Your Name:                                                                .

1.  Open the Excel file at:  http://crab.rutgers.edu/~goertzel/homicideprison.xls.  If for some reason you cannot open the Excel file, you may type the data from the listing at the end of this page.  To make a time series graph in Excel, however, you have to change the years to a full four digit format, e.g., 1929 instead of 29.

2.   Prepare a time series graph for the trends in the homicide rate and the number of prisoners.

3.  Calculate the correlation coefficient between these two variables.  You must have the "Analysis Took Pak" installed in Excel to do this.  Installation instructions are available on "help" within Excel.  You will probably need the original CD-ROM.  This is available on Excel in our computer labs.

4.  Write a paragraph describing what the graph shows.  What questions does it raise about criminal justice policy?  Type your paragraph into the Excel file under the graph.

To submit this assignment in class, print out the graph and text using Excel.  If  your whole file does not print, you may find it better to use the "landscape" format.  To adjust the printing format, click on file/print preview.  Then click on "setup" and adjust things until the way it looks on the screen is the way you want it.

To submit it digitally to WEBCT, just submit the Excel file in *.xls format.  Do not try to convert to html.

  Data in ASCII format.  It is easier, however, to open the excel file I have posted.  I have found that it is possible to copy a column in WordPerfect (use edit/select/rectangle) but I've never figured out how to do it in word.  If you select a column in Word Perfect, you can paste it into a spreadsheet column.
Yr    Hom.    Prison

29  86.10 107.63
30  91.15 113.89
31  95.07 120.54
32  93.40 119.59
33  96.54 117.78
34  95.39 118.24
35  83.20 122.43
36  79.90 122.47
37  76.16 125.78
38  67.78 130.87
39  64.13 135.39
40  63.12 129.78
41  60.32 122.38
42  58.59 110.33
43  50.65 100.60
44  49.79  97.51
45  56.58  98.71
46  63.38  98.03
47  60.61 103.53
48  59.24 104.80
49  54.03 107.92
50  52.29 107.23
51  48.68 105.37
52  51.51 105.17
53  48.07 106.68
54  47.78 110.28
55  44.94 109.79
56  45.39 110.01
57  44.64 111.10
58  44.88 114.78
59  46.06 114.22
60  47.03 114.73
61  46.88 116.40
62  48.53 113.95
63  48.96 111.16
64  51.37 108.02
65  55.37 104.93
66  59.37  97.92
67  68.02  94.53
68  73.69  93.67
69  76.89  94.68
70  82.67  93.52
71  90.84  95.77
72  93.84  93.70
73  96.83  96.62
74 100.62 102.41
75  98.91 111.67
76  89.88 120.81
77  90.86 130.19
78  92.00 133.11
79 100.42 134.62
80 106.83 139.13
81 103.05 154.57
82  96.51 171.51
83  86.36 180.33
84  83.94 189.66
85  83.60 203.34
86  90.48 219.39
87  87.09 233.52
88  90.10 251.41
89  92.82 280.75
90  98.69 300.09
91 105.16 321.29
92  99.94 340.93
93 100.89 362.78
94  95.74 391.24