Question

8. The Census of Jails reports that the modal number of inmates per jail is 1. This value occurs more frequently than any other population value (51 times among 2,371 jails). a. Use this example to discuss the limitations of using the mode to describe the central tendency of a continuous variable. [1.0pt] b. Identify the measure(s) you would use instead of the mode to describe the central tendency of jail inmates and explain why. [1.0pt]

Answer 1

A)Mode is a measure of central tendency . Here no. Of inmates 1 has occurred max number of times so , mode became that only but , mode is not based on all the datas .Mode could be actually far from the actual average too . More over mode is stable for large values so it will be well defined if the data consists of small number of values .

B)The measure of central tendency ie mean should be used in the scenario , as mean is based on all the observation so it can give a good over all estimate of the average number of inmates per jail .