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A good way to avoid sampling bias in the assessment of public opinion about a specific
criminal justice topic is to employ the use of a radio call-in show since those who call
radio talk shows represent everyone in the population.
a. True
b. False
When the actual distance that separates the attributes composing some variables does
have meaning, the variables are described as:
a. interval
b. nominal
c. ordinal
d. none of the above
The research goal of voluntary participation may be impossible to follow.
a. True
b. False
Recording graffiti might be best accomplished through:
a. field notes
b. still photographs
c. video recording
d. drawings
Which of the following is not true concerning theory, research and policy relationships?
a. theory structures research
b. policies can be examined to determine if they accomplish their goals
c. theory should never be used to develop public policy
d. research is consulted to develop public policy
Focus groups are especially useful in regard to learning about:
a. group dynamics
b. group process
c. group themes
d. all of the answers are correct
Prisoners are considered as a special population because they are
a. readily accessible for experimentation and interviews
b. exposed to risks
c. a true representative population sample
d. segregated from the main population sample
Field research uses what technique to gather data?
a. written records
b. agency data
c. direct observation
d. obtaining government documents
Sometimes it is not possible to separate subjects from experimental and control groups
and the result is that they may discuss the research. What is the threat that this situation
poses?
a. causal time order
b. experimental mortality
c. diffusion or imitation of treatments
d. statistical regression
It may be helpful to record field notes onto highly structured forms created prior to the
beginning of the study.
a. True
b. False
It is often said that agency data are not designed for research purposes. Which of the
following support that statement?
a. some criminal justice agencies collect data because they are legally required to do so
b. often the data collected by criminal justice agencies is not covered under privacy
regulations
c. because variable definitions are consistent from agency to agency
d. all of the above
Which of the following is not an accurate example of threats to internal validity of
experiments?
a. subjects dropping out of an experiment is a form of mortality
b. creaming is a form of selection bias
c. control group members work harder as a form of compensatory rivalry
d. ability to measure subjects consistently over time
In which of the following situations would unstructured interviewing techniques be
appropriate?
a. gathering information on active criminals
b. gathering information on State Supreme Court judges
c. gathering information on prison wardens within your state
d. gathering information on death row inmates from Texas
Social science involves the study of:
a. positives and negatives
b. variables and concepts
c. variables and paradigms
d. variables and attributes
A method in qualitative interviewing used to check data involves looking for what type
of cases:
a. obscure
b. positive
c. negative
d. irregular
How has NCVS broadened the scope of the responses it gets from the surveys?
a. it has asked more questions about demographic information
b. it has reduced unimportant questions and added more questions about victimization
c. it has included questions dealing with police-public contacts in order to assess
experiences during traffic stops
d. it has questions concerning the relationship with the offender
The term questionnaire suggests a collection of:
a. values
b. responses
c. answer options
d. beliefs
Which of the following is not one of the assumptions of making inferences about a
larger population when using univariate tests?
a. the sample must be drawn from the population about which the inference is being
made
b. there is an assumption of a non-probability sampling technique
c. when using inferential statistics we assume simple random sampling even when that
is not possible
d. inferences only apply to sampling error, not other types of error that may be present
Those doing research in the fields of criminal justice and criminology have ethical
standards set by
a. the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
b. the American Society of Criminology
c. the Committee for Ethical Science Standards
d. the National Academy of Sciences
Which of the following may present an ethical issue where voluntary participation is
concerned?
a. a small payment in cash in exchange for participation
b. using prisoners as subjects after they have been told about the nature of the
experiment and what their rewards will be
c. getting an informed consent form signed when doing surveys
d. random assignment of subjects to an experimental and a control group
Content validity refers to:
a. a comparison of measures to some external criterion
b. an empirical measure that may or may not agree with our common understanding of
a particular concept
c. the degree to which a measure covers the range of meanings included within the
concepts
d. the basis of logical relationships among variables
Which of the following is not appropriate for use as a sampling frame?
a. telephone directories when you wish to sample attitudes toward a new law
b. lists of licensed drivers when you wish to ask juveniles their opinions about drinking
prohibitions
c. taxpayer rolls when the researcher is interested in public concerns about school
appropriations in their community
d. AMA membership lists to survey doctors about their attitudes concerning HMO's
When a policy change is being considered, the most appropriate study would be:
a. descriptive
b. explanatory
c. explorative
d. applicative
What factors are not accounted for when using probability sampling?
a. each member of the populations has a known chance of being selected
b. knowing that each member of the population has a chance of being selected allows
the researcher to generalize back to the population
c. there is less need to be careful in the sample selection when the population is
homogenous
d. when the population is homogeneous there is a greater need to use probability
sampling than when the population is heterogeneous
In qualitative interviewing, these types of questions guide the interview process:
a. open-ended
b. close-ended
c. probing
d. main
Which of the following refers to the danger of making assertions about individuals as
the unit of analysis based on
the examination of groups or other aggregations?
a. individualistic fallacy
b. ecological fallacy
c. reductionism
d. pluralism
Conceptualization is the process by which we specify precisely what we mean when we
use particular terms.
a. True
b. False
The approach with which we select and define problems for research, and figure out
how to study them, is directly related to our theoretical:
a. hypothesis
b. inductive illustration
c. grounded theory
d. paradigm
Which of the following is not a problem with respect to units of analysis when using
agency records?
a. the definitions of the variables collected
b. the manner in which the data is collected
c. the summary data
d. all of the above are potential problems
According to Abraham Kaplan's (1964) discussion; which of the following are not
included in the three classes of
things that a researcher measures?
a. direct observables
b. indirect observables
c. constructs
d. discreet observables
Sampling is the process of:
a. selecting observations
b. determining values
c. hypothesis testing
d. generating data
If the subjects know that they are being studied, which of the following is not likely to
result?
a. the subjects may change their behavior and their language
b. the subjects may reject the researcher
c. the process being observed may change
d. they ignore the researcher
Any straight line on a graph can be represented by
a. Y = a + bX
b. X = a + bX
c. Y = a + bY
d. straight lines are not possible in a graph
