ABSTRACT
We live in a quantitative world. We want the ‘hard numbers,’ the facts, the statistics. Indeed, nearly every controversy is debated using statistics. Few people really question how those statistics are generated and even fewer question whether they really tell us anything about the controversy we are debating. But in the end, statistics only tell us so much. For example, I can use my students’ performance on exams to measure how well I am doing at teaching them about criminal justice research. But those numbers will not fully capture the effect my teaching has on my students’ understanding of crime and research methods.
