Question

Suppose your friend ran a t test comparing inmate-on-staff assault rates in prisons with high and low percentages of female staff and found that prisons with higher levels of female staff also had higher assault rates. Does this mean that female correctional staff compromise security? Why or why not? If not, what is the flaw in this conclusion?

Answer 1

answer: no, the female correctional staff does not compromise security. Here, there is a flaw in the conclusion. we see that higher levels of female staff had higher assault rates, which implies that higher staff is deployed to high-security prisons with greater number of aggressive prisoners. Whereas , low number of staff is deployed to low- security prisons where prisoners are not as aggressive and a low number of female staff can control them, hence the assault rates are also low.

The flaw in the conclusion, that female correctional staff compromise security, is because the nature of the prisoners in both the prisons are not taken into account.