Exam 8: Unobtrusive Measures, Secondary Analysis, and the Uses of Official Statistics

_________________ collect felony arrest records from participating states and details such cases from booking to final disposition.

Which of the following was not discussed as a type of unobtrusive method?

Humphreys' Tearoom Trade study involved:

There is not general agreement among criminologists that disguised observation is unethical.

What are the general advantages/disadvantages of unobtrusive measures as data gathering strategies?

Confederates are informants who are unaware of treatment.

Discuss and give some examples of the major types of unobtrusive methods.

In contrast to primary sources, secondary sources are:

"Post hoc error" refers to the false assumption that, since one variable or outcome follows another in time, it is the cause of that outcome.

Simulation involves games or research strategies which mimic reality.

Confederates can be used in unobtrusive measurement to speed up the action.

There is general agreement among criminologists that dis guised observation is unethical.

Mechanical aids should generally be avoided in unobtrusive measurement.

_________________ are persons who pretend to be subjects, but are really in on an experiment in order to "speed up the action."

Discuss the usefulness of simulations as data gathering strategies in criminal justice research.

Some critics view disguised observation as privacy invasion. Do you agree/disagree with this view? Explain

_________________ is the systematic classification and study of the content of mass media.

Since most data gathered by agencies for official purposes are, for the most part, "fudged" they are not very useful for research purposes.

_________________ refers to quantitative analysis which reviews, combines, and summarizes the results of many different studies dealing with the same research question.

Data archives contain primary sources or raw data which are available to researchers for reanalysis.