Hamilton County judges try thousands of cases per year. In an overwhelming majority of the cases disposed, the verdict stands as rendered. However, some cases are appealed, and of those appealed, some of the cases are reversed. Kristen DelGuzzi of the Cinncinati Enquirer conducted a study of the cases handled by Hamilton County judges over a three year period. See Excel Data file below.
The purpose of the newspaper's study was to evaluate the performance of the judges. Appeals are often the result of mistakes made by the judges and the newspaper wanted to know which judges were doing a good job and which were making too many mistakes.
You are called in to assist in the data analysis. Use your knowledge of probability and conditional probability to help with the ranking of the judges. You are also to analyze the likelihood of appeal and reversal for cases handled by different courts.
You are responsible to hand in, via email, a report analyzing the data. In the analysis, you should make some conclusions regarding each judge such as:
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- Who is doing a good job and who is not?
- Why do you think so?
Remember you have been hired to analyze the data, and you must report to the person who hired you. You may use graphs, statistical information such as: mean, median, mode, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, correlation coefficient, and probability to convey your findings.
Your report must include:
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- The probability of cases being appealed and reversed in the three different courts
- The probability of a case being appealed for each judge
- The probability of a case being reversed for each judge
- The probability of reversal given an appeal for each judge
- Rank the judges within each court. State the criteria you used and provide a rationale for your choice
Be sure to support your statements, that is if you say that Judge Nadine Allen is a very good judge in appeal cases, why is she so? In comparison to whom? What information leads to such conclusion(s)?
Formatting Guidelines:
Your report must be typed, double-spaced and 12pt. There is no minimum/maximum number of pages, but make sure your report is complete. Your report must be very comprehensive.