GOVT 2305 Week 6 Data Activity

GOVT 2305 Week 6 Data Activity  | Assignment  Help | Central Texas College

Question 1

3 out of 3 points

Data Activity 6.1: The State Court System

Per Capita State Government Expenditures for Judicial and Legal Services (State)

This map shows the amount spent per person for courts, prosecution and legal services, and public defense within each state. You can see in the Statistics box that in 2015 the national per capita state expenditure on the courts was $68. Let’s explore how the average varies across the states. You can get a feel for the level of variation in spending by hovering your cursor over the light and dark states. But to explore it in a more systematic way, switch from Map view to Table view. Sort the table from least to most by clicking on the heading “Per Capita.” What can you conclude about the distribution of state spending on the courts?

Question 2

3 out of 3 points

Let’s explore the possible causes of the variation in spending. One possible cause could be the size of the state. All states need to set up the court structure. In large states, that cost gets spread across a larger population; whereas in small states, fewer people are available to cover the cost. To check this out, switch to Table view. Sort the states by level of expenditure by clicking on “Per Capita.” Notice that next to each State’s name is its rank in parentheses. A ranking of 1 means that state spends the most; 50, the least. States ranked less than 25 spend above average; more than 25, below average. Use the demographic filter “Population” and select the states with populations 500,000–1.49 million. Look at the rankings for this subset of states. Now do the same for each of the other population categories. What can you conclude? States that are in ______ category of population size spend above average on their court system.

Question 3

3 out of 3 points

Data Activity 6.1: The State Court System

Per Capita State Government Expenditures for Judicial and Legal Services (State)

Let’s explore how state spending on the courts has changed over time. Switch to Chart view. This chart graphs the per capita spending on the courts for the median state for each year from 1992 to 2015. What pattern do you see?