These questions can be answered by reference to the article by Alfred Blumstein, "Disaggregating the Violence Trends."  These questions will be answered in class.  Students who miss class should answer them as the "alternative assignment" for February 2.

1.  What is the dependent variable in this study (what is the author trying to explain)?
 

2.  What are some of the indicators or measures of this dependent variable?
 
 

3.  Which indicator dominates the violent crime index?
 
 

4.  Which of these indicators displays different trends from the others?
 
 

5.  Why has there been a higher rate of report of aggravated assaults in the 1990s than in the 1970s? 

6.  Looking at Table 2.1, would the correlation between murder rates and robbery rates be:  positive, negative or close to zero?

7.  Looking at Table 2.1, would the correlation between year and murder rates for the period 1973 to 1997 be:  positive, negative or close to zero?

8.  Looking at Table 2.1, would the regression coefficient for predicting the murder rate by year, for the p eriod from 1990 to 1997 be:  positive, negative or close to zero? 
 

9.  Looking at table 2.4, what does the value "15" mean on the vertical axis?  Use it in a sentence.
 
 

 10.  What is the author's basic strategy for figuring out what is going on:  a.  multiple regression modeling  b.  disaggregation of trends  c.  focus group interviews  d.  field observation
 
 

11.   How does he break the trends down?  By what variables?
 
 

12.  People of which age are most likely to commit homicides?
 
 

13.   Looking at Table 2.4, in which year is the difference in murder rates between age groups most acute:  a:  1985  b. 1993
 
 

14.  How many murders (per 100,000 population) were committed in 1985 by people 18 years old?   How many by the same age group in 1993? (Table 2.5)
 
 

15.  In figure 2.7, the lines are:   a.  racial groups  b.  years  c.  crimes  d.  age groups  e.  weapons
 
 
 

16.  Looking at Figure 2.7, describe the pattern found in the 1970s.
 
 

17.  Looking at Figure 2.8, which age groups show the greatest increase in murder rates since 1985?
 

18.  Looking at Figure 2.18, how did the trends among Blacks differ from those among White and Hispanics, age 18-24?

19.   What implications might the findings here have for reducing homicide in Camden and other US cities in 2004?