Before taking this class I had a very narrow idea of what a self- report survey was from introduction classes. I had no idea that there were strengths and weaknesses of a survey or what one looked like. After taking this survey and seeing the results I could see the strengths and weaknesses that are used in the self-report measure. Also after seeing the results I could see how some people would be afraid to answer truthfully if it were to be used for official police data compared to a different survey. In this paper im going to discuss what I feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the self-report measure, compare the self-report versus official police data, look to see if one data source is better than the other, if …show more content…
Both methods have different forms of ways to collect data about crimes. For instance, Self-report measures collect their data by asking an individual about themselves and about what form of illegal behavior they have committed by written questionnaires and in-person interviews. For example, Monitoring the Future (MTF) self-report survey collected samples from 8th, 10th and 12th graders and measured their substance and alcohol use. As for official police data, the uniformed crime reports (UCR) took the data that was submitted by police stations across the country which did not include personally interviewing individuals about what they …show more content…
The survey has made me aware of what a survey looks and how the results of taking the survey can be shocking and eye opening. The results made me look at what different types of criminal activity some of my peers were committing and how some were truthful when answering and how some were not. In addition, this survey made me take a different perspective of police data and how its collected. Before taking this survey I didn’t really think of how different reporting a illegal act by being interviewed was then just data given to a big collection survey. I personally saw how much of an advantage of how useful self-report data was from how police data is collected. My image of seeing a criminal or deviant act has definitely been changed from this survey. My eyes were opened by the results of what was taken from the survey. When I saw the results I was shocked on the honesty of what people actually confessed to on the acts that they