We’ll use our new pivot table skills to conduct some more complex analysis of a women’s prison inmate dataset from Lakin Correctional Center in West Virginia (available on eCampus). For EACH question, you will create a separate pivot table in your spreadsheet and paste it below the question.
- How many inmates came from each county? Sort your table from highest to lowest count.
- Filter by “Offense Category” (note: there’s also an “Offense” column – don’t use that!). How many inmates from each county were jailed for offenses in the DRUG category? Sort from highest to lowest.
- Insert a column called “Parole Year” and use a function to fill it with the year each inmate is eligible for parole (remember to click Refresh at the top of your pivot table to add it). Using Parole Year and Custody Level, in which years are the prison’s maximum custody-level inmates eligible for parole, and how many in each of those years? (note: if you’re not getting results, you might need to swap your rows and columns).
- Which races have the longest average sentences, and how many inmates of each race are there? (Note: Make sure you are using TOTAL years rather than SENTENCE years for this question!)
- Come up with a specific question that requires making a cross-tab of the variables in this data set. State the question, then create and paste a pivot table that answers it, then state your findings in a clear, data-oriented sentence or two.