Measuring crime SC2E36C - Essay Example

1999). According to him, the population from which the data is to be collected from should be studied well and all the traits of the various members should be considered before getting the sample. Traits like; social welfare of the parents, the environment of one’s upbringing, community perceptions among many other aspects should be considered before the sample is determined. In this case, the sample should be unbiased in that, each and every trait as said above should be included in the final sample.

In this case, for the sample to be unbiased, all social groups should be included. The social welfare of the parents should be considered so as to have a sample with professionals, unskilled workers, skilled workers etc. Male and female representation should almost be the same and should be directed by availability (Judith, G and Nicki, T 2004). To get a good sample which is representative, then the following sampling techniques should be used according to the importance of the study. The first is random sampling where all the elements of the population have an equal chance of being selected.

To Tronchim, W. (2008), this is applied in case the population is homogenous; the population is not spread. In this research study, this cannot be used since the population is not homogenous. Another technique is stratified sampling. In stratified sampling, the entire population is sub-divided into stratus each consisting of members which have the same traits (Tronchim, W. 2008). For example in this case, parents who are professionals should be counted as strata. Again, unskilled parents should form other strata.

It is from the stratus that a sample is drawn where the sample size depends on the error of estimation and the size of the population. However, statistically, the larger the sample size the effective the findings as well the generalization of the same. This is the right technique to use in