Drug dealing convictions

Use this diagram to show that bar charts of within-group proportions are easier to compare than bar charts of raw frequencies.

Are convicts of Hispanic origin are more likely to have been caught for dealing Cocaine than the other races?

Is the bar higher only because the total number of Hispanic convicts is higher?

Select Propn within Race. The bar chart for each race is scaled to have the same total (1.0).

Finally, select Drug offence under the horizontal axis. This clusters the bars by the offence type and makes it easier to compare the proportions.

  • A far larger propn of Blacks were convicted for Crack than other races and fewer for Marijuana
  • A bigger propn of Hispanics were convicted for Cocaine than other races
  • Smaller propns of Whites were convicted for Heroin and Crack than other races

In a 1994 report from the US Department of Justice, federal prisoners who had been convicted of drug dealing were classified by race and by the type of drug involved.