U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Term of the Month

Defining Criminal Justice Research
Description

Welcome to NIJ’s Term of the Month. Each month we are featuring a term from our scientific research portfolios informing significant American justice system issues and solutions.

September 2023 - Conjunctive Analysis

Conjunctive analysis of case configurations is an exploratory data analysis technique that looks at how multiple variables interact. 

Many data analysis techniques examine one factor at a time while controlling for all other factors. Conjunctive analysis, on the other hand, examines many risk factors simultaneously. It looks at the complex causal relationships between these factors and how they interact to determine different outcomes.  

Terance Miethe, Timothy Hart, and Wendy Regoeczi developed and introduced conjunctive analysis to the criminology field in 2008. Since then, researchers have used the statistical method to better understand patterns in carjacking incidents, intimate partner violence, crime and the distribution of alcohol outlets, police discretion, and the violent victimization of university students. Researchers have also used conjunctive analysis to study homicide investigations, child sexual abuse, robbery risk factors, missing person case outcomes, sentencing disparities, terrorism risk profiles, and more. 

Reading and Resources from NIJ: 

Other Resources: 

 

Date Created: January 28, 2021