Transcript Slide 1
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, LexusNexis
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, criterionrelated, 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