Sleuth2 (version 2.0-7)

case1902: Death Penalty and Race

Description

Lawyers collected data on convicted black murderers in the state of Georgia to see whether convicted black murderers whose victim was white were more likely to receive the death penalty than those whose victim was black, 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

Format

A data frame with 12 observations on the following 4 variables.

Aggravation

the aggravation level of the crime, a factor with levels "1", "2", "3", "4", "5" and "6"

Victim

a factor indicating race of murder victim, with levels "White" and "Black"

Death

number in the aggravation and victim category who received the death penalty

Nodeath

number in the aggravation and victim category who did not receive the death penalty

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)