To locate treatment programs for heroin addicts the mayor wa

To locate treatment programs for heroin addicts, the mayor wants to conduct a study of persons arrested for possession in your city.

He suggests looking at data on location of arrest and residence of arrestees for the past month. This will yield a sample of at least eighty cases. From his statistics course, he says that with a sample size greater than 50, the central limit theorem will apply and you can to make a reasonable estimate of the numbers of people needing treatment with a level of confidence of 95%.

Is the mayor correct? From your knowledge of criminal justice and statistical analysis would you suggest a different sampling plan? If yes, what would you suggest?

Solution

Yes, the mayor is correct.

A one way ANOVA for testing the treatment program for heroin addicts would give a better estimate of the number of people needing treatment.