Stat-Spotting A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data

Name: Stat-Spotting A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data
Price: 16.32 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780520279988

ISBN-10: 0520279980

ISBN-13: 9780520279988

Edition: 2013 (Revised)

Authors: Joel Best

List price: $29.95

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Description:

In this new edition--with revised benchmark statistics, updated resources, and a new section on the rhetorical uses of statistics, complete with new problems to be spotted and new examples to illustrate those problems--Joel Best's best-seller exposes questionable uses of statistics and guides the reader towards becoming a more critical, savvy consumer of news, information, and data.Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the Web, seemingly…

Book details

List price: $29.95
Copyright year: 2013
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 9/14/2013
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 160
Size: 5.50" wide x 8.25" long x 0.50" tall
Weight: 0.594
Language: English

Joel Best is Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. He has published more than twenty books on social problems and deviance, including Threatened Children , Random Violence , Damned Lies and Statistics , and The Student Loan Mess (with Eric Best.)



Preface to the 2013 Edition



Getting Started



Spotting Questionable Numbers



Background



Statistical Benchmarks



Severity and Frequency



Varieties of Dubious Data



Blunders



The Slippery Decimal Point



Botched Translations



Misleading Graphs



Careless Calculations



Sources: Who Counted-And Why?



Big Round Numbers



Hyperbole



Shocking Claims



Naming the Problem



Definitions: What Did They Count?



Broad Definitions



Expanding Definitions



Changing Definitions



The Uncounted



Measurements: How Did They Count?



Creating Measures



Odd Units of Analysis



Loaded Questions



Raising the Bar



Technical Measures



Packaging: What are they Telling Us?



Impressive Formats



Misleading Samples



Convenient Time Frames



Peculiar Percentages



Selective Comparisons



Statistical Milestones



Averages



Epidemics



Correlations



Discoveries



Rhetoric: What do they Want Us to Think?



Using Short-Term Turnover to Measure Long-Term Problems



Sudden Turns for the Worse



Designating Myths



Rhetorical Flourishes



Debates: What if They Disagree?



Causality Debates



Equality Debates



Policy Debates



Stat-Spotting on Your Own



Summary: Common Signs of Dubious Data



Better Data: Some Characteristics



Afterword: If You Had No Idea Things Were that Bad, they Probably Aren't



Suggestions for Those Who Want to Continue Stat-Spotting


Acknowledgments


Notes


Index