Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo designed a simulated prison to measure ____.
a. the dispositional hypothesis
b. the innate predisposition to violence
c. the situational hypothesis
d. how violent inmates can be subdued
The two essentials of science are ____.
a. correlation and causality
b. induction and deduction
c. idiographics and nomothetics
d. logic and observation
Most criminal justice professionals routinely review ____ to get the most up-to-date
and accurate information.
a. computer readouts and news reports
b. archived and updated spreadsheets
c. performance reports and statistical tabulations
d. popular media sources
Secondary analysis can be cheaper and faster than collecting original data.
Graduates majoring in criminal justice and graduates majoring in psychology from the
State University were part of a study to assess employment success of those receiving
their degrees in May 2002. Six months after graduation (November 2002) a
questionnaire was sent out asking about their job seeking success. What type of design
is this?
a. a double-blind experiment
b. a non-equivalent groups design
c. a time-series design
d. a cohort design
Agency records and statistics published by agencies or governmental entities are most
commonly used for which type of studies?
a. explanatory
b. descriptive
c. experimental
d. qualitative
A researcher feels that he or she will need to ask questions of the subjects. Which field
research technique is best to use?
a. complete observer
b. complete participant
c. a combination of observer and participant
d. surveys
The ____ is a panel study.
a. National Incident-based Reporting System
b. U.S. Census
c. National Crime Victimization Survey
d. Uniform Crime Reports
Which report is a summary-based measure of crime?
a. UCR
b. NCVS
c. NIBRS
d. NSDUH
Environmental surveys are used for which research purpose?
a. determining the grounded theory
b. planning police strategies in drug enforcement and to assess the impact of those
strategies
c. developing notes on graffiti and vandalism damage in an urban area
d. finding out green environment
Two observers watch the same child on the playground and rate the amount of
aggression shown by the child using a standardized instrument. Comparison of the
observers’ scores will measure ____.
a. face validity
b. interrater reliability
c. split-half reliability
d. construct validity
An interrupted time-series design can be very useful in ____ research.
a. applied
b. basic
c. primary
d. double-blind
Nonpublic agency records are often made available to which group?
a. any citizen who expresses written interest
b. criminal justice researchers
c. nonpublic agency records are not generally made available to anyone
d. none of these answers are correct
If you make sure that what you are looking at is what you intended to look at, you can
avoid _____.
a. overgeneralization
b. inaccurate observation
c. illogical reasoning
d. miscalculations
In science, an assertion must have be the product of ____ reasoning
a. independent
b. question and answer
c. logical
d. developmental
Following the model of London, England, Center City, USA decides to install closed
circuit television (CCTV) cameras in a downtown park in hopes of reducing the public’s
fear of crime. Which technique would be the best choice to determine if fear has in fact
decreased?
a. Send out a questionnaire to all citizens living in Center City, USA.
b. Select, via simple random sampling, 20 citizens to interview.
c. Interview, via convenience sampling, citizens that are in the park.
d. None of these answers are correct.
Research involving which of the following groups would not be receptive to the use of
unstructured interviews?
a. Criminals
b. police officers
c. Judges
d. probation officers
Which of the following is true concerning qualitative field research?
a. it is often a theory or hypothesis generating activity
b. always has clear operational definitions of key terms
c. must begin with clearly stated and defined hypotheses
d. None of the above are true.
Which of the following would be an appropriate target of content analysis?
a. speeches
b. NCVS data
c. crime rates
d. Uniform Crime Records
Which statement is accurate?
a. Threats to external validity are decreased by carefully controlling conditions.
b. Threats to internal validity are decreased by carefully controlling conditions.
c. Threats to generalizability are inherent in research and cannot be changed.
d. Threats to internal and external validity covary, and if one is high, the other will also
be high.
Dr. Jason wanted to find out what the citizens of Savannah think about a proposed law
that would require sex offenders to be treated in the community in lieu of prison
confinement, and he decided to randomly call people listed in the phone book. What is
his sampling frame?
a. the citizens of Savannah
b. the proposed law
c. telephone listings
d. sex offenders in prison
Program goals represent ____.
a. empirical indicators
b. desired outcomes
c. inputs
d. standards
Which outcome is least likely when a questionnaire is incorrectly formatted?
a. Respondents may miss questions.
b. Respondents may finish the questionnaire too quickly.
c. Respondents may throw the questionnaire away.
d. Respondents may become confused about the nature of the data desired.
Problem analysis takes place in the earlier stages of the policy process. In contrast,
program evaluation studies are conducted ____.
a. in the interim stages
b. In the later stages
c. In the preliminary stages
d. In the middle
Which example would create an ethical dilemma when doing applied research that is
evaluative in nature?
a. In an attempt to measure the success of a prison pre-release program, the researchers
measure re-arrests and re-convictions and determine the programs to be failures.
b. Program staff of a pre-trial diversion program visit the homes of those awaiting trial
on a nightly basis to make sure that they adhere to a curfew.
c. Upon review of a juvenile probation department, researchers found that contact
sheets, which are designed to keep track of both phone and personal interactions
between the officer and the juvenile, in one probation officer’s files were all dated June
15th.
d. To measure the success of an adult drug treatment facility, researchers offered both
the clients and the treatment staff confidentiality.
Ranks used to describe the hierarchy in a police department represent the ____ level of
measurement.
a. nominal
b. ordinal
c. interval
d. ratio
Which of the following is most frequently used as a tool to gather data when doing field
research?
a. asking questions
b. reviewing written documents
c. direct observation
d. surveys
Social artifacts such as written documents or articles from newspapers illustrate which
method?
a. content analysis
b. secondary analysis
c. case studies
d. surveys
The unit about which information is gathered and forms the basis for analysis is known
as a ____.
a. sampling element
b. unit of observation
c. sampling frame
d. sample
_____ are produced by the intersection of two or more variables to create a set of
categories.
a. Indexes
b. Typologies
c. Matrices
d. Clusters
Concepts are _____.
a. empirical measurements
b. variables
c. mental images
d. hypotheses
You have just completed the LSAT and scored 85. Your roommate, who is no smarter
than you, took the LSAT with you and scored 165. You were so upset with your score
that you decide to take the test again and you convince your roommate to take it with
you for moral support. You both receive scores on the second exam of 120. What
accounts for the differences in scores?
a. statistical regression
b. testing
c. instrumentation
d. experiment mortality
Probes are important tools for qualitative interviewing because they prompt participants
to ____.
a. elaborate on responses by filling in more detail and depth
b. be careful when speaking
c. be concerned about others’ feelings
d. be concerned about time
The production report generated at the city police department contains the number of
arrests made by each officer on a monthly basis. The number of arrests would be what
level of measurement?
a. nominal
b. ordinal
c. interval
d. ratio
When researching a population where it is impossible or impractical to compile a list of
the elements, which sampling technique is appropriate to use?
a. stratified sample
b. systematic sample
c. cluster sample
d. simple random sample
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.
Fortunately, when doing field research sampling is very straight forward and you don”t
have the concerns that would be present in survey techniques.
While planning qualitative interviews, think carefully about your
role as _______________.
___________ is the final stage of the research process.
The use of _______________ sampling helps researchers generalize to a larger
population.
Strengths and weaknesses of field research can be measured in terms of validity, which
SEEers to whether you are actually measuring what you are supposed to measure
instead of something else; reliability SEEers to dependability, while ____________
SEEers to whether specific findings apply to the unobserved.
When random assignment to experimental and control groups is not possible, the
researcher may be forced to use a(n) _______________ design.
Content analysis is a research method appropriate for studying human communications.
Stratified sampling results in a greater degree of representativeness, but at the same
time, increases the probable sampling error.
One technique used in both criminal justice and market research is the
_______________ which uses somewhere between 8 and 15 people.
Construct validity is concerned with the ability to generalize from the results of the
experimental group to the control group.
Not only is it necessary to measure dependent variables in impact assessment, the
researcher also needs to measure the context within which the program is conducted.
Longitudinal studies are designed to permit intensive observations over a short period
of time.
Theoretical sampling is part of generating a(n) _______________ theory.
The ___________________ is the person who will assist you in gaining access to a
subculture.