Sleuth2 (version 1.0-3)

case1902: Death Penalty and Race

Description

Lawyers collected data on convicted murderers in the state of Georgia to see whether convicted murderers who were black were more likely to receive the death penalty than convicted murderers who were white, after accounting for aggravation level of the murder. They categorized murders into 6 progressively more serious types. Category 1 comprises barroom brawls, liquor-induced arguments lovers' quarrels, and similar crimes. Category 6 includes the most vicious, cruel, cold=blooded, unprovoked crimes.

Usage

case1902

source

Ramsey, F.L. and Schafer, D.W. (2002). The Statistical Sleuth: A Course in Methods of Data Analysis (2nd ed), Duxbury.

References

Woodworth, G.C. (1989). Statistics and the Death Penalty, Stats 2: 9--12.

Examples

str(case1902)

# Add smidgeon to denominator because of zeros
empiricalodds <- with(case1902, Death/(Nodeath + .5))
plot(empiricalodds ~ as.numeric(Aggravation), case1902, log="y", pch=ifelse(Victim=="White", 21, 19), xlab="Aggravation Level of the Murder", ylab="Odds of Death Penalty")
legend(3.8,.02,legend=c("White Victim Murderers","Black Victim Murderers"),pch=c(21,19))

fitbig <- glm(cbind(Death,Nodeath) ~ Aggravation*Victim, case1902, family=binomial)
# No evidence of overdispersion; no statistically significant evidence
# of interactive effect 
anova(fitbig, test="Chisq") 
fitlinear <- glm(cbind(Death,Nodeath) ~ Aggravation + Victim, case1902, family=binomial)
summary(fitlinear)

# Mantel Haenszel Test, as an alternative
table1902   <- with(case1902, rbind(Death,Nodeath))
dim(table1902) <- c(2,2,6)
mantelhaen.test(table1902)