Chapter_12 Agency_Records Content_Analysis and_Secondary_Data
True / False
1. Agency records, secondary data and content analysis do not require direct interaction with research subjects.
a. True
b. False
2. By its very nature, secondary analysis is always unobtrusive.
a. True
b. False
3. It is relatively easy and common to have agencies modify their data collection forms in order to get information
needed for a specific research project being conducted from someone outside the agency.
a. True
b. False
4. When using agency records, it is possible to move from individual to aggregate units of analysis, but not the other
way around.
a. True
b. False
5. Understanding the details of how agency records are produced is one of the accepted means of controlling reliability
and validity problems.
a. True
b. False
6. Being able to link an individual to the agency data collected about him/her is a clear violation of reliability and validity.
a. True
b. False
7. Since criminal justice record keeping is a social process reflecting the decisions made by criminal justice personnel, a
researcher must be careful of the impact this may have on the validity and reliability of the data.
a. True
b. False
8. Content analysis involves the systematic study of agency records.
a. True
b. False
9. Data collected by other researchers is often used to address new research questions.
a. True
b. False
10. Of all research purposes, evaluation is most effective when secondary data is used.
a. True
b. False
Chapter_12 Agency_Records Content_Analysis and_Secondary_Data
Multiple Choice
11. Which of the following would be an example of agency records that would be appropriate as a source of data for
research?
a. Federal Bureau of Prison inmate records
b. medical records
c. juvenile court records
d. defense attorney records
12. 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
13. Agency records and statistics published by agencies or governmental entities are most commonly used for which
type of studies?
a. explanatory
b. descriptive
c. evaluations
d. understanding the criminal justice system
14. Topics that lend themselves to the use of content analysis tend to focus upon the links between communication and:
a. criminal justice policy
b. the actual crime rates
c. the media’s understanding of criminal court convictions
d. understanding why people commit crime
15. All of the following are examples of information collected by or for public agencies except for:
a. published statistics such as National Crime Victimization Survey
b. research produced by faculty at private colleges and universities
c. nonpublic agency records such as internal police data identifying where most crime happens in their
jurisdiction
d. new data collected by agency staff that is “hybrid” in nature
16. Which of the following would not be an example of the data coming from the Census Bureau that have criminal
justice applications?
a. Census of Children in Custody
b. National Crime Victimization Survey
c. Survey of Inmates in Local Jails
d. Uniform Crime Report
17. The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics is the most comprehensive Bureau of Justice Statistics publication.
It includes a multitude of data including all of the following except:
a. characteristics of criminal justice agencies
b. public opinion answers coming from the Gallup Poll
c. complete crime data from all local police departments
d. specific data on states using capital punishment and their execution statistics
18. Which type of the listed studies are highly aggregated summary data from published statistical series not typically
used?
a. descriptive
b. explanatory
c. applied
d. exploratory
19. Electronic formats of published statistics enjoy which of the following as an advantage over written records?
a. the data can be read directly into statistical and or graphics computer programs for analysis
b. much of the electronic data is inappropriate for spreadsheet software
c. most do not contain the original data while printed reports contain aggregate information
d. most will be considered confidential, thus not available to the researcher
20. Which of the following is not an example of nonpublic agency records?
a. the FBI’s publication of the Uniform Crime Reports
b. information from a local police department concerning the number of crimes that happened within the past
month
c. a prison’s collection of files dealing with inmates currently in their custody
d. a county courthouse’s records on defendants tried within the last six months
21. In Widom’s research on the relationship between early child abuse and later delinquency or adult criminal behavior
which of the following were considered to be either validity or reliability problems?
a. using public school records and birth records from local hospitals to select the sample
b. by using law enforcement data to assess delinquent and criminal behavior, Windom only identified those who
were caught for their behavior not those who were criminally active but were not caught
c. by using court data to identify those for the sample who were abused, Windom only knew about those cases
where abuse came to the attention of the public officials, not all the cases that go unreported
d. all of the above
22. In Sherman and colleagues’ research dealing with crime hot spots they chose to use ‘calls for service’ to local law
enforcement as a means of measuring where different types of crimes happened with greatest frequency. They
noted some problems with the use of calls for service. Which of the following represents those problems?
a. there is a potential for duplicate calls to local law enforcement for any one event
b. there may be false reports, in other words no crime happened
c. there can be misleading findings such as parking lots or hospitals may appear to be hot spots when in fact they
are not
d. all of the above
23. Which of the following is not a concern about the use of agency records?
a. since most agencies are computerized, there is little cause to be concerned about the quality of the data
b. expect the expected, it is the unexpected findings that are worrisome
c. changes in record-keeping practices can affect the measurement
d. data will be accurate because agency data has to be
24. In the text, an example was given concerning the difficulty in trying to measure how much crime happened to victims
who were not residents of South Florida. Since police only routinely kept records on where victims stayed locally
(such as hotel addresses) researchers could have an additional question added to the incident recording form asking
for the victim’s permanent address. All of the following would be benefits of that except:
a. it is much cheaper to add a question to a form than collecting the data oneself
b. it is much more expensive to add a question to a form because it requires all the forms to be reprinted
c. it allows for more control over the measurement process
d. it enhances the reliability of data collection
25. Which of the following is accurate concerning having agencies collect original research data?
a. cooperation to add research questions is not as likely to be successful if you are asking for a major additional
effort on the part of the agency staff
b. the cooperation of the staff and their organizations are directly proportional to the intrusiveness of the data
collection
c. if the research project is likely to save the agency money or improve staff performance the chances of
enlisting assistance is greater
d. all of the above are accurate
26. Which of the following statements is most accurate?
a. once units of analysis are defined, sampling agency records is relatively simple
b. once units of analysis are defined, sampling agency records is quite complicated
c. there is no relationship between the units of analysis used in agency records and the sampling techniques used
d. you must use all agency records and cannot select a subset since that will lead to incomplete conclusions
27. Which of the following represent reliability or validity concerns when a researcher uses agency records?
a. the number of general clerical staff since too few is not good
b. changes in the operational definitions the agencies use to specify key terms
c. maintaining consistent procedures the agency uses to collect the data over time
d. agency records are generalizable to similar agencies
28. Which of the following is not accurate concerning validity and reliability of agency records?
a. the shorter the time intervals under study the greater the concern about procedure changes
b. longitudinal researchers must be concerned about changes in operational definitions over time
c. longitudinal researchers must be concerned about changes in procedures over time
d. the longer the time interval under study the greater the concern about procedure changes
29. Which of the following would not impact the validity and reliability of a study using agency records?
a. discretion of prosecutors in who to charge and what counts to add
b. decisions that are made by police officers to arrest verses give a warning
c. recognition on the part of the researcher that criminal justice data is a composite of criminal behavior, ability to
detect that behavior and decisions about system response to that behavior
d. decisions made by probation officers to revoke on new crimes and not technical violations
30. 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
31. Which of the following situations would not have an impact upon error in agency records?
a. computers have the capacity to magnify clerical error
b. a single crime could be recorded by two agencies, thus making that event over-represented
c. having very little data to input
d. even rare events can be recorded improperly
32. Which of the following is an example of content analysis in criminal justice research?
a. counting the number of stories devoted to the coverage of crime in your local newspaper
b. counting the number of robberies that happen in your city
c. measuring the average length of time from arrest to disposition in your city
d. determining the average number of inmates housed in your city’s jail on a daily basis
33. Which of the following is an accurate statement concerning the use of content analysis?
a. content analysis involves a statistical study of messages
b. content analysis involves a systematic study of messages and the meaning that those messages convey
c. content analysis involves only the analysis of speeches given concerning criminal justice issues
d. content analysis methods can only be used with agency reports to determine their applicability
34. Which of the following would not be an appropriate target of content analysis?
a. speeches
b. newscasts
c. constitutions
d. number of domestic violence arrests
35. They underlying meaning of a communication is it’s:
a. latent content
b. manifest content
c. coding content
d. coding scheme
36. A researcher is interested in using content analysis to determine how the United States Supreme Court has changed
its interpretation of the 4th Amendment’s “unreasonable” search and seizure prohibition over time. Which of the
following are the units of analysis?
a. individual justices
b. court decisions in 4th Amendment cases
c. the dissenting opinions
d. the concurring opinions
37. Coding in content analysis involves the logic of conceptualization and:
a. application
b. operationalization
c. validity
d. generalization
38. Secondary analysis encompasses which of the following sources of criminal justice data?
a. content analysis of agency records
b. UCR
c. self-reports
d. NCVS
39. Which of the following is not an advantage of using secondary data?
a. reduction in validity threats
b. it is cheaper than collecting original data
c. it is faster than collecting original data
d. the researcher may benefit from the work of others established in their fields
40. If you wanted to measure the number of date and acquaintance rapes that happen in this country and use UCR data
as your source, what is likely to be your most significant problem?
a. generalizability
b. validity
c. reliability
d. applicability
41. The use of secondary analysis of data has become very popular because:
a. it is cheaper but never as good as collecting your own data
b. it is faster because the data is readily available
c. scholarly journals are now publishing primarily data gathered from secondary analysis
d. because it is always considered valid
42. The visible, objective context of a communication is known as:
a. latent content
b. manifest content
c. concept
d. validity
43. The operational definition of any variable is composed of:
a. the hypothesis
b. the content analysis
c. manifest content
d. attributes
44. In an effort to insure that textbooks for introductory level criminology and criminal justice courses are gender and
race neutral an analysis of the language was undertaken. Which of the following would be appropriate?
a. measuring the only the manifest content
b. measuring the latent content
c. measuring the number of words used
d. measuring the number of different subjects the author uses
45. In which of the following analyses is content analysis least likely to be used?
a. coverage of proposed crime legislation in your state House of Representatives
b. the number of references to crime in rap music
c. the number of murder convictions in Michigan during 2009
d. the frequency of “get tough on crime” as a theme for political speeches
46. Which of the following data sources could not be coded for use in content analysis?
a. letters to the editor
b. commentaries by talk show hosts
c. dissenting opinions in cases dealing with the death penalty
d. agency aggregate statistics
47. When a researcher uses the term “silo databases” she is referring to:
a. when data is stacked in linear fashion
b. the communication link between local law enforcement and the FBI for the purposes of submitting crime data
c. stacks of data that are isolated from each other
d. data that are stacked in round computer tape files stacked on each other
48. The publication produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that includes information about hundreds of justice
agency data sets, characteristics of criminal justice agencies, and perceptions of crime, to name just a few, is:
a. the Uniform Crime Reports
b. the National Crime Victimization Survey
c. the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
d. the National Crime Victimization Survey
49. Dr. Jones is having his Introductory to Criminal Justice students analyze cartoons. He instructs them to identify the
number of violent acts per show, the type of violent act and the characteristics of the victim. Dr. Jones is having his
students use:
a. content analysis
b. secondary data
c. new data collected by agency staff
d. nonpublic agency records
50. Clinic workers in a major Northwest city have been asked to track the incidence and patterns of STDs in their
patients as part of a research project dealing with public health. They ask a number of specific questions upon intake
but do not ask about their clients’ sexual partners. The only way to examine patterns in the spread of the STDs is to
add a question to the intake form about the identity of their sexual partners. The data that was gathered illustrates:
a. nonpublic agency records
b. published statistics
c. new data collected by agency staff
d. content analysis
51. Which of the following is not considered to be a published statistic?
a. Criminal Victimization in the United States
b. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
c. Detroit Police Department call of service statistics
d. Correctional Populations in the United States
52. NCVS data would be helpful in answering all of the research questions except
a. What is the average age of sexual assault victims in urban areas with populations over 100,000?
b. What is the mean income of families that are victims of burglary?
c. Why might an offender change from doing burglaries to committing home invasions?
d. What city in the country has the greatest number of victims of robbery?
53. FBI statistics and annual reports from the Federal Bureau of Prisons are examples of:
a. nonpublic agency records
b. new data collected by agency staff
c. published statistics
d. content analysis
54. A researcher is interested in studying the budgeting of money within a police department in a mid-sized American
city. She gains access to the department’s detailed records of expenditures and human resources. This is an example
of which type of agency records, as described in the text?
a. published statistics
b. nonpublic agency records
c. new data collected by agency staff
d. content analysis
55. Which of the following is not a source of reliability and validity problems with agency records?
a. changes in definitions of crime over time
b. agency data are not designed for research
c. agency data are designed to track patterns, not people
d. data entry errors
56. Which of the following is important to remember when using agency records?
a. to ask permission before you study any agency data
b. to examine the data through some form of content analysis
c. the financial considerations of obtaining complete agency records are typically substantial
d. the discretionary actions by criminal justice officials and others can affect the production of agency records
57. Dr. Quinn is interested in studying the amount of overtime worked by police officers. He gains access to agency
personnel files. This is an illustration of which type of data?
a. new data collected by agency staff
b. nonpublic agency records
c. secondary data
d. published statistics
58. 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
59. You are analyzing data that has been collected in annual waves for the past twenty years. Which of the following
might be problematic in this type of analysis?
a. many similar questions were asked during each of these waves, and the wording is consistent
b. for the entire twenty years, the data was collected by personal interviews
c. the definitions of some key items have changed over time within the culture
d. using variables that are operationalized consistently over time
60. When dealing with the conceptual problems that emerge from complex relationships between different units of count,
Maxfield and Babbie suggest:
a. defining individual people as units of analysis
b. following the paper trail
c. using systematic sampling
d. expecting the expected
61. Which of the following is not an example of the use of secondary analysis?
a. using UCR data to measure the trends over time in reported rapes
b. identifying the characteristics of your state’s prisoners for the last ten years
c. developing a measurement for your city’s juvenile intake facility
d. using NCVS to see if there have been changes in the incidents of personal theft over the last ten years
62. Which of the following would not be considered appropriate use for agency records?
a. explanatory studies
b. descriptive studies
c. applied research
d. experimental research
63. Which of the following is most accurate with respect to published statistics?
a. published statistics such as FBI data presents almost no threat to validity
b. published statistics such as FBI data presents almost no threat to reliability
c. published statistics such as FBI data presents potential threats to validity and reliability
d. published statistics such as FBI data should only be used by law enforcement since the data was collected by
them
64. Which of the following is not an example of nonpublic agency records?
a. annual expenditures by your local courts
b. the state prison records for the facility closest to your location
c. employment records for your state’s probation agency
d. the records of criminal convictions at your local courthouse
65. In Widom’s research on child abuse discussed in your text, what was used as matching criteria for the public school
records?
a. being born at the same hospital
b. having parents the same age
c. having the same number of siblings
d. being an outstanding student
66. Which factor has the greatest impact upon a geographical area becoming a “hot spot”?
a. where occasional auto thefts happen
b. where people are repeatedly victimized
c. where community policing is used
d. where neighborhood watch programs exist
67. 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
68. What factor is most important when evaluating the reliability and validity of agency records?
a. who collected the data from within the agency
b. where that data was stored (file cabinet, computer, etc.)
c. who has access to the records
d. how the data was collected
69. Sometimes there are problems with the people or patterns that are gathered as agency data within the criminal
justice system. Which of the following is an incorrect statement with respect to the data gathered by the agencies
identified?
a. police officers deal not with individual calls but with cases
b. prosecutors document their work by case
c. judges document their work by their dockets
d. the FBI collects arrest data for NCIC based upon the individual
70. Which of the following is not accurate with respect to the data that agencies collect?
a. nonpublic agency records contain information pertinent to criminal justice research
b. nonpublic records, even though significant for our understanding of criminal justice processing, are unavailable
to any researcher who does not work for the specific agency
c. all criminal justice agencies keep nonpublic records
d. most researchers in the field of criminal justice use agency records as their source of data
Chapter_12 Agency_Records Content_Analysis and_Secondary_Data
Completion
71. Information that is collected by other people often as a part of their day-to-day work in a justice agency, but used by
someone else for research purposes is referred to as of existing data.
72. It may be possible to use a(n) source of data in which criminal justice agency staff collect
information for specific research purposes that they typically would not have collected.
73. Archives and agency records may be based on of analysis that are not suitable for
particular research questions.
74. 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.
75. Criminal Justice agencies collect information about individuals and that information is often kept isolated from each
other as the offender travels through the system. This method of keeping data on individuals in an unrelated fashion
is known as _____________________ databasing.
76. The potential for increases as the number of clerical entries increases.
77. In content analysis one may code the visible, surface content known as the content.
78. In content analysis one may code the underlying meaning of a communication which is often referred to as the
_____________________ content.
79. Generally speaking, secondary data are least useful when the purpose of research is .
80. Content analysis is really a operation that represents the measurement process.
81. The main disadvantage of using secondary data concerns how variables were initially operationalized and whether
the secondary data provide measures of the variables you want to analyze.
82. Manifest and latent content can be distinguished by the degree of required in
measurement.
83. It is possible to move from individual to units of analysis but not the reverse.
84. Some researchers have suggested that when published statistics and agency records are relied upon as sources of
data a researcher should report rounded figures to avoid the illusion of exaggerated that
precise numbers imply.
Chapter_12 Agency_Records Content_Analysis and_Secondary_Data
85. Agency records, secondary data and content analysis do not require direct with
research subjects.
86. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data and give an example of each.
87. Identify three different types of agencies where records would be important in the criminal justice system. Discuss
the types of published statistics each agency would produce. What are the specific reliability and validity problems
with each?
88. Using question 2 above, what types of nonpublic agency records would each agency keep that would be of interest
to a criminal justice researcher? Give an example of a research question that could be answered by access to the
nonpublic agency records.
89. Suggest a content analysis project that could be completed by the class. Discuss the units of analysis and the
sampling for this project. Further, discuss the coding that you would use if you were required to complete this
project.
90. Using agency records (published statistics, nonpublic agency records and new data collected by agency staff),
content analysis and secondary analysis, give an example of an applied research project that would use each of the
identified methods.