Section 2.1 The 2012 General Social Survey
In this chapter, we will practice transforming survey data and making graphs using the transformed data. The survey data we will use is from the 2012 General Social Survey (GSS) conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). The GSS collects information from a nationally representative sample of the non-institutionalized US population (ages 18 years and older). Specifically, the NORC employs a stratified, multistage area probability sampling method to select households across the USA. The GSS monitors changes and constants in the American population’s attitudes, behaviors, and attributes. The collected data covers various topics, including demographics, social attitudes, religion, politics, and the like. The dataset’s variables we will focus on are related to perceptions of the police’s use of force. Two of the survey questions asked in the 2012 GSS were “Are there any situations you can imagine in which you would approve of a policeman striking an adult male citizen?” and “Would you approve of a police officer striking a citizen who had said vulgar and obscene things to the policeman?” We will focus on these variables to see how people feel about police use of force.
