Question

In a study of why offenders commit crimes, why would a researcher be more interested in calculating a partial correlation coefficient vs. a bivariate correlation coefficient?

Answer 1

Bivariate Correlation coefficient:

i) Does a statistical relationship exists between two continuous variables.

ii) What is the strength of the relationship

iii) What is the direction of the linear relationship?

Coming to the study- Why offenders commit crimes?

The Bivariate relationship does not address non-linear relationship and hence should be avoided.Hence, to understand non-linear relationships we must use partial correlation coefficient.

It also does not specify the causation of the variable despite the large correlation coefficient which should be the main focus of the study.

Hence, the researcher must be more interested in partial correlation coefficient.