Dr. Jones wanted to display the findings of the sentences given in his local courthouse
on one summer day. If the sentences, displayed in months, were 10, 18, 24, 36, 18, 70,
30, then which of the following measures of central tendency is accurate?
a. the mean is 24
b. the median is 24
c. the mode is 24
d. mean, median, and mode are the same
If a trial is the independent variable, then which of the following is the dependant
variable?
a. courtroom
b. attorney
c. verdict
d. judge
Program goals represent:
a. empirical indicators
b. desired outcomes
c. inputs
d. standards
When it is necessary to study phenomenon in their natural setting, experiments are the
best approach to take.
a. True
b. False
Experimentation is best suited for hypothesis testing in:
a. explanatory studies
b. evaluation studies
c. physical studies
d. both explanatory and evaluation studies
This is considered sort of a “preevaluation”?
a. Ppocess evaluation
b. outcome evaluation
c. evaluability assessment
d. impact assessment
In Humphrey’s research on anonymous homosexual acts in public bathrooms, he was
a. arrested because of his participation
b. playing one of the roles, a lookout known as a “watch queen”
c. often engaging in homosexual acts himself
d. considered the standard on good techniques for studying deviant behavior
Which of the following is accurate?
a. threats to internal validity are increased by carefully controlling conditions
b. threats to external validity are decreased by carefully controlling conditions
c. threats to generalizability of research findings in experiments are unrelated to internal
validity
d. threats to external validity are increased by carefully controlling conditions
According to your text, what do police cite as a main problem to the enforcement of
drug laws?
a. the laws are too complicated
b. drug use/sales are normally not witnessed by the police
c. drug users/seller will not tell on one another
d. all the above
Things we know from direct experience are a direct result of which type of reality?
a. agreement
b. expressed
c. assumed
d. experiential
Which of the following is a line of questioning relating to qualitative interviews:
a. tree- and- branch approach
b. mountain and peak approach
c. ocean and sea approach
d. none of these answers are correct
Which of the following are legitimate questions to ask when deciding upon a sample for
field research?
a. are the actual observations you make representative of all possible observations
b. can your findings be generalized back to the sample you used
c. are the situations you observe likely to reoccur
d. will they be at home
When dealing with stakeholders a researcher should be aware of all of the following
except:
a. be able to identify all the stakeholders
b. get particularly friendly with the stakeholders so they will not interfere with your
research
c. find out the stakeholders’ perspectives on the program
d. find out the stakeholders’ perspectives on the evaluation
In Widom’s study of the effects of child abuse and its impact upon later criminal
offenses, she selected a sample of children with court records of being abuse victims
and gathered a comparison group that was matched on gender, race, age and
socioeconomic status. The technique used in this case was:
a. individual matching
b. aggregate matching
c. randomization
d. all of the above
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
Which of these is not a guideline for good field note taking?
a. don”t trust your memory, write down as much as possible unobtrusively
b. develop your notes from sketchy to more detailed with re-writes
c. use only key words and phrases in your notes, you will remember the details at a later
date
d. record as many details as you can right after each observation session
The mean can be a misleading measure of central tendency when:
a. the distribution is very close together
b. the distribution is very spread apart
c. the mean, median and mode equal zero
d. none of the above, the mean is never misleading
Which of the following may not constitute voluntary participation?
a. give students who complete the research questionnaire extra credit
b. allow students to fill out a questionnaire on their own time and when they finish put
them in a box outside the
departmental secretary’s office
c. ask that students fill out a questionnaire and not include their name or student
identification number
d. on in-class questionnaires have the professor leave the room while they are being
filled out and turned in and allow students to remain anonymous
A lower-level measure cannot be converted to a higher-level one.
a. True
b. False
One of the primary reasons for conducting crime surveys was to illuminate unreported
crimes; this concept is called:
a. the dark figure of crime
b. crime measure falsification
c. false positive reporting
d. shadow reporting
When using probability sampling, researchers generalize from observed cases to
unobserved ones.
a. True
b. False
Which term best describes “an individual act of burglary, auto theft, or bank robbery”?
a. victim
b. offense
c. crime
d. incident
Metaphors and analogies in speech mark:
a. grounded theory
b. important concepts
c. structured interviews
d. epistemology
All of the following would be examples of goal statements that must be clarified before
empirical testing can follow except for:
a. encouraging participants to accept the philosophy of a drug-free life
b. encouraging participants to be equipped with the life skills necessary to succeed
c. encouraging participants to obtain their GED upon completion of the program
d. providing participants with problem-solving skills
If grades go up as the number of study hours go up, this is called what type of
relationship?
a. negative
b. positive
c. inverse
d. a fluke
If you wanted to study juveniles who steal cars, who would serve as your best
informant?
a. juvenile police officers
b. mothers of young boys
c. school teachers
d. young people arrested for drugs
A community policing program began in an entertainment area in a large metropolitan
area. City leaders are interested to see if the change in policing strategy has reduced the
number of crimes and has asked faculty from a local university to complete a study.
What type of evaluation would be best?
a. interrupted time-series
b. ex-post evaluation
c. non-equivalent groups
d. class experiment
Which of the following would not be an example of a topic that would lend itself to
field research?
a. gang graffiti
b. prostitution
c. drug use
d. criminal records
Much of the current research in criminal justice and criminology focuses upon which of
the following?
a. basic building block of a concept
b. concept’s theoretical counterpart
c. systematic explanation for the observed facts and laws that relate to a particular
aspect of life
d. principle or law
When crimes happen at home and/or against persons, what is the best measure to use if
the crimes are not reported to police?
a. NCVS
b. DAWN
c. UCR
d. NIBRS
Critics of Humphrey’s “Tearoom Trade” cited all but which of the following as potential
ethical issues?
a. the invasion of privacy
b. the value of the study
c. the fact that he traced the participants to their homes
d. the deceit involved
Which of the following embody the means to achieve desired policy goals?
a. outputs
b. inputs
c. impacts
d. achievements
A victim’s insistence that the police not arrest a suspect results in no documentation of
the incident (i.e. the police
officer does not file a report on the incident). This circumstance supports the idea:
a. that crime is subjective
b. that discretion in police work is inappropriate
c. that police measures of crime are problematic
d. none of the above
A structured interview schedule refers to a predetermined question and answer set.
a. True
b. False
Words are symbols in language that we use to represent mental images are known as .
Identify the differences between randomized evaluation designs and quasi-experimental
designs. Give an example of the appropriate use of each.
Answer:N/A
A(n) indicates what percentage of cases that fall at or below some value.
is the process by which we specify precisely what we mean when we use a particular
term.
Explain the difference between a necessary and a sufficient cause. Give an example of
each from the criminal justice literature.
Answer:N/A
In a interview structure, time is irrelevant.
Compare and contrast UCR and NCVS with respect to the type of crime data they
collect and how they collect it. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Answer:N/A
Identify and discuss at least five threats to internal validity in experimental designs.
Include in your answer ways of controlling for each of the threats you identify.
Answer:N/A
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.
When the term “informed consent” is used in criminal justice research it refers to some
very specific ethical concerns. Discuss what is meant by “informed consent” and why it
is important when engaging in research.
Answer:N/A
If there is a great amount of variation in a distribution it is known as being .
When we ask people for information they will respond using a filter of what will make
them look good, which is known as social ____________________.
Use the city that your university is located in for this question. You have been given a
grant to study the citizens’ attitudes to your university with respect to noise, traffic, and
minor property crimes. How would you draw a multistage cluster sample that would be
representative of your city?
Answer:N/A
The process of regarding as real things that are not is called .
Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of field research and survey
research. Give specific attention to the topics of validity, reliability and generalizability.
Answer:N/A
research is appropriate whenever some policy intervention occurs or is planned.
Frequency distributions of grouped data, known as , will allow for a manageable format
but with some loss of detail.