Exam 7: Section 2: Survey Research

In order to obtain an elaboration of a response that may be as terse as "Pretty bad" the interviewer may have to use some probes to get an elaboration on what the respondent really means by "Pretty bad". Sometimes, the best probe is _____, for example, if the interviewer sits quietly with pencil poised, the respondent will probably fill the pause with additional comments.

General Social Survey is an ongoing survey of social indicators in the United States. Questions about fear of crime and other perceptions of crime problems are regularly included. Since the 1970s, a growing number of explanatory studies have been conducted on public perceptions of crime and crime problems. Victim surveys that target individual cities or neighborhoods are important tools for evaluating policy innovations are called _____.

In social science there are no ultimately true meanings for any of the concepts that social scientists typically study. So, the meaning of a given response to a question depends in large part on the wording of the question. That is true of every question and answer. Sometimes the manner in which a question is asked, it seems to encourage particular response. Such questions are called _____.

In asking questions, researchers have two basic options - the Open-ended questions and Closed-ended questions. Each of these can accommodate certain variations. Let us say the respondent is asked, "What do you feel is the most important crime problem facing the police in your city today?" and be provided with a space to write in the answer or be asked to report it orally to an interviewer). This is an example of _____.

Even though questionnaire suggests that it will be a collection of questions, typically a questionnaire has as many statements as questions. This is because researchers often are interested in determining the extent to which respondents hold a particular attitude or perspective. Researchers try to summarize the attitude in a fairly brief statement; then they present that statement and ask respondents whether they agree or disagree with it. Using both statements as questions in a questionnaire adds _____ of items.

The most common data collection method in social science is asking people questions. This is called survey research. This is one of the research methods used in basic and applied criminal justice research. Surveys are used for descriptive, _____, and applied research.

Focus groups are _____ used to develop or elaborate understanding of complex topics. Focus groups are most useful when precise generalization to a larger population is not necessary and the focus groups participants and the larger population are relatively homogeneous.

Surveys in criminal justice are commonly used to learn how people feel about crime and criminal justice policy. Public views about sentencing policies, gun control, police performance, and drug abuse are often solicited in opinion polls.

Survey research is, of necessity, based on an unrealistic stimulus-response theory of cognition and behavior. It is based on the assumption that a questionnaire item will mean the same thing to every respondent, and every given response must mean the same thing when given by different respondents. Although this is an impossible goal, survey questions are drafted to approximate the ideal as closely as possible. The interviewer assists to accomplish this goal by being a _____through which questions and answers are transmitted.

Victim surveys that target individual cities or neighborhoods are important tools for evaluating policy innovations are called Targeted Victim Surveys.

Whenever more than one interviewer will administer a survey, it is essential that the efforts be carefully coordinated and controlled. Two ways to ensure this control are by 1) training interviewers, and 2) supervising them after they begin work. Even though the interviewers may be involved only in the data collection phase of the project, they should understand _____ they gather and what purpose will be served.

Telephone surveys are fast and have many advantages that make them a popular method. The greatest advantages involve _____.

Self-Report surveys are used to ask people about crimes they may have committed seeks to explore or explain why people commit criminal, delinquent, or deviant acts.

One of the research methods used in basic and applied criminal justice research is survey research. Surveys may be used for descriptive, explanatory, exploratory, but never for applied research.

Sometimes researchers ask respondents for a single answer to a combination question. A researcher asks respondents to agree or disagree with the statement "The Department of Corrections should stop releasing inmates for weekend furloughs and concentrate on rehabilitating criminals." This is an example of _____.

They are best suited for studies that have individual people as the units of analysis. When they are used for other units of analysis such as households or organizations one or more individual people act as respondent or informant.

The National Crime Victimization Survey NCVS) cannot be used to evaluate local crime prevention programs. This is because the NCVS is designed to represent the national population of persons who live in households. The NCVS is _____ and it is not possible to identify the specific location of victimizations from the NCVS data

When certain questions are relevant to only some of the respondents and irrelevant to others, the researcher may choose to questions to screen and determine to whom the question is relevant and then ask a series of questions to investigate the attitudes of those to whom the question is actually relevant. These questions are called _____ because they are asked and answered contingent on the response to the first question in the series.

The most important feature of survey research is how questions are asked. If research concepts are operationalized correctly in the research a questionnaire, then the information collected will be the most useful. Otherwise it can result in collecting _____ information.