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Download the Paper (222 K, PDF file) - August 22, 2001 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing.

ABSTRACT:
Researchers who study punishment and social control, like those who study other social phenomena, typically seek to generalize their findings from the data they have to some larger context: in statistical jargon, they generalize from a sample to a population. Generalizations are one important product of empirical inquiry. Of course, the process by which the data are selected introduces uncertainty. Indeed, any given dataset is but one of many that could have been studied. If the dataset had been different, the statistical summaries would have been different, and so would the conclusions, at least by a little.

SUGGESTED CITATION:
Richard Berk and David A. Freedman, "Statistical Assumptions as Empirical Commitments" (August 22, 2001). Department of Statistics, UCLA. Department of Statistics Papers. Paper 2001080101.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclastat/papers/2001080101