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What can we deterimine just by looking at the graph?

1. What does the center column represent?
   One Plausible Answer

   The center column represents age. That is labeled on this version of the graph.

2. What age range is covered in the center column?
   One Plausible Answer

   The age range covered is from 0 to 85+ in interims of five years.

3. What variable could represent two groups that would be so unevenly divided?
   One Plausible Answer

   Not male and female because other graphs we have looked at have made us aware that males and females are generally pretty well balanced in the population.

   Not age groups, because the whole age range is represented by the middle column.

   Maybe activity rates. One group could be sedentary, the other active in athletics. Perhaps researchers could have measured the cardiovascular strength of both groups.

   Still puzzled? Go to Nan Chico's Starters, click on the table there, and it will take you to:

   

   So this graph represents differences between Black Males and White Males.

4. What kind of variable is gender here?
   One Plausible Answer

   Gender is controlled. Race is the independent variable. Homicide rate is the dependent variable, which means that we are looking at how the homicide rate varies by race, over age groups in interims of five years. Look carefully at the graph to be sure you can see these relationships.

   A controlled variable is one that we choose to not measure. In this case we chose to look only at men. Had we looked at the homicide rate for women, too, we might have found greater balance between Blacks and Whites. But that would have been spurious, for there was another variable, gender, operating also. When we control gender, by including only males in our analysis, then we can see the large difference between the homicide rates.

   Good quantitative science requires us to examine our data carefully to find such problems in our analysis. When qualitative scientists complain that "objective" science is guilty of not attending to the situational context, they are really just complaining that the quantitative scientists are not living up to their own standards. All science, when honestly and ethically pursued, must examine its own biases and misperceptions.

5. Write a brief paragraph interpreting the graph.
   One Plausible Answer

   Figure 2.2 shows that Black male homicide rates are considerably higher than White male homicide rates. The modal age category is 20 to 24 years of age, with a homicide rate for Black males of 150 per 100,000. That compares to approximately 20 per 100,000 for White males of the same age.

   Although the rate is higher in all age groups for Blacks than for Whites, the most egregious pattern is the high homicide rate for Black males from age 15 on into their 40s. For Black males from 15 to 30, the homicide rate never drops below 100 per 100,000, while for White males the homicide rate never exceeds approximately 20 per 100,000.

   Notice that this extension of the high homicide rate over all age categories for Black males suggests that we will need to explore the interactive effect of race and violence. We have traditionally explored these effects by assuming that the violence stems from some racial characteristic. Critical theory would suggest that we look carefully to the underlying assumptions of such a causal analysis. If, in fact, violence can be shown to evolve from situational factors, then many studies of race and violence would have to be re-examined for spurious conclusions, since structural context might have removed the agency we have assumed available to individual actors. Agency, Structural Context, and Interdependence, Henry and Milovanovic.

   Notice how easily you can move from the table into theory.

6. Locate and give the URL for this graph. To do that you will need to follow Nan Chico's source by clicking on the graph on the Starter page. Census File

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