Problems in Ratio Correlation: The Case of Deterrence Research.

Logan, Charles H.

ABSTRACT Potential problems in ratio correlation cannot be resolved outside a particular substantive context. Within the context of deterrence research, several approaches are examined: the "conceptual-meaning" resolution, the Pearsonian approximation formula and null comparison, simulation techniques, decomposition into component covariances, part correlation, and the use of residual scores. A simulation experiment shows that when the terms used in the measures of certainty of imprisonment and crime rate are randomly scrambled, the resulting ratios correlate in a manner comparable to what occurs with the data in their original form. These scrambled-data correlations, however, are due purely to artifactual effects of the common term. The most useful test for the existence of this common-term artifact appears to be the technique of part correlation. With empirical imprisonment data, the part correlations are lower than the zero-order correlations, supporting the possibility that the original correlations may have been at least partially artifactual.

STATISTICAL correlation; RESEARCH; SOCIOLOGY; CRIME prevention; PUNISHMENT in crime deterrence; IMPRISONMENT; CRIMINAL justice system

Social Forces, 1982, Vol 60, Issue 3, p791

0037-7732

Academic Journal

10.2307/2578393