Criminological Research Methods
Study Guide Questions
Course Introduction
Criminological Research Methods provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the tools and techniques used to investigate and analyze crime and criminal behavior. This course explores both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including surveys, experiments, interviews, field observations, and content analysis, as they apply to criminological questions. Students will learn how to design research projects, collect and interpret data, and critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of various research approaches. Emphasis is placed on ethical considerations, the role of theory in research design, and the application of statistical techniques in analyzing criminal justice data. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the skills necessary to conduct independent criminological research and to critically assess existing studies in the field.
Recommended Textbook
The Practice of Social Research 14th Edition by Earl R. Babbie
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Chapter 1: Human Inquiry and Science
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Sample Questions
Q1) Data collection deals with the logical aspect of science.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Which of the following is NOT an aim of social science?
A)judging social values
B)predicting social phenomena
C)understanding social regularities
D)explaining social regularities
E)observing social regularities.
Answer: A
Q3) Epistemology is the science of finding out.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) If an exception is found to a social pattern,the pattern is invalid.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 2: Paradigms,theory,and Social Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a study of women,the following notation was used: Y = f(X)where Y represented number of live births and X represented occupational prestige scores.This notation represents
A)the number of live births that are a cause of occupational prestige scores.
B)the occupational prestige scores that are a cause of the number of live births.
C)a hypothesis that indicates that the number of live births are a function of (or are affected by) occupational prestige scores.
D)a hypothesis that indicates that occupational prestige scores are a function of (or are affected by) number of live births.
E)none of the above
Answer: C
Q2) In deduction,we start from observed data and develop a generalization that explains the relationship between the observed concepts.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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4
Chapter 3: The Ethics and Politics of Social Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which one of the following is false regarding the lessons of Babbie's discussion of politics?
A)Science is not untouched by politics.
B)Science does proceed in the midst of political controversy and hostility.
C)An awareness of ideological considerations enriches the study and practice of social research.
D)Researchers should not participate in public debates and should not express both their scientific expertise and personal values.
E)Political issues often appear in scientific research.
Answer: D
Q2) Serving as an expert witness:
A)is something all researchers should do.
B)carries more ethical implications than political implications.
C)carries more political implications than ethical implications.
D)is something that researchers should never do.
E)violates confidentiality and anonymity.
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Research Design
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Sample Questions
Q1) Several sports coaches are interested in studying the effect of a new training regimen on the performance of their respective teams.The unit of analysis is the sports teams.
A)True
B)False
Q2) When the relationship between the number of firefighters and the amount of fire damage disappears once we control for the size of the fire,we say that "size of fire" is a ___________ variable.
A)moderator
B)spurious
C)correlational
D)causative
E)valid
Q3) In recent years,the popularity of mixed models has A) decreased.
B) increased.
C) stayed the same.
D) fallen dramatically.
E) mixed models are no longer used.
Q4) Describe the steps involved in the research process.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Conceptualization, operationalization, and Measurement
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Sample Questions
Q1) An example of an established measure would be:
A)Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index.
B)fear of crime.
C)intelligence.
D)logic.
E)strength.
Q2) The definition of a phenomena that represents the objective,unquestionable "truth" of it,which is rarely used by sociologists is an example of a
A)nominal definition
B)operational definition
C)interval definition
D)observable definition
E)real definition.
Q3) Predictive validity is another term for criterion-related validity.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The level of measurement in a research study only impacts the theory being used
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Indexes, scales, and Typologies
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Sample Questions
Q1) The following items and scoring scheme were taken from the Minnesota Survey of Opinions.The four items were part of a series of items designed to assess attitudes toward education.In the index
SA=strongly agree,A=agree,U=undecided, D=disagree,and SD=strongly disagree
1)A MAN CAN LEARN MORE BY WORKING FOUR YEARS THAN BY GOING TO SCHOOL.
SA(5)A(4)U(3)D(2)SD(1)
2)THE MORE EDUCATION A MAN HAS,THE BETTER HE IS ABLE TO ENJOY LIFE.
SA(1)A(2)U(3)D(4)SD(5)
3)EDUCATION HELPS A PERSON TO USE HIS LEISURE TIME TO BETTER ADVANTAGE.
SA(1)A(2)U(3)D(4)SD(5)
4)EDUCATION IS OF NO HELP IN GETTING A JOB TODAY.
SA(5)A(4)U(3)D(2)SD(1)
These items illustrate a ____ question format:
A) Likert scale
B) Thurstone scale
C) Guttman scale
D) semantic differential scale
E) Bogardus social distance scale
Q2) Compare scales,indexes,and typologies.Give examples of each.
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Chapter 7: The Logic of Sampling
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Sample Questions
Q1) In terms of probability theory,the standard error is valuable because
A)it is an estimate of the parameter.
B)it is an estimate of the statistic.
C)it indicates the extent to which the sample estimates will be distributed around the population parameter.
D)it indicates the extent to which the sample estimates will be distributed around the population parameter and thereby gives us an estimate of the parameter.
E)it indicates the extent to which the sample estimates will be distributed around the population parameter and thereby gives us an estimate of the statistic.
Q2) Sampling error reflects
A)the degree of error to be expected for a given sample design.
B)the mistakes we make in picking our sample.
C)the probability of selecting each element.
D)the degree to which our interval is incorrect in systematic sampling.
E)the probability of error expected for future samples from the same population.
Q3) We typically sample with replacement.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Experiments
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Sample Questions
Q1) Subjects who leave an experiment before it is completed is an example of _______.
A)maturation
B)testing
C)history
D)statistical regression
E)mortality
Q2) "Natural" experiments refers to experiments which
A)contain no artificial ingredients.
B)occur naturally in the laboratory.
C)encourage people to act naturally.
D)occur naturally without the experimenter's intervention.
E)have no manipulated dependent variable
Q3) Subject "mortality" is usually a greater problem in experiments that have a long duration than in experiments that have a short duration.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The double-blind experiment attempts to guard against experimenter bias.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Survey Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is FALSE regarding push polls?
A)They have been condemned by the American Association for Public Opinion.
B)They are a source of useful political information
C)They feed potential voters false information.
D)They attempt to push voters from one candidate toward another.
E)They are a telemarketing technique.
Q2) The questionnaire item "Did you file federal and state income tax reports last year?" with a response set of yes,no,can't remember,other,is an example of a(n)
A)open-ended question.
B)ordinal question.
C)double-barreled question.
D)negative item.
E)ratio variable.
Q3) What are the positives and negatives of using the internet as a way to deliver surveys? What specific considerations need to be made for an online survey to be successful?
Q4) During interview surveys,demographic questions should be asked up front.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Qualitative Field Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) The following are all sampling strategies in field research except A)random sampling.
B)quota sampling.
C)snowball sampling.
D)purposive sampling.
E)These are all sampling strategies used in field research.
Q2) In his study of the behavior of psychiatric nurses,Lamilton is concerned with reactivity amongst the study population.Which of the following would likely NOT be a concern regarding reactivity?
A) the nurses might ignore his presence and not provide useful information to observe.
B) the nurses may act differently than they normally would due to his presence
C) the nurses may ask him to leave
D) the nurses may ask for transfer or reassignment to not be observed
E) the nurses may intentionally not converse amongst each other while at work.
Q3) One of the advantages of field research is that it raises very few ethical concerns.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Unobtrusive Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) The computer program Wordscores is especially effective for researchers studying:
A) latent content.
B) manifest content.
C) indirect content.
D) quantitative data.
E) survey research.
Q2) If you were interested in the difference between commercials during children's and adults' TV programs,your units of observation would be _________ and your units of analysis would be _________.
A)children's and adults' TV programs; commercials attached to those programs
B)commercials attached to the programs; children's and adults' TV programs
C)all commercials; all programs
D)all programs; all commercials
E)sports programming
Q3) Standard probability sampling techniques should NOT be used in content analysis.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Evaluation Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Although quasi-experimental designs do not randomly assign subjects to experimental and control groups,they do have control groups.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Frank is conducting a program evaluation of a new juvenile deterrence program for first time offenders.Early indicators delivered to the program coordinator,Captain Reynolds,are not good,and that the program is having a negative effect on offending.The Captain,upon hearing this,wants to prevent a negative evaluation and thus extremely limits Frank's access to data.This is a problem of:
A)defining population
B)administrative control
C)validity
D)reliability
E)measurement error
Q3) What is meant by social indicators research? Give an outline of an original study showing how this type of research would be used.
Q4) What makes formulating the problem especially difficult in evaluation research? What suggestions are offered for dealing with this issue?
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Chapter 13: Qualitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Fred was interested in examining conversations between lawyers and their clients to determine whether lawyers influenced their client's decision to plead guilty to a crime.As a methodologist,Fred seeks your help.Which of the following statements would be poor advice?
A)He must obtain excruciatingly accurate transcripts of the conversations.
B)The same utterance may have a totally different meaning in a different context.
C)There are established rules of behavior in conversations.
D)Conversations must be understood contextually.
E)He should ignore the "ers," "uhs," or bad grammar of the accused in the transcripts and focus on the meaning of the words.
Q2) The grounded theory method begins with A)hypotheses.
B)patterns.
C)observations.
D)theory.
E)literature review.
Q3) It is easy to look for and download Qualitative Data Analysis programs online.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Quantitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) The mean is a particularly useful statistic when there are extreme values in a distribution.
A)True
B)False
Q2) To determine how drastic the variation in civil service exam scores were for a state,what would most likely be used?
A) mode.
B) median.
C) standard error.
D) standard deviation.
E) frequency distribution.
Q3) The two basic approaches to the coding process are
A)well developed coding schemes developed ahead of time and using others' coding schemes.
B)using others' coding schemes and using computerized programs.
C)using computerized programs and generating codes from your data.
D)generating codes from your data and using well developed coding schemes developed ahead of time.
E)coding at face value
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Chapter 15: The Logic of Multivariate Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Caitlin studied the relationship between gender and adjustment to retirement.She controlled for type of job before retirement and set up tables relating gender to retirement adjustment for each of her three categories of job type before retirement.These tables are known as
A)test variables.
B)partial tables.
C)explanatory tables.
D)zero-order tables.
E)descriptive tables
Q2) Forrester found a strong positive relationship between participation in high school extracurricular activities and community involvement as adults.He controlled for gender and the relationship between high school extracurricular activities and community involvement was nonexistent for both men and women.Which type of elaboration analysis is this?
A)replication
B)explanation
C)interpretation
D)specification
E)extension
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Chapter 16: Statistical Analyses
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Sample Questions
Q1) The formulas for some measures of association can result in coefficients with either positive or negative signs.Under which of the following circumstances can those signs be meaningfully interpreted?
A)whenever the data are expressed as frequencies
B)when the data are measured at the nominal level
C)when the data are measured at the ordinal level
D)whenever the data have a modal category
E)whenever the data are expressed as percentages
Q2) Kaleesha has developed 50 items to measure social isolation among high school students.She constructed the items by first identifying what she thought were four dimensions of social isolation,and then developing items to reflect each dimension.She now wants to use a statistical technique that will determine which items "hang together" in terms of how respondents answered them,so that she can determine if her conceptually identified dimensions are supported empirically.It would be best to use
A)path analysis
B)time-series analysis.
C)path analysis.
D)factor analysis.
E)content analysis.
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Chapter 17: Reading and Writing Social Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is NOT usually a part of a final research article,paper,or book?
A)abstract
B)purpose and overview
C)review of the literature
D)analysis and interpretations
E)criticism of research by a colleague
Q2) The research report that is probably the most popular is
A)article.
B)research monograph.
C)research notes.
D)working paper.
E)professional paper.
Q3) According to Babbie,tables indicating results should be included in the body of the research paper.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Plagiarism may be intentional or accidental.
A)True
B)False
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