Week 6 — Counting Crime: Rates, Surveys, and the Reporting Effect

Assignment 6 of the term — turn crime counts into rates, read a victimization survey for what it does and does not show, and explain to someone outside sociology why "reported crime went up" and "crime went up" are different claims.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based report. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. In Week 1 you learned to compare places by rate rather than by count, and in Week 2 you learned to read any figure four ways; this week you use both habits on crime data. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Sociology in Action Workshop practice the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together.

The task

You will use these figures, all from this week's chapter:

• The two-town example (illustrative, constructed for this course, not real data): Town A records 12 crimes among 40,000 residents in one year, which is 30 per 100,000; Town B records 15 crimes among 30,000 residents in the same year, which is 50 per 100,000.
• The Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey for 2024: 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, of which 11.2 per 1,000 were reported to police.

Work these four problems, showing your arithmetic:

1. In the illustrative two-town example, Town A records 12 crimes among 40,000 residents in one year. What is Town A's crime rate per 100,000 residents?
2. In the illustrative two-town example, Town B's crime rate is 50 per 100,000 residents and Town A's is 30 per 100,000. By how many crimes per 100,000 residents does Town B's rate exceed Town A's?
3. In the 2024 National Crime Victimization Survey, there were 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, and 11.2 per 1,000 were reported to police. How many violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older were not reported to police?
4. The 2024 National Crime Victimization Survey rate was 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older. What is that same rate per 100,000 persons age 12 or older?

Beside each answer, add one brief interpretation of what that value shows and one limit of it. For problem 1, say what the rate measures and what its base is, and explain why you compare towns by rate rather than by count. For problem 2, say what the difference shows about the two towns, name one thing it does not show about any one resident, and say whether the comparison is a correlation, a cause, or neither. For problem 3, say what the not-reported figure shows about police records, explain the reporting effect in your own words, and name one thing the figure does not show. For problem 4, explain why the base must be written out every time, and why 23.3 per 1,000 does not mean 23.3 percent of people.

Explain it to a non-expert

Your neighbor has never studied sociology and posts in a neighborhood group: "Reported crime here jumped after the city launched its new reporting app. Our town is getting more dangerous." Write a 3–5 sentence reply to your neighbor that explains in everyday words why a rise in reported crime and a rise in crime are different claims, says what a victimization survey adds that police records cannot, uses the 2024 survey's 23.3 and 11.2 per 1,000 as an example of how much crime never reaches police, and names one limit, such as that the survey covers people age 12 or older or that one year shows no trend. Explain any technical term in everyday words. More than one accurate reply can be defensible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a public library manager who sees "lost item" reports double after adding an online form and worries, "Patrons are losing far more things than before." Model answer: "I'd say the form may have changed the count more than the losses. Before, a patron had to find a staff member to report a lost umbrella, so many never bothered; now it takes a minute online. To know whether more things are really being lost, we would need a second source, such as asking a sample of patrons directly. The limit is that a quick survey of patrons also depends on what people remember and choose to say."

Use that pattern for your reply to your neighbor, with your own explanation and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft all four answers, the four brief interpretations, and your reply to your neighbor before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show calculations when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the report for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about reading crime data: crime rates per 100,000 rather than counts, the base of a rate, police-reported data versus a victimization survey, the reporting effect, and correlation versus cause. Do not write my assignment for me and do not invent work I did not show.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these four problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The data: the two-town example (illustrative, constructed for my course, not real data): Town A records 12 crimes among 40,000 residents in one year, which is 30 per 100,000; Town B records 15 crimes among 30,000 residents in the same year, which is 50 per 100,000. The Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey for 2024: 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, of which 11.2 per 1,000 were reported to police.
PROBLEM P1: In the illustrative two-town example, Town A records 12 crimes among 40,000 residents in one year. What is Town A's crime rate per 100,000 residents?
PROBLEM P2: In the illustrative two-town example, Town B's crime rate is 50 per 100,000 residents and Town A's is 30 per 100,000. By how many crimes per 100,000 residents does Town B's rate exceed Town A's?
PROBLEM P3: In the 2024 National Crime Victimization Survey, there were 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, and 11.2 per 1,000 were reported to police. How many violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older were not reported to police?
PROBLEM P4: The 2024 National Crime Victimization Survey rate was 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older. What is that same rate per 100,000 persons age 12 or older?
After the four results, I must briefly interpret each one: what that value shows and one limit of it; for P1, what the rate measures, its base, and why towns are compared by rate rather than by count; for P2, what the difference shows, one thing it does not show about any one resident, and whether the comparison is a correlation, a cause, or neither; for P3, what the not-reported figure shows about police records, the reporting effect in my own words, and one thing the figure does not show; for P4, why the base must be written out every time and why 23.3 per 1,000 does not mean 23.3 percent of people. I must then write a 3-5 sentence reply to my neighbor, who is new to sociology and thinks a rise in reported crime after a new reporting app means the town is more dangerous, explaining the difference in everyday words, saying what a victimization survey adds, using the 23.3 and 11.2 per 1,000 as an example, and naming one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct computations from the data (40 points), concept and interpretation reasoning (32 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (16 points), and showing work so it can be checked (12 points). For each of P1-P4, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 computation points, 4 reasoning points, 2 clarity points, or 1.5 showing-work points. Sum all four problems within each criterion. Count my reply to my neighbor only with P4, not again with P1-P3.
COMPUTATION UNITS: A correct rate, difference, or conversion = 2; the right values and operation with only an arithmetic slip = 1; a missing result or the wrong values or operation = 0. Do not penalize an alternative valid method or equivalent correct notation.
REASONING UNITS: For P1-P3 separately, an accurate account of what that value shows plus a limit or a correlation-or-cause reading tied to that figure = 2; exactly one of the two = 1; neither = 0. For P1, comparing the towns by count does not count. For P3, reading the not-reported figure as proof that crime rose does not count. For P4, BOTH an explanation of why the base must be written out and why a rate per 1,000 is not a percent of people AND a reply to my neighbor that explains the difference between reported crime and crime, says what a victimization survey adds, uses the survey figures, and names a limit = 2. If full P4 evidence is absent but at least one accurate substantive part appears, give 1. No accurate reasoning = 0. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence understandable to someone new to sociology, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the reply to my neighbor with P4 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-WORK UNITS: For each problem, checkable values and steps = 2; a relevant but incomplete value or step = 1; a result alone or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my reply. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word reply is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied all four results and their brief interpretations AND written my reply to my neighbor AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score; it may end in .5 and must not be rounded to a whole number. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my calculations and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised data-reading report, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised data-reading report with all four answers, their brief interpretations, and your reply to your neighbor — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled diagram of the two towns' rates and the survey's two rates with a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 6 skills — turning a crime count into a rate with its base named, comparing places by rate rather than by count, reading police-reported data against a victimization survey, explaining the reporting effect, and deciding whether a figure shows a correlation, a cause, or neither — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same four problems, the four brief interpretations, and the reply to your neighbor. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one calculation or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised data-reading report, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The calculations, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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