Deck 10: Section 1: Agency Records, Content Analysis, and Secondary Data

Question 1

In Widom's research purpose on the relationship between early child abuse and later delinquency or adult criminal behavior was ___________:

A) valid and reliable
B) critical and valid
C) explanatory
D) exploratory

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Data collected by other researchers may be used to address new research questions.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Data and records produced by formal organizations may be the most common source of data in criminal justice research.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Agency records, secondary data and content analysis do not require direct interaction with research subjects.

Question 5

Most government organizations routinely collect and publish compilations of data, which we refer to collectively as:

A) statistical and or graphic data
B) electronic data
C) published statistics
D) crime rates

Question 6

Which method is conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census Bureau under contract from the Bureau of Justice Statistics?

A) Court records of Children in Custody
B) Self Report Survey data
C) Survey of Inmates in Local Jails
D) Survey of all Criminal Justice Professors

Question 7

Which statement is false with regard to the use of published data in aggregate forms?

A) Published data is never used in criminal justice research because it is not readily available.
B) Published data is appropriate for measuring highly aggregated patterns or trends such as drug use over time.
C) Published data can be used for the covariation in two estimates of crime.
D) Published data are easy to obtain.

Question 8

Content analysis is a research method appropriate for studying human communications.

Question 9

The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics is the most comprehensive Bureau of Justice Statistics publication. It includes a multitude of data including all of the following except _____.

A) characteristics of criminal justice agencies
B) public opinion answers coming from the Gallup Poll
C) complete crime data from all local police departments
D) specific data on states using capital punishment and their execution statistics

Question 10

Social artifacts such as written documents or articles from newspapers illustrate which method?

A) content analysis
B) secondary analysis
C) case studies
D) surveys

Question 11

The advantages and disadvantages of using secondary data are not the same as agency records.

Question 12

Nonpublic agency records are often made available to which group?

A) any citizen who expresses written interest
B) criminal justice researchers
C) nonpublic agency records are not generally made available to anyone
D) none of these answers are correct

Question 13

When using agency records in their research, researchers keep in mind two general maxims: ____.

A) "Follow the paper trail" and "expect the expected"
B) "Follow the paper trail" but "expect the unexpected"
C) "Follow the rules" and "expect the expected"
D) "Follow the trail" and "expect the paper"

Question 14

Data collected by or for public agencies is readily available and researchers have tight control over the actual data collection process.

Question 15

Secondary analysis can be cheaper and faster than collecting original data.

Question 16

Units of communication, such as words, paragraphs, and books, are not the units of analysis in content analysis.

Question 17

Which of the following is not an example of nonpublic agency records?

A) the FBI's publication of the Uniform Crime Reports
B) information from a local police department concerning the number of crimes that happened within the past month
C) a prison's collection of files dealing with inmates currently in their custody
D) a county courthouse's records on defendants tried within the last six months

Question 18

Understanding the details of how agency records are produced is the best guard against reliability and validity problems.

Question 19

Topics that lend themselves to the use of content analysis tend to focus upon the links between communication and ____.

A) criminal justice policy
B) police behavior
C) perceptions of valid research
D) writing skills

Question 20

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

A) explanatory
B) descriptive
C) experimental
D) qualitative

Question 21

The publication produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that includes information about hundreds of justice agency data sets, characteristics of criminal justice agencies, and perceptions of crime is called ____.

A) the Uniform Crime Reports
B) the National Crime Victimization Survey
C) the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
D) Gallup Poll

Question 22

Which statement is false with regard to agencies collecting original research data?

A) cooperation to add research questions is likely to be successful if you are asking for a major additional effort on the part of the agency staff
B) the cooperation of the staff and their organizations are directly proportional to the intrusiveness of the data collection
C) if the research project is likely to save the agency money or improve staff performance the chances of enlisting assistance is greater
D) Researchers have less control over the data collection process when they rely on agency staff

Question 23

Published statistics and agency records are often used in _____.

A) survey research
B) descriptive studies
C) experimental studies
D) qualitative research

Question 24

Which statement is true about longitudinal research?

A) Data are useless
B) the changes in the operational definitions the agencies use to specify key terms does not change overtime
C) the procedures the agency uses to collect the data will remain the same over time
D) as the time interval under investigation increases, so does the potential for change in measurement.

Question 25

Which of the following would be an accurate statement concerning the use of content analysis?

A) content analysis involves only a systematic study of messages
B) content analysis involves a systematic study of messages and the meaning that those messages have for citizens
C) content analysis involves only the meaning of speeches given concerning criminal justice issues
D) content analysis methods can only be used with agency reports to determine what they contain

Question 26

Which of the following is not an advantage of using secondary data?

A) reduction in validity threats
B) it is cheaper than collecting original data
C) it is faster than collecting original data
D) the researcher may benefit from the work of others established in their fields

Question 27

Which statement is false with regard to validity and reliability of agency records?

A) the shorter the time intervals under study the greater the concern about procedure changes
B) longitudinal researchers must be concerned about changes in operational definitions over time
C) longitudinal researchers must be concerned about changes in procedures over time
D) the longer the time interval under study the greater the concern about procedure changes

Question 28

Information that is collected by other people often as a part of their day-to-day work in a justice agency, but used by someone else for research purposes is referred to as _______________ of existing data.

Question 29

Which fact is important to remember when using agency records?

A) to ask permission before you study any agency data
B) to examine the data through some form of content analysis
C) the financial considerations of obtaining complete agency records are typically substantial
D) the discretionary actions by criminal justice officials and others affect the production of virtually all agency records

Question 30

FBI statistics and annual reports from the Federal Bureau of Prisons are examples of _____.

A) nonpublic agency records
B) new data collected by agency staff
C) published statistics
D) content analysis

Question 31

Individual agencies maintain silo databases. Silo databases refer to __________________________________________.

A) stacks of data that are isolated from each other
B) record-keeping procedures
C) agency-produced data
D) computerized criminal history

Question 32

Which behavior would have the least impact on the validity and reliability of a study using agency records?

A) discretion of prosecutors in who to charge and what counts to add
B) decisions that are made by police officers to arrest versus give a warning
C) recognition on the part of the researcher that criminal justice data is a composite of criminal behavior, ability to detect that behavior and decisions about system response to that behavior
D) decisions made by probation officers to revoke on new crimes and not technical violations

Question 33

Which of the following would be an appropriate target of content analysis?

A) speeches
B) NCVS data
C) crime rates
D) Uniform Crime Records

Question 34

Which of the following situations would not have an impact upon error in agency records?

A) computers have the capacity to magnify clerical error
B) a single crime could be recorded by two agencies, thus making that event over-represented
C) having very little data to input
D) even rare events can be recorded improperly

Question 35

The visible, objective context of a communication is known as ____.

A) latent content
B) manifest content
C) concept
D) validity

Question 36

It may be possible to use an) _______________ source of data in which criminal justice agency staff collect information for specific research purposes that they typically would not have collected.

Question 37

Which of the following would be an example of content analysis in criminal justice research?

A) counting the stories devoted to the coverage of crime in your local newspaper
B) counting the number of robberies that happen in your city
C) measuring the average length of time from arrest to disposition in your city
D) determining the average number of inmates housed in your city's jail on a daily basis

Question 38

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

A) content analysis
B) secondary data
C) new data collected by agency staff
D) nonpublic agency records

Question 39

Content analysis is well-suited for which of the following situations?

A) to determine unemployment rates
B) to find out public relations with police
C) to answer the classic questions of communications research
D) court records

Question 40

It is often said that agency data are not designed for research purposes. Which of the following support that statement?

A) some criminal justice agencies collect data because they want to help researchers
B) often the data collected by criminal justice agencies is for their research use
C) agency records can be easily adapted to research purposes
D) data they do collect often reflect discretionary decisions by numerous individuals.

Question 41

The potential for ________________ increases as the number of clerical entries increases.

Question 42

Identify three different types of agencies where records would be important in the criminal justice system. Discuss the types of published statistics each agency would produce. What are the specific reliability and validity problems with each?

Question 43

In content analysis, the visible, surface content known as _______________.

Question 44

Suggest a content analysis project that could be completed by the class. Discuss the units of analysis and the sampling for this project. Further, discuss the coding that you would use if you were required to complete this project.

Question 45

Manifest and latent content can be distinguished by the degree of _______________ required in measurement.

Question 46

Using agency records published statistics, nonpublic agency records and new data collected by agency staff); content analysis and secondary analysis give an example of an applied research project that would use each of the identified methods.

Question 47

When using agency records as a data source, the researcher must always keep changes in operational definitions and changes in _______________ in mind because of their potential impact upon validity and reliability.

Question 48

Content analysis is really an) __________ operation that represents the measurement process.

Question 49

Identify and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data giving at least one example of each.

Question 50

The main disadvantage of using secondary data concerns how variables were initially operationalized and whether the secondary data provide _______________ measures of the variables you want to analyze.

Question 51

In content analysis, the underlying meaning of a communication is referred to as ________________.

Question 52

Generally speaking, secondary data are least useful when the purpose of research is ______________.