Scaling and Index Construction in Criminal Justice - Essay Example

Nominal measures valuables of different phenomena. The attributes of these variables are exhaustive and mutually exclusive and are the weakest level of measurement. The elements are not assumed that one is greater than the other. In criminal justice, the nominal measure has limited knowledge. For example, when determining whether an offender is driven to crime by lifestyle or the place they were brought up (Bayens & Roberson, 2010).

Ordinal measurement variables are ranked in a particular order. Examples include the occupation of persons, level of crime, and police opinion. Ordinal measure satisfies the exclusiveness and exhaustiveness requirements. For example, we can group criminals according to the arrest types made. Muggers, car thefts, house break-ins, and murderers can be in different groups. This ranking of events gives a representation of an ordinal order. It is irrelevant where the arrest was made, whether miles away or in proximity (Maxfield & Babbie, 2012).

Interval measure assumes that categories are different and can be ranked and ordered. The distance between the numbers from one to has some meaning. For example, for a criminal with ten arrests and another with two arrests, the interval measure between the criminals, we can conclude that the first criminal has a more serious criminal record than the second one.

The ratio scale gives the highest scale of measurement. The categories must be rank order and different. The variable categories must be capable of being compared by the use of ratios with other categories. These variables must have the meaning of the distance between categories. For example, if an offender is arrested four times in a given period and another twice in the same period, the latter is arrested twice as many times as the former (Hagan, 2013).

The reason I would prefer the ratio scale to other levels of measurement is that it carries more information. It is used in comparison with another range of categories of numbers or ratios. Most researchers use a ratio scale in reporting and analyzing research findings.

The reason the ratio scale is preferred is that it is a continuous measurement scale that has a presence of absolute zero points and equal appearing intervals. It provides more accurate comparison information than the lower-level measures.

Nominal measures assume that categories are different in the phenomenon of study. The ordinal scale assumes that categories have a clear order. The interval measure provides a different perspective for analyzing and describing research findings. Interval and ratio measures are most preferred over nominal and ordinal measurements because they have more accurate information.