The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics is the most comprehensive Bureau of
Justice Statistics publication. It includes a multitude of data including all of the
following except:
a. characteristics of criminal justice agencies
b. public opinion answers coming from the Gallup Poll
c. complete crime data from all local police departments
d. specific data on states using capital punishment and their execution statistics
Which of the following is not an example of an advantage of computer assisted
in-person interviews?
a. responses can be quickly entered into data files for analysis
b. complex questions can be automated
c. questions can be programmed in different languages
d. there is no opportunity for follow-up questions
Observations of shoplifters in Pueblo, Colorado characterized as “72 percent men and
28 percent women, with an average age of 15.4 years” constitutes which type of
analysis?
a. descriptive analysis
b. variegated analysis
c. trend analysis
d. cohort analysis
Qualitative data interpretation is different than that of quantitative data interpretation in
that it accepts:
a. multiple realities
b. survey data
c. idealist perspective
d. linear regression in all circumstances
What was the primary reason for the establishment of institutional review boards?
a. questionnaires administered that asked subjects to report on deviant sexual behaviors
b. research on juveniles that focus upon their treatment as adults by the criminal justice
system
c. medical experimentation
d. personal interviews with prisoners asking them to describe crimes that were not
known to the police
What process is accomplished by assigning the odd numbered subjects to the
experimental group and the even- numbered subjects to the control group?
a. basic scientific theory
b. independent relation
c. false positive evaluation
d. random assignment
Using the inductive model, ____________________ are developed from the analysis of
research data.
We live in a world of two realities known as:
a. expressed and assumed
b. experiential and agreement
c. expressed and agreement
d. experiential and assumed
Which of the following represent reliability or validity concerns when a researcher uses
agency records?
a. the number of general clerical staff since too few is not good
b. changes in the operational definitions the agencies use to specify key terms
c. maintaining consistent procedures the agency uses to collect the data over time
d. agency records are generalizable to similar agencies
The concept of “observation” in the language of science means
a. looking at the world and making value judgments
b. looking at the world and making measurements of what is seen
c. looking at the world and making changes in what is seen
d. looking at the world through rose colored glasses
When doing field research, researchers should be aware that sampling dimensions can
be impacted by the varying behavior of people affected by the:
a. time of day or year
b. weather
c. location where the observations may take place
d. all of the above
In process evaluation, the focus is on:
a. the inputs to the program
b. the people who work in the process
c. the program outputs
d. the program process
Social research may cause psychological harm or embarrassment in people who are
asked to reveal information about themselves.
a. True
b. False
Many different options are available for gathering data in field research.
a. True
b. False
If the researcher feels they will need to ask questions of the subjects, what is the best
technique in field research to use?
a. complete observer
b. complete participant
c. a combination of observer and participant
d. surveys
A basic principle of probability sampling is that a sample will be representative of the
population from which it is drawn if:
a. all members of the population have an equal chance of being selected for the sample
b. the researcher uses a method of selection based upon convenience
c. every “nth” person is selected for the sample
d. all are principles of probability sampling
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. does not define the nature of a crime problem being studied
When we are concerned with whether we are correct in inferring that a cause produced
an effect, we are concerned with the:
a. reliability
b. generalizability
c. validity
d. probability
Which of the following is not accurate concerning validity and reliability of agency
records?
a. the shorter the time intervals under study the greater the concern about procedure
changes
b. longitudinal researchers must be concerned about changes in operational definitions
over time
c. longitudinal researchers must be concerned about changes in procedures over time
d. the longer the time interval under study the greater the concern about procedure
changes
Which of the following is not considered a requirement of informed consent?
a. informing subjects of the research purpose
b. alerting the subjects to possible risks
c. telling the subject where the funding for the research came from
d. letting the subjects know about the specific procedures that will be used
Shortening the time between pretest and posttest or perhaps even offering cash
payments to participants in an experiment are techniques that may be used to:
a. limit diffusion
b. decrease experimental mortality
c. decrease the effects of instrumentation
d. control threats to testing
Field research would be most appropriate for which of the following topics?
a. the average age of sex offenders
b. the number of neighborhood watch programs initiated in 2003
c. the frequency of newspaper articles criticizing the treatment of “enemy combatants”
after 9/11
d. how street prostitutes are selected by Johns in the early evening hours in your city
Which of the following statements is most accurate?
a. once units of analysis are defined, sampling agency records is relatively simple
b. once units of analysis are defined, sampling agency records is quite complicated
c. there is no relationship between the units of analysis used in agency records and the
sampling techniques used
d. you must use all agency records and cannot select a subset since that will lead to
incomplete conclusions
With respect to causation
a. it is the focus of explanatory research
b. it suggests a cause and effect relationship
c. cause in social science is inherently probabilistic
d. all of the above
Independent of opinion is a definition of:
a. an analysis
b. subjectivity
c. objectivity
d. a hypothesis
Relating to randomization, which of the following statements is not accurate?
a. as the number of exceptions to random assignment increases, the statistical
equivalence of the experimental and control groups decreases
b. when exceptions to random assignment are made, bias enters the selection process
c. randomization in experiments for evaluation purposes are best suited for programs
where exceptions are at a minimum
d. randomization in experiments for evaluation purposes are best suited for programs
where there are many exceptions
Which of the following is not something of concern in the evaluability assessment?
a. determine the degree of support for your project
b. determine what the general program goals are as well as the specific objectives
c. determine how the goals are translated into the program components
d. whether the people in the organization have some sort of direct or indirect stake in
the program
In structured field observations, the data collection form resembles a survey
questionnaire. For example, the environmental surveys are used for which of the
following research purposes?
a. counting the number of parking tickets given in a specific part of town
b. planning police strategies in drug enforcement and to assess the impact of those
strategies
c. asking juveniles why they use graffiti
d. asking inmates why they committed their crime
Randomization may not be appropriate for assignment of people to treatment or
programs for all of the following reasons except:
a. practical reasons
b. agency support
c. ethical reasons
d. legal reasons
Ranks in the local police department represent what level of measurement?
a. nominal
b. ordinal
c. interval
d. ratio
Operationalization involves which of the following?
a. testing hypotheses
b. testing theories
c. identifying how you will measure a variable
d. developing a theory
The defining feature of an experiment lies in the control of the independent variable by
the experimenter.
a. True
b. False
Being able to link an individual to the agency data collected about him/her is a clear
violation of reliability and validity.
a. True
b. False
Which of the following would not be likely to impact a study’s external validity?
a. do research in the natural setting
b. experiments where there is too much control of conditions
c. using an unrepresentative sample
d. applied studies reduce external validity
Which of the following is generally recognized as an ethical procedure for
subject/participant selection?
a. assimilation
b. correlation
c. randomization
d. deception
As a rule, field research is usually weak on because of the type of sampling used.
Discuss the differences between being an insider and outside when it comes to
qualitative research. Which situations lend themselves better to which type of status?
Answer:N/A
Researchers combine in different ways to produce different composite measures.
One technique borrowed from market research is the group which uses somewhere
between 8 and 15 people.
A policy is an action taken for the purpose of producing some intended result.
Samples based on households may not be readily to other populations, as well as results
obtained from high school seniors.
In content analysis one may code the underlying meaning of a communication which is
often referred to as the
_____________________ content.
As a measure of dispersion, is described as the average amount of variation about the
mean.
The use of sampling helps the researchers generalize to a larger population.
Identify three different types of agencies where records would be important in the
criminal justice system. Discuss the types of published statistics each agency would
produce. What are the specific reliability and validity problems with each?
Answer:N/A
If appropriate steps are taken prior to the start of research to safeguard the data, federal
law protects researchers from ____________________ action.
The two pillars of science are observation and ____________________.
There are no nationwide efforts to collect self-report measures to all types of crimes.
The three main elements in the traditional model of science are theory,
operationalization, and observation. Identify a piece of research discussed in class and
identify each of the elements listed above for that research.
Answer:N/A
Tradition and authority are forms of personal human inquiry. Give examples of each by
using scenarios from the criminal justice field.
Answer:N/A
Discuss the threat to validity. Cover the following threats: face, content,
criterion-related, and construct.
Answer:N/A
In evaluation studies, the group to whom the program is appropriate is referred to as the
program’s
____________________ population.
You are a member of student government. Your group has been asked by the President
of the University to conduct a study to determine if the newly implemented
anti-drinking program all new freshmen are required to take is effective in reducing
underage drinking on campus. Identify the goals and outcomes of the program. What
type of design would you suggest for such a study and why?
Answer:N/A