Criminology and the Use of Statistical Evidence
notice correlations in the ways in which crime emerges in certain communities and they will base their theories of crime on these observances, though no statistical evidence is actually accumulated to verify the theory. The theory simply makes sense from a logical or rational point of view and in this manner it can be promoted. Its basis of evidence is qualitative (i.e., content-related, conceptual or thematic) rather than statistical and empirical (i.e., data that can be measured, quantified and verified through testing). Broken Windows Theory is one example of criminological theory that was based on qualitative assessments rather than on statistical data (Jean, 2008). While the theory… Continue Reading...
