Question

Bouffard and Piquero (2010) wanted to know whether arrested suspects' perceptions of the way police treated them during the encounter affected the likelihood that those suspects would commit more crimes in the future. Their sample consisted of males who had been arrested at least once during their lives. They measured suspects' perceptions of police behavior as fair or unfair. They measured recidivism as the number of times suspects came into contact with police after that initial arrest. A) Identify the independent variable in this study. B) Identify the level of measurement of the dependent variable C) Identify the dependent variable in this study. D) Identify the level of measurement of the dependent variable. E) Identify the unit of analysis.

Answer 1

A) Independent variable - arrested suspects' perceptions of the way police treated them during the encounter

B) Level of measurement of independent variable - Nominal
The variable is categorical and have no particular order. Hence, it is Nominal

C) Dependent variable - likelihood that these suspects would commit more crimes in the future

D) Level of measurement of dependent variable - Ratio

Number of times suspects came into contact with police is the measure of dependent variable. This variable can take numerical values with meaningful 0 and hence, it is ratio level of measurement.

E) A males who had been arrested at least once during their lives.