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Issue in research design
Steps in research
Idea Review of the literature
Use of journal articles
Using the internet
Data bases: psychinfo, proquest (scholarly journals), NCJRS, Lexus-Nexis
Steps
Re-evaluation of the original idea Conceptualization, specification of terms
Gun control
Recidivism
Violence in prisons
Operationalization—how will concepts be measured? Examples
Steps
Population and sample Research method(s) Experiments, surveys, observation,
record analysis, evaluation Data processing Statistical analysis, descriptive and
inferential
Steps
Discussion, theoretical and practical applications
APA style
Research proposals & grants
Granting agencies i.e., MO Department of Public Safety,
National Institute of Justice (NIJ), National Institute of Corrections (NIC), Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
Open grants Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
Components of a proposal
Abstract or Executive Summary Introduction: problem, literature review Method: subjects section, instruments
section, procedure (data collection) Schedule Budget Bibliography and appendices
Research article
Abstract, Introduction, Method section with 3 possible subsections (subjects, instruments, procedure), Results, Discussion, Bibliography, Appendices
Research article in the past tense, includes results and discussion
Proposal in the future tense, no results and discussion, but has schedule & budget
Conceptualization
Specify what is meant by a particular term
Dimension: specifiable aspect of a concept
Liberal vs. conservative What are some aspects of this concept? Gun control
Operational definition
How a concept will be measured Prison violence—how will we “count” it? Incidents Perceptions Morale in an agency Citizen satisfaction/dissatisfaction of
police Trait of aggression
Characteristics of measurement
1. Levels of measurement Nominal Ordinal Interval/ratio Must be constructed Statistical analyses dependent on level
of measument
Characteristics of measurement
2. Reliability: test-retest, inter-rater reliability, split-half
3. Validity: face, content, criterion-related, construct
Convergent and discriminant validity
Some forms of measurement
Scales and indices Use of multiple questions, added
together to create measurement MMPI—your responses compared to
that of known psychiatric groups. Responses for a particular scale are added together
Forms of measurement
Typologies Criminal behavior systems.
Measuring crime
UCR Victimization surveys, NCVS, National
Crime Victimization Survey Self-report
UCR
Major problems Unreported crime—misinterpretation of
crime rates Dark Figure Citizens do not report, and sometimes
police do not (can be political, use of discretion)
Hierarchy rule
Incident based measures
Supplementary homicide reports (SHR) Collects information about victims,
offenders age gender and race, relationship between victim & offender, weapon, location, circumstances
National incident-based reporting system (NIBRS): broader in terms of offenses, information about offenders and victims
NIBRS
Also includes victimless crimes, attempted and completed, drug related offenses, computer crimes
Requires more time, police may selectively report
Voluntary
NCVS
Conducted by Census Bureau since 1972
Interview survey technique, face-face Tends to miss business crimes,
victimless crimes, status offenses Does not include murder Recall errors-can’t remember,
telescoping, acquaintance crimes
Other surveys
Community surveys Monitoring the future: annual surveys of
high school seniors Self report studies Use in combination with arrests as a
measure of criminal behavior
Other CJ records
Arrests Convictions Recidivism All are affect by discretion and by
changes in policies Juvenile statistics are particularly
vulnerable to these problems