Logistic Regression: Understanding College Student Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Many dependent variables in criminal justice research turn out to be ones in which the categories are simple dichotomies: Either something happens or something doesn't, or something is or something is not. For example,

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  The person is the victim of a crime or isn't a victim.
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  The person uses drugs or doesn't use drugs.
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  The person is convicted or is acquitted.
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  The police department adopts an innovative program or it doesn't.
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  The state passes a new law or it doesn't.
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  The nation has capital punishment or it doesn't.

In the more technical language we used in Chapter 1, these are all examples of nominal (as opposed to interval or ...