Research Methods

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When using agency records in their research, researchers keep in mindtwo general maxims:

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"Follow the papertrail" and "expect the expected"

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Agency records and statistics published by agencies or governmentalentities are most commonly used for which type of studies?

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Descriptive

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Topics that lend themselves to the use of content analysis tend to focusupon the links between communication and

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Criminal justice policy

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The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics is the most comprehensiveBureau of Justice Statistics publication. It includes a multitude of dataincluding

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complete crime data from all local police departments

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Most government organizations routinely collect and publish compilationsof data, which we refer to collectively as

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published statistics

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Nonpublic agency records are often made available to

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criminal justice researchers

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Whatwould be an example of the data coming from the Census Bureau that havecriminal justice applications?

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Survey of Inmates in LocalJails

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In Widom’s research purpose on the relationship between early childabuse and later delinquency or adult criminal behavior was

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explanatory

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Record-keeping systems used in most cities today are still designed moreto track individual cases for individual departments than to produce data formanagement or research purposes. Individual agencies maintain silodatabases. Silo databases refer to

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stacksof data that are isolated from each other

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How does time interval impact the change in measurement in longitudinalresearch?

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As the time interval under investigation increases, sodoes the potential for change in measurement

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Describe the validity and reliability of agency records?

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To understand as completely as possible how the data were originallycollected

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It is often said that agency data are not designed for researchpurposes. How so?

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Data they do collect often reflect discretionary decisions by numerousindividuals

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Give an example of content analysis in criminal justice research?

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Counting the stories devoted to the coverage of crime in yourlocal news paper

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Define content analysis? When is it used?

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A research method that categorizes and describes communication messagesin specific context, uses textual data. It is used to describe a quantitativeapproach

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Content analysis is well-suited for what situations?

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To answer the classic questions of communication research

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The visible, objective context of a communication is known as

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manifest contest

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The publication produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics thatincludes information about hundreds of justice agency data sets,characteristics of criminal justice agencies, and perceptions of crime to namejust a few, is called the

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Sourcebook of CriminalJustice Statistics

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Dr. Jones is having his Introductory to Criminal Justice studentsanalyze cartoons. He instructs them to identify the number of violent acts pershow, the type of violent act and the characteristics of the victim. Dr. Jones ishaving his students use

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content analysis

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Clinic workers in a major Northwest city have been asked to track theincidence and patterns of STDs in their patients as part of a research projectdealing with public health. They ask a number of specific questions upon intakebut do not ask about their clients’ sexual partners. The only way to examinepatterns in the spread of the STDs is to add a question to the intake form aboutthe identity of their sexual partners. The data that was gathered illustrates

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new data collected by agency staff

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Published statistics and agency records are often used in

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descriptive studies

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FBI statistics and annual reports from the Federal Bureau of Prisons areexamples of

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published statistics

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What are considered biased?

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questions that are asked to respondents to shift their answer to one side

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What type of questions should be avoided on a questionnaire?

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ambiguous questions

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What would be considered an appropriate method for increasing the response rate in mailed surveys?

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Warning letters and Cover letters