Which of the following is not a concern when a researcher uses an interrupted
time-series design?
a. reliability of experimental treatment
b. history
c. instrumentation
d. construct validity
One way social science differs from our casual day-to-day inquiry is that it is:
a. a conscious activity
b. a subconscious activity
c. a formal activity
d. an informal activity
Which of the following is a weakness of the NCVS?
a. by using a six month time frame, you decrease the likelihood of subjects forgetting
about their victimization
b. it finds out the number of unreported crimes
c. people that have been victims repeatedly in a six-month period may not recall each
one
d. all of the above
It is usually best to begin a self-administered questionnaire with:
a. sensitive issue questions
b. age, gender, etc. questions
c. sexual behavior questions
d. the most interesting set of questions
When evaluating full-coverage programs, it is typically best to use:
a. interrupted time-series
b. quasi-experimental design
c. ex post evaluation
d. randomized design
Contingency questions are appropriate when:
a. certain questions are clearly relevant to only some of the respondents and irrelevant
to others
b. you want the respondents to write out an answer
c. you want the respondents to rank their answers on a scale
d. you want to impress the respondents with your questions
Researchers conduct experiments copiously in an attempt to develop a more generalized
understanding about:
a. criminal behavior
b. the sciences
c. the world we live in
d. human behavior
If gender is the variable, male is the:
a. description
b. variable
c. attribute
d. concept
Social artifacts such as written documents or articles from newspapers would be best
understood using which of the following?
a. content analysis
b. secondary analysis
c. agency records
d. none of the above
A recent political poll showed that the findings reported were accurate to within 4
percentage points. This is likely to mean what?
a. the findings are only correct 4 percent of the time
b. the findings are only correct 8 percent of the time
c. the findings are accurate 95 times out of 100 and the confidence interval is plus or
minus 4 points
d. the findings are accurate 68 times out of 100 and the confidence interval is plus or
minus 4 points
Two dimensions to generalizability are:
a. construct validity and external validity
b. compensatory rivalry and external validity
c. construct validity and compensatory rivalry
d. none of the above
There are two basic options for researchers when asking questions; open-ended or
closed-ended.
a. True
b. False
After careful study of the relationship between the economy and arson, the conclusion
was drawn that when the economy is poor and unemployment is high the arson rates go
up. The researcher concluded that unemployed people are more likely to commit arson
than are those that are employed. What error was just committed?
a. the ecological fallacy
b. reductionism
c. using the wrong time dimension
d. an internal validity threat
Which of the following is a serious consideration for researchers who adopt the role of
complete participant when doing field research?
a. generalizability
b. ethics
c. validity
d. reliability
The primary purpose of the probe in a line of questioning is to:
a. prompt participants into providing more detail
b. scare participants from participating in research
c. make participants uncomfortable during research
d. challenge participants to change their answers
Which of the following illustrates situational crime prevention?
a. use of management, design, or the manipulation of the environment to reduce crime
b. using prison to reduce crime by keeping offenders away from the public
c. increasing police presence in high crime areas
d. offender home checks
Social science researchers use a control group that hasn”t received the experimental
stimulus in order to do what?
a. to measure the effect of the independent variable upon the control group
b. as another measure of the effect the independent variable has upon the dependent
variable in the experimental group
c. as another measure of the effect the independent variable has upon the dependent
variable in the control group
d. to measure the effect of the dependent variable upon the independent variable in the
control group
The purpose of sampling is to select a set of elements from a population in such a way
that the descriptions of the sample statistics accurately portray the parameters of the
population. This is best achieved through use of:
a. a convenience sample
b. random selection
c. the sampling element
d. stratified sampling
Diachronic delivery of data starts at the beginning and progresses:
a. chronologically
b. backwards
c. evenly
d. randomly
Construct validity refers to generalizing from what we observe and measure to the
real-world things in which we are interested.
a. True
b. False
Which of the following would is an accepted method for increasing response rates in
mailed surveys?
a. go to the respondents home and pick up the questionnaire
b. include a self addressed stamped envelope
c. contact the non-respondents by telephone
d. send out only one original mailing with no follow ups
Crimes must at a minimum have an offender, because without an offender there is no
crime.
a. True
b. False
When the potential respondent first opens their door, the interviewer must establish?
a. their knowledge
b. their authority
c. rapport
d. the purpose of the interview
Grounded theory stems from:
a. quantitative techniques
b. analysis of patterns and themes
c. linear regression
d. diverse populations
Casual human inquiry is a more rigorous way of investigation than probability and
causality.
a. True
b. False
Because extremes in a distribution (a very large or very small number) can impact the
mean, it is usually important to examine measures of dispersion about the mean.
a. True
b. False
Which of the following is not a type of focus group:
a. natural group
b. artificial group
c. contrived group
d. all of these are types of focus groups
On the first day of the semester your introductory criminology instructor handed out a
very long questionnaire asking things that you did not think was appropriate about your
drinking habits. Back in the dorm you complained to your roommates and discovered
that they were given the same questionnaire by their instructors. What sampling method
was used?
a. snowball sample
b. multistage cluster sample
c. simple random sample
d. reliance on available subjects
Which of the following is most accurate?
a. theory must always come before observation
b. observation must always come before theory
c. theory may precede observation; just as observation may precede theory
d. theory and observation are not related
Socrates is mortal and observing a number of other people. All the observed people are
mortals. All people are mortal. This is an example of what type of logic?
a. deductive
b. observation
c. inductive
d. hypothesis
The National Crime Victimization Survey is an example of which type of survey
research?
a. targeted victim survey
b. self-report study
c. attitudinal survey
d. survey of beliefs
In which of the following situations would field research be the least proper method to
gather data?
a. when you want to get an overview of the physical surroundings where you want to
examine an event
b. when you want to get information about the behavior of a group that is not likely to
be found in the general population
c. when research in the natural setting is of up most importance
d. when the research focuses upon reasons for crime
Being able to benefit from the work of topflight professionals and esteemed academics
is an advantage of using:
a. secondary data
b. published statistics
c. nonpublic agency data
d. new data collected by agency staff
Although social scientists study motivations that affect individuals,
____________________are more often the subjects of social science research.
Interests, ideas, , and new programs are all possible beginning points for a line of
research.
Instead of making one pre-test and one post-test measure the makes a longer series of
observations before and after introducing an experimental treatment.
Identify 3 errors in human inquiry. Explain each by using an example from the field of
criminal justice.
Answer:N/A
is a matter if dependability.
Agency records, secondary data and content analysis do not require direct with research
subjects.
Identify and discuss the different probability and nonprobability sampling methods
discussed in the text.
Answer:N/A
You are asked to do a study on the traffic on your campus. As part of this study you
have been asked to identify the frequency of speeding by those using the campus roads.
What type of sample would you use? How would you pull that sample?
Answer:N/A
Give an example using research discussed in class of the difference between anonymity
and confidentiality. Be specific with your example.
Answer:N/A
When using agency records as a data source the researcher must always keep changes
in operational definitions and in mind because of their potential impact upon validity
and reliability.
Respondents may develop a set or pattern of answering when answering matrix
questions.
The sampling is the range of sample statistics we would obtain if we selected many
samples.
There are certain classes of subjects that require special treatment by the researcher.
Identify at least two of those classes and discuss why they constitute a special class.
What specific steps should be taken when dealing with these special classes?
Answer:N/A
Policy refer to what is actually produced.
Measurement is difficult and , therefore researchers try to describe the measurement
process explicitly.
When the respondent is asked to provide his or her own answers to questions, they are
answering
____________________ questions.
Compare and contrast the primary differences between inferential and descriptive
statistics. Be sure to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Answer:N/A
An example of variable-oriented research is the design.