Homicide

Tuba Akhtar
Kinlock
Due: April 8, 2013
A. Is there a relationship between socioeconomic status (poverty) and homicide? The null hypothesis is that there is no significant relationship between poverty and homicide. The alternative hypothesis is that there is significant relationship between poverty and homicide. From prior research conducted, evidence usually showed that there are significant correlation between poverty and homicide. The theory is that due to the standard of poverty people are more likely to become victims, or even offenders within in the surrounding environment. The null hypothesis will be rejected because previous research exemplifies that socioeconomic status and homicide have a strong connection.

B. The research design is correlational because the purpose of the design is to determine if there is a relationship between two variables, which are measured at the rate or ratio level.

C. The independent variable poverty was measured in each of the 50 states and listed by percentages for “below poverty” in the year 2010. The dependent variable homicide was also measured in each of the 50 states for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter for the year 2010. Both variables were listed as rate per 100,000 habitats.

D. A Pearson product moment correlation will be conducted to analyze the results. This procedure will determine whether there is a relationship between the two variables that are measured at a rate or ratio level.

E. Thorough research was finally concluded after approximately three days because locating the same year for both variables became challenging. Once the year was determined with the help of Dr. Kinlock, the mathematical terminology became an issue to understand. After about three hours the rate or ratio level was determined

F. Two parties will benefit significantly from this research: average citizens and the criminal justice system. The confidant correlation between poverty and homicide will demonstrate that the chances of victimization in relationship to homicide are efficient throughout areas of poverty. The rejection of the null hypothesis will also prove the necessity for surrounding locations of poverty to be heavily focused on in terms of future homicide.

G. The strength of this research is that the data was received from all 50 states and pertains to using data from the same year. Another strength is that all of the data was available from the same year for both of the variables. In addition, research indicated that no papers have been published like this before. However, a major limitation is that only two variables will be used within this research and that generalizing the results may be too broad of a hypothesis. Finally, another limitation is that the data collected for this research is pretty narrow. Even though the data collected is for all 50 states, the year being examined is only for 2010. In order to enhance the chances of identifying accurate relationship between the two variables, perhaps more years should be studied.

Citations Lilly, R., Cullen, F., & Ball, R. (2011). Criminological theory. (5th ed.). California: Sage Publications.