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 who are employed. What error was just committed?
a. the ecological fallacy
b. reductionism
c. using the wrong time dimension
d. an internal validity threat
What two qualities should every variable possess?
a. meaning and value
b. exhaustive and thorough
c. exhaustive and mutually exclusive
d. operational definition and meaning
Which of the following is inaccurate concerning the use of evaluation research?
a. it is gaining in popularity among researchers that really want to make a difference
b. federal requirements for program evaluations often accompany the implementation of
new programs
c. funding is available for program evaluations
d. Evaluation research may only use experimental design.
Which of the following is not essential in maintaining confidentiality in field or survey
interviews?
a. remove names and addresses from data-collection forms
b. keep a master identification file linking numbers to names so that at a future date,
data can be corrected where necessary
c. put the master file on the computer so that you do not leave paper copies of the file
laying around
d. only legitimate researchers should have access to the master file
Which of the following are not exempt from IRB review under federal guidelines?
a. research involving the analysis of existing data
b. research involving the use of educational tests that are cognitive in nature
c. research conducted in established educational settings that involve normal education
practices
d. research that uses living subjects
The foremost ethical issue addressed by institutional review boards is _____.
a. voluntary participation
b. emotional harm done to subjects
c. whether funding was received from an appropriate source
d. does the research deal with special populations
Which of the following statements is not true concerning surveys?
a. surveys are high on reliability
b. surveys are low on reliability
c. surveys are high on generalizability
d. surveys are low on validity
Which of the following are referred to as a summary based measure of crime?
a. UCR
b. NCVS
c. NIBRS
d. ADAM
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 is not an accurate description of the simulated prison project?
a. subjects accepted their roles very readily with guards becoming aggressive while
prisoners became passive
b. debriefing sessions were held at the conclusion of the project to ensure that there was
no long term damage to the participants
c. participants were allowed to leave the simulation periodically so that emotions did
not run too high
d. videotapes and audio tapes were made of the entire simulation
Random assignment to experimental and control groups should reduce the threats to
_____.
a. instrumentation
b. maturation
c. generalizability
d. small sample
Maturation as a threat to internal validity in experiments refers to _____.
a. some subjects are older than others
b. as people grow and change, results can be impacted
c. only subjects over the age of 21 are mature enough to be part of an experiment
d. no correlation between cause and effect variable
In order to study active criminals who have not been arrested for their criminal acts, the
researcher would be wise to employ which type of sampling technique?
a. purposive sampling
b. snowball sampling
c. convenience sampling
d. stratified random sampling
Particular empirical measures may or may not agree with common understandings of
our individual mental images about a specific concept. This is known as _____.
a. reliability
b. validity
c. accuracy
d. face validity
According to federal regulations, which of the following represents special populations
that need attention in the field of criminal justice?
a. general public
b. juvenile delinquents
c. movie stars
d. Parents
In an examination of violent crime among the most populous nations in the world, the
United States ranks very high along with England, France, and Australia. The chance of
being raped is higher in France than in the United States. What units of analysis are
being used?
a. individuals
b. organizations
c. social artifacts
d. groups
You observe police activity in your city for one week, and then you describe what you
observed. What type of study have you performed?
a. explorative
b. descriptive
c. explanative
d. applicative
What are the two important things achieved by the specification of conceptual
definitions?
a. it serves as a specific working definition a researcher presents so that readers will
understand exactly what is meant by a concept; it focuses our observational strategy
b. it focuses our observational strategy; it directly produces observations
c. it serves as a specific working definition a researcher presents so that readers will
understand exactly what is meant by a concept; it provides a statement of the essential
nature of some entity
d. it focuses our observational strategy; it provides a statement of the essential nature of
some entity
Validity is “the approximate truth of an inference”. Here the emphasis is on:
a. truth
b. approximate
c. inference
d. validity
Things we consider real because we”ve been told they are real is which type of reality?
a. agreement reality
b. expressed reality
c. assumed reality
d. experiential reality
Which of the following is true regarding random assignment to groups?
a. “all other things being equal”
b. “use your best guess”
c. “it is close enough for government work”
d. “you are never 100% sure, so don”t worry about it”
A questionnaire is sent to 1,000 police departments in Florida and gathers information
on the number of sick days officers use after being involved in a shooting incident. This
is an example of what type of research?
a. variable-oriented research
b. case-oriented research
c. quasi-experimental design
d. cohort design
The assignment of grades by the professor to major research papers is an example of
_____.
a. measurement
b. operationalization
c. conceptualization
d. validity
Which of the following is necessary for establishing informed consent of research
subjects?
a. telling subjects the purpose of the research
b. telling subjects about only the potential benefits of their participation in the research
c. informing subjects about the possible risks and side effects of the research
d. informing subjects about their rights to compensation
The test-retest method is used to examine _____.
a. reliability
b. validity
c. generalizability
d. precision
If the number of subjects in a program is small, statistical tests can detect only very
large program effects of differences in outcome measures between the two groups. This
illustrates the problem of _____.
a. generalizability
b. statistical conclusion validity
c. maturation
d. reliability
It is usually best to begin a self-administered questionnaire with _____.
a. sensitive issues
b. age, gender, etc.
c. sexual behavior
d. the most interesting set of questions
Which of the following is false concerning the use of field notes for recording
observations?
a. field notes include what you are sure you have observed
b. field notes should not include unanticipated events
c. field notes should include what you think you observed
d. note taking can be done on standardized recording forms that you create prior to the
start of the research
Criminal justice research is organized around two basic activities: measurement and
_____.
a. variables
b. interpretation
c. descriptions
d. objectives
Scientific realism is rooted in the principle that:
a. similar interventions can naturally be expected to have different outcomes in different
contexts
b. the success of evaluations depends on the assignment of subjects to experimental and
control groups
c. there be equivalence between experimental and control groups before an intervention
d. treatment integrity must be rigorously guarded
A specifiable aspect of a given concept is referred to as a _____.
a. dimension
b. concept
c. construct
d. direct observable
In all cases, participation as a subject in research is voluntary.
The good thing about applied studies such as program evaluation is that they do not
require the same degree of planning as do survey designs.
_________________ is the process by which we specify precisely what we mean when
we use a particular term.
_________________________ questionnaires are generally the least expensive and
easiest to complete.
Fortunately, when doing field research sampling is very straight forward and you don”t
have the concerns that would be present in survey techniques.
Random selection permits the researcher to link findings from a sample to the body of
probability theory in order to estimate the accuracy of those findings.
Words or symbols in language that we use to represent mental images are known as
____________.
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.
When using agency records as a data source, the researcher must always keep changes
in operational definitions and changes in _______________ in mind because of their
potential impact upon validity and reliability.
As a measure of dispersion, _____________________ is described as the average
amount of variation about the mean.
An example of ____________ is when a researcher is able to link information with a
given person’s identity but promises not to do so publicly.
Understanding the details of how agency records are produced is the best guard against
reliability and validity problems.
A researcher engaged in field research would likely use ________________ data that is
defined as observations that are not easily reduced to numbers.
There are two basic options for researchers when asking questions: open-ended or
closed-ended.
The subsequent questions in a series are called contingency.
A theory that is created based upon experience and field observations is referred to as
a(n) _______________ theory.
The summary description of a given variable in the sample is called a sample statistic.