Dr. Smith is doing an observational study in a local jail and discovers that inmates who
are respectful to the correctional officers get more telephone calls than inmates who are
disrespectful. What technique has been employed in the study?
a. evaluation research
b. inductive logic
c. deductive logic
d. theory construction
Like survey designs and field studies, evaluation research refers to the research purpose
not a specific research method.
a. True
b. False
Which of the following have been identified as advantages of the use of computer
assisted interviewing?
a. respondents seem to sense a greater degree of confidentiality
b. get more “productive” answers to questions dealing with topics such as drug use
c. increase the speed and efficiency of the responses
d. all of the above
In general, testing refers to changes in how subjects respond to measurement, whereas
instrumentation is concerned with:
a. the world we live in
b. changes in the measurement process itself
c. the scientific hypothesis
d. the motive for the experiment itself
Which of the following is accurate with respect to specialized interviewing?
a. concerned only the views and opinions of those individuals who are interviewed
b. concerned with the interview technique
c. only concerned with generalizing to the general public
d. ask questions of a large number of subjects
Social regularities represent:
a. probabilistic patterns
b. probabilistic problems
c. probabilistic predictions
d. probabilistic positions
NIBRS reports each crime incident rather than the total number of certain crimes.
a. True
b. False
In the logic of statistical significance the elements include:
a. assumptions regarding the independence of two variables in the population study
b. assumptions regarding the representativeness of samples selected through
conventional probability sampling procedures
c. the observed joint distribution of sample elements in terms of the two variables
d. all of the above
According to ecological theory, which of the following is not a fundamental principle?
a. crime is more common in urban transition zones
b. crime is more common is suburban transition zones
c. crime is more common where there is a great deal of crowding
d. crime is more common where there is much poverty
Sampling is used because:
a. it may not possible to collect information from the entire population
b. it is necessary to collect information from the entire population
c. samples are useful tools only in experimental designs
d. it is easier and you can guess if your data reflects the larger population
Operationalization means:
a. the part of a theory that tells us how variables are related
b. the procedures we go through to identify and measure variables
c. the procedures we go through before we can develop a hypothesis
d. the part of a theory that tells us what statistics we can use
If you have concluded that a particular pattern exists and have developed a general
understanding of why, you may
be tempted to ignore facts in the future that don”t fit. This is:
a. inaccurate observation
b. overgeneralization
c. illogical reasoning
d. selective observation
Any public policy discussion involves politics. Which of the following is not accurate
with respect to ethics and the political aspects of applied research?
a. there is no set of political norms that are agreed upon by all criminal justice
researchers
b. just as there are codes for ethical conduct for researchers, there are formal codes of
accepted political conduct
c. ethics of criminal justice research deals more with the methods used while political
issues are more concerned with the substance and use of the research
d. there is no formal code of accepted political conduct
Which of the following is an axiom?
a. working class youths have higher delinquency rates than upper class youths
b. working class youths would be more likely to break the law to gain material goods
than upper class youths
c. everyone desires material comforts
d. social class has no bearing on the tendency to break the law
Which of the following illustrates the relationship between a theory and a paradigm?
a. theories are collections of hypotheses while a paradigm uses just one hypothesis
b. a paradigm is more specific than a theory
c. a theory is more specific than a paradigm
d. a theory is a paradigm
Qualitative interviews can occur:
a. face to face
b. online
c. over the phone
d. all of the answers are correct
Your text discusses a concept called problem guides. Which of the following would be
an example of this concept?
a. the analysis of specific problems such as crimes against the elderly
b. the analysis of broad issues such as race and crime
c. the analysis of specific crime databases such as UCR
d. the analysis of criminal justice agencies
Which of the following is a characteristic of directed observations of crime?
a. has a fairly specific research or policy purpose
b. focuses on a relatively small sample
c. the expected incidents made observation an appropriate way to measure crime
d. all of the above
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
Calculating rates is really pretty simple, what is not so simple in determining rates is
deciding the:
a. numerator and denominator
b. arithmetic
c. mean
d. average
The promise of anonymity in a mailed survey would be especially important if the
subject of that survey was
a. personal drug use
b. information about use of public transportation
c. educational attainment
d. the number of dependent children in the household
A researcher has measured fear of crime by asking the subjects whether or not they
were afraid of crime and by asking them to rate from 1 ” 10 their own fear of crime.
Which is the highest level of measurement that is illustrated by this example?
a. nominal
b. ordinal
c. interval
d. ratio
The process of developing operational definitions is known as:
a. conceptualization
b. proprietary means
c. reification
d. operationalization
One threat to internal validity in criminal justice research that is not very significant is
a. history, because few things happen on a grand scale that would impact criminal
justice research
b. maturation, because criminal justice subjects are not in research studies long enough
to mature
c. statistical regression, because subjects in the criminal justice system are likely to
score lower than the mean anyway
d. the concern about the publication of the findings
What is the fundamental first step in conducting evaluation studies?
a. measuring program goals
b. obtaining evaluable statements
c. specifying outcomes
d. clearly specifying program goals
Which of the following would not be an example of problem analysis?
a. find the most cost effective manner to maintain prison capacity at established levels
b. determine the most efficient manner in assigning felony cases to circuit judges
c. determine the average sentence given for those convicted of armed robbery within
the state of Georgia
d. what is the best manner to reduce the response time by police officers in calls for
service
Tests of statistical significance should only be used when the relationships observed in
data collected come from the whole population.
a. True
b. False
Which of the following is not a strength of field research?
a. field research is rigid thus allowing for accurate observations
b. field research is relatively inexpensive
c. field research on behavior makes more sense than surveys
d. field research is flexible
Which of the following would not be an appropriate crime to study using the field
research technique?
a. prostitution
b. shoplifting
c. embezzlement
d. drug use
Which of the following comes closest to the purpose of an institutional review board?
a. to determine if adequate safeguards for general welfare of subjects is in place
b. to determine if the proposed research is worthy of study
c. to turn violators of ethical principles over to the police
d. to make it difficult for any social science research to be completed
The Drug Abuse Warning Network gathers data from which of the following?
a. samples of hospitals
b. samples about medical examiners nationwide
c. drug episodes
d. all of the above
By its very nature, secondary analysis is always unobtrusive.
a. True
b. False
“What is your opinion on the death penalty?” is an example of which type of question?
a. closed ended question
b. open ended question
c. matrix question
d. contingency question
When a researcher asks respondents for a single answer to a combination question their
question is said to be
____________________.
validity refers to particular empirical measures that may or may not accurately reflect
the common agreements on concepts.
Criminal justice has difficulty with regard to causality because researchers encounter
very few perfect measures of correlation.
The first level of qualitative data is known as .
When the researcher is interested in the physical area where they will make their
observations they may want to engage in ____________________ research first.
Exploratory and descriptive studies frequently are in nature since they allow data to be
gathered at one point in time.
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.
Scientists assess the truth of statements about cause by considering threats to .
When the researcher starts to identify too closely with the interests and viewpoints of
the participants, they are said to have gone ____________________.
Your authors present terms that are used in theory construction. Some of those terms are
concepts, variables, statements and hypotheses. Explain how those words are related to
one another. Use a specific theory to illustrate the relationship. In other words, identify
a theory, from that theory identify a concept and variables. From those variables
develop a statement and a hypothesis.
Answer:N/A
Discuss how the NCVS and The British Crime Survey use different strategies form
sampling to produce sufficient numbers of respondents.
Answer:N/A
Research that aims to measure the recidivism rates for youths participating in a new
boot camp program after its first year in operation may use the type of study.
science cannot settle debates on values.
Uncontrolled variation in treatment is equivalent to measurement of the independent
variable.
Content analysis is really a operation that represents the measurement process.