Deck 10: Section 2: Agency Records, Content Analysis, and Secondary Data

Question 1

Most government organizations routinely collect and publish compilations of data, which are generally referred to as unpublished statistics. Examples are the Census Bureau, the FBI, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, the Federal Bureau of Prisons routinely collect data and these are called published statistics.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

A great deal of criminal justice research uses data collected by state and local agencies such as police, criminal courts, probation offices, juvenile authorities, and corrections departments. Government agencies gather a vast amount of crime and criminal justice data, probably rivaled only by efforts to produce economic and public health indicators. Such information as "data from agency records."

Answer 2

True
Explanation:
This is true because data collected by various state and local agencies such as police, criminal courts, probation offices, juvenile authorities, and corrections departments is called "data from agency records."

Question 3

The reliability and validity of agency records, as well as the general suitability of those data for a research project, is primarily dependent upon understanding _____. Understanding how the data were originally collected helps researchers identify potential new uses of data and be better able to detect potential problems with reliability and validity.

A) the details of how many records are produced annually
B) the details of how many agency records are produced monthly
C) the details of how agency records are produced
D) the details of how agency records are analyzed

Answer 3

C
Explanation:
A. This is an incorrect answer because the reliability and validity problems of agency records, as well as the general suitability of any data for a research project, is primarily dependent upon understanding the methods used to collect data. If the researcher does not know or does not understand how the data were originally collected, it can create a great deal of reliability and validity issues.
B. This is an incorrect answer because the reliability and validity problems of agency records, as well as the general suitability of any data for a research project, is primarily dependent upon understanding the methods used to collect data. If the researcher does not know or does not understand how the data were originally collected, it can create a great deal of reliability and validity issues.
C. The correct answer is "C" because the reliability and validity problems of agency records, as well as the general suitability of any data for a research project, is primarily dependent upon understanding the methods used to collect data. If the researcher does not know or does not understand how the data were originally collected, it can create a great deal of reliability and validity issues.
D. This is an incorrect answer because the reliability and validity problems of agency records, as well as the general suitability of any data for a research project, is primarily dependent upon understanding the methods used to collect data. If the researcher does not know or does not understand how the data were originally collected, it can create a great deal of reliability and validity issues.

Question 4

Agency records are seldom used in applied studies. Evaluations of new policies that seek to reduce recidivism might not draw on arrest or conviction data for measures of recidivism.

Question 5

Record keeping in criminal justice is a _____. Indicators of all variables such as arrests, juvenile probation violations, court convictions, or rule infractions by prison inmates reflect decisions made by criminal justice officials in addition to the actual
Behavior of juvenile or adult offenders.

A) social process
B) organizational process
C) individual process
D) psychosocial process

Question 6

Before beginning to code newspapers, crime dramas on television, or detective fiction, the researcher needs to make plans to assess the reliability of coding. Inter-rater reliability can be determined by having _____ code the same message and then computing the proportion of items coded the same.

A) three different people
B) two different people
C) one person
D) four different people

Question 7

Data from agency records or archives may have originally been gathered in any number of ways, from sample surveys to direct observation. Because of this, such data may, in principle, be appropriate for just about _____ research.

A) any type of criminal justice
B) only qualitative criminal justice
C) only quantitative criminal justice
D) only survey

Question 8

Data from agency records or archives may have originally been gathered in any number of ways, from sample surveys to direct observation. Because of this, such data may, in principle, be inappropriate for just about any criminal justice research topic.

Question 9

Agency records are commonly used in descriptive or exploratory studies. This is consistent with the fact that many of the criminal justice data published by government agencies are intended to describe something.

Question 10

Coding the manifest content-the visible, surface content-of a communication more closely approximates the _____ in a survey questionnaire. Alternatively, coding the latent content of the communication-its underlying meaning-is an option. In the most general sense, manifest and latent content can be distinguished by the degree of interpretation required in measurement.

A) use of closed-ended items
B) use of open-ended items
C) use of both open and closed-ended items
D) use of instrument items

Question 11

Investigators who conduct research funded by federal agencies such as the National Institute of Justice are usually obliged to release their data for public use. Thus, if a researcher uses and analyzes data previously collected by others or government agencies usually for purposes that differ from the current researcher's, then that is called _____.

A) Primary data analysis
B) secondary data analysis
C) new data analysis
D) original data analysis

Question 12

In content analysis, researchers examine a class of social artifacts-written documents or other types of messages. Suppose you want to contrast the importance of criminal justice policy and health care policy for Americans in 2004 and 2014. One option is to examine public-opinion polls from these years. Another method is to analyze articles from newspapers published in each year. The latter is an example of content analysis: the _____.

A) analysis of documents
B) analysis of newspapers
C) analysis of articles
D) analysis of communications

Question 13

No coding scheme should be used in content analysis unless it has been carefully pretested. The researcher must decide what manifest or latent contents of communications will be regarded as indicators of the different attributes that make up research variables, develop and define these _____, and use them in the actual coding of several units of observation.

A) operational definitions
B) actual definitions
C) tested definitions
D) proposed definitions

Question 14

Content analysis is essentially a coding operation. Coding represents the _____ in content analysis. Communications-oral, written, or other-are coded or classified according to some conceptual framework.

A) designing process
B) measurement process
C) development process
D) analytical process

Question 15

Throughout the process of conceptualizing manifest- and latent-content coding procedures, the operational definition of any variable is composed of the attributes included in it. Such attributes, moreover, should be _____.

A) easily defined and understood
B) analytical and relevant
C) clear and concise
D) mutually exclusive and exhaustive

Question 16

Research data collected by other investigators, through surveys or field observation, may be used for a broad variety of later studies and may also be considered as a _____ of data.

A) primary source
B) supplemental source
C) new source
D) existing source

Question 17

Coding in content analysis involves the logic of _____. In content analysis, as in other research methods, researchers must refine their conceptual framework and develop specific methods for observing in relation to that framework.

A) reliability and validity.
B) sample and population representativeness.
C) conceptualization and operationalization
D) methodological and analytical process.

Question 18

Agency data are not collected with the research process, research questions, or the researcher in mind. In many cases, criminal justice officials collect data because the law requires them to do so. Recordkeeping procedures reflect _____. As a consequence, researchers sometimes find it difficult to adapt agency records for a specific research purpose.

A) personal needs and directives from the researcher
B) departmental needs and directives from the participants
C) state and federal needs and directives from the federal government
D) internal needs and directives from higher authorities

Question 19

In addition to be used for exploratory and explanatory studies, agency records are frequently used in _____ as well. Evaluations of new policies that seek to reduce recidivism might draw on arrest or conviction data for measures of recidivism.

A) qualitative studies
B) ethnographic studies
C) applied studies
D) anthropology studies