Research J 5.4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Research J 5.4 - Essay Example The attributes of these variables are exhaustive and mutually exclusive and is the weakest level of measurement. The elements are not assumed that one is greater than the other. In criminal justice, nominal measure has limited knowledge. For example, when determining whether an offender is driven to crime by lifestyle or place they were brought up (Bayens & Roberson, 2010). Ordinal measurements variables are ranked in a particular order. Examples include occupation of persons, level of crime and police opinion. Ordinal measure satisfies the exclusiveness and exhaustiveness requirements. For example, we can group criminals according to arrests types made. Muggers, car thefts, house break-ins and murderers can be in different groups. These ranking of events give a representation of an ordinal order. It is irrelevant where the arrest was made, whether miles away or in proximity (Maxfield & Babbie, 2012). Interval measure assumes that categories are different and can be ranked and ordered. The distance between the numbers from one to another have some meaning. For example, a criminal with ten arrests and another with two arrests, the interval measure between the criminals, we can conclude that the first criminal has a more serious crime record than the second one. Ratio scale gives the highest scale of measurement. The categories must be rank ordered and different. The variable categories must be capable of being compared by the use of ratios with other categories. These variables must have meaning of the distance between categories. For example, if an offender is arrested four times in a given period and another twice in the same period, the latter is arrested twice as many times as the former (Hagan, 2013). The reason I would prefer ratio scale to other levels of measurement is that, it carries more information. It is used in comparison with another range of categories of numbers or ratios. Most researchers use ratio scale in reporting and