methods in order to support research on criminology.

Specifically, we want that students in the end of this course:
1. Be conscientious about the importance of statistical methods in criminology applied research;
2. Be able to recognize which specific statistical measure or procedure should be applied to specific problems of research;
3. Be able to work with statistical software packages (specially SPSS software)

Program

1. Statistics as an instrument in the criminology research
a. The role of statistical methods in criminology and criminal justice
b. Validity in criminological research
2. Main definitions and concepts in statistics
a. Population and sample
b. Distributions
c. SPSS applied examples
3. Univariate analysis
a. Describing variable distributions
b. Understanding data distributions
c. Measures of central tendency
d. Measures of dispersion
e. Inferences in univariate analysis
f. Point estimation and confidence intervals
g. Hypothesis testing for one population mean
h. SPSS applied examples
4. Bivariate analysis: relationships between two variables
a. Testing hypothesis with categorical data
b. Testing hypothesis involving two population means or proportions
c. Bivariate correlation and regression
d. SPSS applied examples
5. Multivariate analysis
a. Main concepts

Mandatory literature

Bachman, Ronet e Raymond Paternoster; Statistical Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice, McGraw-Hill, 2003. ISBN: 0-07-251844-8
Pestana, Maria Helena, e João Nunes Gageiro ; Análise de Dados para as Ciências Sociais – A Complementaridade do SPSS, Edições Sílabo, 2005
Reis, Elizabeth ; Estatística Multivariada Aplicada, Edições Sílabo, 2001

Teaching methods and learning activities

Two types of classes: Theoretical and Laboratorial applied work
Theoretical concepts are presented and explained in theoretical classes. Afterwards, those concepts are applied in laboratorial work, trying to prepare students to be able to make their own research on criminology.

keywords

Physical sciences > Mathematics > Statistics
Social sciences > Criminology

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam