Statistics and Public Policy

Statistics—data, methods, and thinking—play important and fascinating roles in public issues. Yet, these roles are sometimes unknown to statistics students and even to professional statisticians. This book indicates some connections between statistics and public issues such as government policy- or decision-making, public administration, law, and public debate. It describes examples of statistics in public policy areas as disparate as national defense, AIDS diffusion, DNA fingerprinting, human rights violations and scientific manpower among other areas. Although a small amount of statistical training is assumed, the emphasis is on ideas rather than technical detail or mathematical generality. This approach makes it equally accessible to statisticians and social scientists and also makes it an ideal resource for teachers of first-year statistics.