Hi Don et al.,
If we observe one escape out of 1250 inmates, why can't we reliably rule out
zero as the population escape rate? The normal approximation to the
binomial may not be appropriate here.
Dale Berger
Professor and Dean, Psychology
Claremont Graduate University
123 East Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711
FAX: 909-621-8905
Phone: 909-621-8084
http://www.cgu.edu/faculty/bergerd.html
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Burrill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 2:49 PM
Subject: Re: Rates and proportions
> On Tue, 20 Jun 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > Hello, I "inherited" the reporting system for our escapes and have some
> > questions about how data has been reported in the past.
;
;
> "Unreliable" or "useless"? Well, the basic graininess in a rate
> is one escapee more (or less) than was reported. A rate of .08 per 100
> is about 1 out of 1250. If the data on which the rate was based were 1
> escapee out of 1250 inmates, one cannot _reliably_ tell the rate from
> zero. If the data were 13 escapees out of 16,200 inmates, one would have
> more faith in the rate, at least insofar as representing a small value
> different from (not equal to!) zero. Unfortunately, the rate itself
> does not tell one how grainy the data were.
>
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