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.
a. True
b. False
Which of the following is not illustrative of the case study method?
a. it is an in-depth analysis of one or a few cases
b. the cases can be individuals, groups, organizations or aggregates
c. the study can be both qualitative and quantitative
d. observing a group who has similar cases in the court systems
Which of the following is used to gather data for the National Survey on Drug Use and
Health?
a. households
b. schools
c. doctors
d. prisons
Of all research purposes, evaluation is most effective when secondary data is used.
a. True
b. False
Stratified sampling results in a greater degree of representativeness but at the same time
increases the probable sampling error.
a. True
b. False
Write sample questions dealing with the relationship between gender and criminal
activity. Have the questions be in the following forms:
a. open-ended
b. closed-ended
c. matrix
d. contingency
Answer:N/A
In which of the following research settings would you not need to get approval from an
institutional review board?
a. research involving interviews of undercover police officers
b. research involving surveys given to students in all sociology classes at your
university where student names are not given
c. interviews with faculty in your major about the most pressing issues that they see
with respect to their students
d. research involving observations in a county clinic regarding the prescription dosages
for adult patients
Which of the following represents a negative item?
a. drugs such as marijuana should not be legalized
b. it is fair to say that marijuana is a drug
c. unlike alcohol, marijuana does not make the user mean
d. marijuana is a more addictive than alcohol
In an experiment subjects are given a pre-test in an effort to assess their attitudes about
a new federal sentencing law that Congress is debating. Subjects assigned to the
experimental group are given a series of lectures by experts on the impact the new law
will have on prison populations. Immediately after the last lecture, a post-test is given
to measure any attitude changes. Anticipating what the test is designed to measure
(because of the lectures) those in the experimental group are subject to the threat of:
a. diffusion
b. statistical regression
c. instrumentation
d. testing
Which statement is the most accurate?
a. harm to subjects is never a real concern
b. harm to subjects is never appropriate
c. harm to subjects may occur if the benefits outweigh the harm
d. harm to subjects is appropriate if it is only psychological in nature
Research on criminal justice policy is an example of applied research.
a. True
b. False
Numerous studies have shown that measures of crime based on police records often
suffer from:
a. reliability problems
b. validity problems
c. accounting problems
d. typology problems
“Going native” refers to the possibility that subjects may start to become too close to
the researcher.
a. True
b. False
Ordinal variables use which of the following as the appropriate measure of association?
a. gamma
b. lambda
c. regression
d. correlation
Gaining access to underground or illicit populations is best achieved through:
a. coercion
b. sponsors
c. luck
d. all of the answers are correct
A study of the commentary made about the Patriot Act in 50 major newspapers’
editorials found that newspapers in the northeast gave more attention to the subject than
did papers in any other part of the country. What is the unit of analysis being used?
a. newspaper editorials
b. Patriot Act
c. area of the country
d. newspaper names
Dr. Stone is interested in comparing the attitudes about teenage pregnancy between the
United States and the Netherlands. He selects samples in both countries of 10 year old
males and females and plans to survey a portion of them every other year for the next
ten years. Stone is using what technique?
a. cross-sectional study
b. trend study
c. cohort study
d. panel study
Which of the following is least accurate?
a. experimentation is appropriate for hypothesis testing
b. experiments are well suited to research involving well-defined concepts
c. experiments cannot be used in the study of criminal justice policy because they
require a hypothesis to test
d. experiments are appropriate for evaluation research
Traditional beliefs about patrol effectiveness, response time, and detective work are
examples of:
a. known reality
b. agreement reality
c. experiential reality
d. assumed reality
The threat to the internal validity of an experiment that is called compensatory
treatment refers to which of the following situations?
a. the control group subjects being paid while the experimental group subjects are not
b. the experimental group subjects being paid while the control group subjects are not
c. the subjects in the control group feel deprived of something they consider valuable
d. there is no threat to internal validity called compensatory treatment
What type of design is illustrated in the following diagram? Experimental Group 0 X 0
Control Group 0 0 Measurement time1 time2 time3
a. time-series design
b. classical experiment
c. cohort design
d. nonequivalent-groups design
With regard to experimentation and subject selection, what does random assignment
serve to eliminate?
a. systematic bias
b. false positive results
c. experimental morality
d. ambiguity
The true list of elements in the population is called the:
a. parameter
b. sampling frame
c. population
d. sample
Grounded theory is used to:
a. measure how much common sense went into a specific theory
b. describe the inductive method of theory construction
c. describe the deductive method of theory construction
d. assess the elements that make up dirt
Which of the following is not a probability sample characteristic?
a. probability samples are never perfectly representative
b. probability samples are usually more representative than other sampling techniques
c. probability sampling lets us estimate the accuracy of the sample
d. probability sampling is always representative of the population.
Observations that can be quantified may produce measures for:
a. conversation
b. oral questionnaires
c. purposive sampling
d. hypothesis testing
A friend of yours assigned a code of 1 to “male” and a code of 2 to “female” on the
variable gender. Your friend asked the computer to compute the average score on
gender. The computer printout contained the following information: mean = 1.38,
standard deviation = .432, median = 1.4 and mode = 1.0. You advise your friend that the
best measure of central tendency to report is the:
a. mean
b. standard deviation
c. median
d. mode
Empirical research is first a logical rather than a mathematical operation.
a. True
b. False
Agency records, secondary data and content analysis do not require direct interaction
with research subjects.
a. True
b. False
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