Quantitative Data Assignment

Access the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report Website: https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr (Links to an external site.)

Select FBI’s Crime Data Explorer link

Initial Post: Due 9/22

Part A. Scroll to the middle of the page with the map of the U.S. labeled “Explore by Location and Dataset”; hit “Go” for “All Data Collections in the United States.” In total your response for Part A should be at least one page (no longer than 1.5 pages).

I. Using the “Explorer Page Filters” option, navigate to the crime statistics for North Carolina in 2020. Scroll down to review the charts and graphs provided. In complete sentence format, please answer the following questions: a) Describe the violent crime trends from 2010 to 2020 for North Carolina and the U.S. in general; b) How do the 2010-2020 violent crime trends compare to the violent crime rates from 2000-2010?

II. Using the “Explorer Page Filters” option, select two agencies within North Carolina to compare. For example, you can select Fayetteville PD and Raleigh PD to compare. Please select any 2 agencies in North Carolina for the year 2020. For each agency: a) describe the violent crime trends from 2010 to 2020. Which agency reported higher violent crime rates? b) describe the demographics of both violent crime offenders and victims by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. What demographic differences do you see across the two agencies/locations?

Part B. Explore the following website, which is one of the largest repositories for quantitative databases that exist for the social sciences: https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/ (Links to an external site.)

Use the search bar to type in key words related to your research topic. For example, you can type in “crime data” or “victimization data.” Click on the study that sounds interesting to you to learn more about it.

If you had to have a quantitative component to your research project, what kind of quantitative data/information would you prefer to have? After reviewing the databases available in the ICPSR’s website, indicate the name of at least one data source that relates to your topic. Describe the data source and how it may relate (even just a little) to your topic. If there are no data sources that match your project, describe how you would go about gathering quantitative data for your project from scratch. In total, your response for Part B should be 4-5 sentences.

Response post to a classmate (due 9/25): Describe a different way your classmate could add a quantitative component to their study. Be concise and specific (not general or ambiguous). Response should be 4-5 sentences.