Presentation Guidelines
Select a criminal-justice
related topic that interests you.
Browse through the variables in
the datasets we used throughout the semester (or the supplementary
resource listed in the DATASETS link in the main menu) and determine which
of these variables you can use to propose a research question (and
subsequent research hypothesis) related to your selected topic.
Read and summarize 3 (three) empirical studies that relate to
your topic
Study the levels of
measurements of the variables you have selected from the dataset(s) in
order to determine which statistical test covered in this class will be
most appropriate to use to test your proposed hypothesis.
Run the test in SPSS and save
the outputs (or recreate these outputs in Excel or Word)
Put together a short
PowerPoint presentation to discuss your proposed research and study
findings.
Your presentation should not be
longer than 5 minutes.
Presentation Outline
INTRODUCTION (1-2 slides)
State the thesis of your
presentation (what social phenomenon you are studying)
Briefly Discuss the literature
you have read in preparation for your presentation, and drawing from that
State your hypothesis and the
null hypothesis
ANALYSIS (2 slides)
Discuss your variables in the
hypothesis (independent, dependent, and their levels of measurement)
Discuss your analytical
strategy (i.e. what statistical test you are using and why)
Discuss the results (output
from SPSS) of your study
DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSIONS (1 slide)
Discuss what you have concluded
based on the results found (i.e. whether you will reject or fail to reject
the null hypothesis) and what this tells you about the social phenomenon
you have examined.
Discuss the policy implications
based on the findings of your research
