Trend studies: use sequential cross-sectional
surveys to determine how population
characteristics are changing.
 Is the rate of crime increasing in the
United States?
Cohort Studies: use the same cohort of
individuals over time.
 A cohort is a group of people who falls
within a defined time range.
 A cohort study can be developed where
a cohort is asked the same series of
questions periodically.
 Be sure that the members of the cohort
studied subsequently were people who
fit the original cohort definition.
Ex) The change in the level of happiness of
married couples
 We may establish cohorts of those
married in the 2000s, such as those
between the ages of 26 to 35.
 We want to see how their attitudes
changed over time.
 Survey them every ten years. During the
second survey, this group would be 36 to
45 years old.
Panel Studies: are used to identify changes
in the same set of people on two or more
occasions.
Ex) Framingham Heart Study: is now
recruiting its third generation of participants
 A large group of volunteers agreed to
report details about their lifestyle,
including such things as eating and
exercise habits.
 This info is tracked throughout their
lives and used to develop behavioral
profiles, which have been found to have
an effect on the health of a person’s
heart.
 Once begun, a panel study can only
include those individuals included in the
original panel.
 To continue the research beyond the life
of the original panel, as is being done
with the Framingham Study, researchers
must restart the research periodically
with new panels of participants
Cross-Sectional Surveys
 Collect data from a cross-section, or a
representative segment, of a population
at a point in time
 Take a snap shot of the topic
They are the types of surveys most
frequently used.
 Criminal Justice Research
 Consumer Behavior Research
 Voting Preference
 Political Surveys: With only two weeks
to go, the race for Sheriff is a statistical
dead heat.
 The complexity of the information
sought; Complex information should be
collected through interviews rather than
with a questionnaire.
 The sensitivity of the information
sought; Sensitive topics, such as mental
and physical health matters, sexuality
issues, or deviant behavior are best dealt
with by techniques that ensure the
respondent will be kept anonymous
 Anonymity is when the identity of a
respondent is not known by anyone
 Confidentiality is when the identity
of a respondent is known by the
researcher, but will not be made
known to anyone else under any
circumstances
 The literacy level of the study
population; If you are unsure of the
literacy levels of your population, you
should also consider using interviews
rather than questionnaires
 The time and cost of data collection;
Large groups can often complete a
lengthy questionnaire in 15 to 20
minutes. The cost of distributing
questionnaires
 The geographical area of the study
population; The least expensive way to
contact a dispersed study population is
by mailed questionnaires
7 Guidelines for Creating Effective Questions
and Questionnaires
1. Conciseness; Questions should be as
short as possible. Saving a few words on
every question can make the
questionnaire easier to read and
complete
2. Clarity, Questions should be clear.
Questions can almost always be edited to
make them clearer. This will make
questions easier to comprehend and
ensure that respondents interpret the
questions the same way
3. Jargon and Slang, avoid using jargon or
slang. The level of wording may
alienate, offend or frustrate respondents.
Jargon is the use of words that are
frequently familiar to a research and
those in the same field of study. Slang is
the use of words whose meanings may
be offensive to respondents
4. Double-barreled Questions, all questions
should inquire about one topic at a time.
A double-barreled question is two
questions in one
5. Sequencing Questions, simple and less
threatening questions should precede
complex and more threatening questions
6. Leading Questions, question wording
should not bias or lead the respondent’s
answer
7. Sensitive Questions should be asked in a Single 3 or more
Single
relatively non-threatening way sample sample
sample mean.
Response Rate proportion. means.
 Face-to-face interviews have fairly high
Two sample Two sample
response rates => About 80 percent or
proportions. means.
higher
 Mass-administered questionnaire Before and
surveys also have quite high response after, or
rate => sometimes as high as 95% paired.
 Mailed questionnaire surveys usually
have the lowest overall response rate => We use traditional experimental approach as
about 30% a device for comparison.
 To boost the rate of response,  Appropriate for hypothesis testing
researchers frequently try to provide  Strengths—Inference
incentives such as enclosing dollar bills  Weakness—generalizability
or lottery tickets.  Three criteria for the classical
Choosing a Measure of Central Tendency experiment
 Level of measurement  IV and DV
 Interval-ratio: mean, median, mode  Pre-Post testing
 Ordinal: median, mode  Experiment and control groups
 Nominal: mode Experimental and Control Groups
 Shape of the distribution, if you have  Control group = non-treatment group
interval-ratio data, but the distribution is  Experiment group = treatment group
very skewed, then the median is usually
a better choice than the mean.

Z-score t-test ANOVA

Double-Blind Experiments
 Control group = taking placebo
 Experimental group = taking a new drug
 Both researchers and subjects are
“blind”
 Third researcher knows which subjects
are in which group. Utilizing this
method eliminates the possibility of
knowing which is the experimental
group and which is the control.
Threats to the validity: Internal Validity,
Construct Validity, External Validity, and
Statistical Conclusion Validity
 The problem of internal validity can lead
to inaccurate conclusions about cause
and effect that may be biased due to
nonrandom or some systematic error.
 History: Historical events may occur
during the course of the experiment
that confound the experimental
results.
 Maturation: Participants are
continually growing and changing.
 Testing: Participants sense the
expected outcomes via the process of
testing
 Instrumentation: Changing testing
format can cause a problem of
reliability.
 Statistical Regression: outliers in a
group can cause inaccurate outcome.
 Construct validity is concerned with
generalization from our observations to
actual causal processes in the real world,
so the concept of construct validity is
closely related to issues in measurement.
 Since almost any measure of a
construct is incomplete, the threat to
construct validity always exists in
the research.
 There are three elements of
enhancing construct validity.
 The researcher needs to link
constructs and measures to
theory.
 The researcher needs to clearly
indicate what constructs are
represented by specific measure.
 The researcher needs to think
carefully about what levels of
treatment may be necessary to
produce some level of change in
the dependent measure.
 External validity also links to
generalization by checking whether
findings from experiments can apply to
any person, any time and any place.
 It is very difficult to ensure external
validity because we cannot be certain
the result of our findings will have
similar findings in a different group.
 Threats to statistical conclusion
validity can be an issue when findings
are based on small sample size. Since
experiments are often costly and time
consuming, many researchers use
relatively small numbers of participants.
When randomization is not possible, the
option would be a quasi-experiment.
 => the internal validity threats become a
significant issue
 The Non-Equivalent Groups Design
(hereafter NEGD) is probably the most
frequently used design in social research.
 The term comparison group is
commonly used, rather than control
group, to highlight the non-equivalence
of groups in quasi-experimental designs
Evaluation research is frequently used to
develop new programs and review the
effectiveness of existing programs.
 Clients who typically require this type of
work include:
 Federal, state, local government
 Private sector, occasionally when
involved with government
 Government agencies attempting to
solve social problems
Four steps for evaluation research:
 Problem Identification, development of a
Purpose and Needs Statement to
identifies any and all existing and future
conditions which inhibit or block the
attainment of stated Goals and
Objectives
 Program Planning-Impact Assessment,
Impact statements and reports must
present an Alternatives Analysis which
provides a detailed review of how
various development scenarios might be
expected to positively and negatively
affect a range of issues
 Program Implementation- Program
Monitoring, once a program has been
implemented, it must be continually
monitored to ensure it is operating as
designed, and to ensure goals and
objectives are being met and policies are
being carried out.
 Program Evaluation
Research Ethics
 Ethics are guidelines for moral conduct.
 Dilemmas are conflicts that exist
between ideals and societal values.
 Examples of scientific ideals and
societal values are evident in sensitive
subjects that are difficult to research:
 Corruption in people’s lives
 Sexual attitudes/responses
 Violence
There are 5 sensitive areas which must be
considered:
 Potential harm
 Lack of informed consent, Researchers
are required to receive the consent of
their participants after fully informing
them of the nature of the research and
how the individual will be participating
 Deception, the use of deception is a
common practice. It is difficult to rule
out in certain cases, but is to be avoided
if there is any chance of causing harm to
the participants
 Debriefing, Interviewing participants
after their involvement in research is
appropriate and ethical, and may further
benefit the research and the participant
 Invasion of privacy, Privacy rights must
be respected as a basic barrier in our
society.
Gunshot Detection System
The use of gunshot detection systems by
police departments increases police
effectiveness in handling gunshot calls
 Shotspotter allows for a better
description of gun violence issues
 Shotspotter effectively decreases police
response times and times to dispatch.
 Does not statistically improve case
outcomes (Action) at any level.
 One way in which they can improve
on this is through the combination of
CCTV and gunshot detection
systems.
 At the time of this study, Brockton was
also looking into placing individual
Shotspotter “dispatch” screens in police
cruisers.
 Possible to further reduce response
times and times to dispatch
Limitation
 Dispatch Log does not contain a running
history of each case
 Although unfounded (Action Type 1)
represents a less desired outcome in this
study, it does not entirely mean the
police were ineffective in responding to
the call.
Level of measurement
 Nominal data can be classified or put
into categories, but cannot be ranked.
 Ordinal is a basic ranking from high to
low.
 Interval data is numerical data without
absolute 0 as a starting point.
 Ratio data has an absolute 0 starting
point.
Ensuring the reliability and validity of
indicators
 Test-Retest Reliability
involves administering the same test to the
same group twice.
 Alternate Form Reliability Technique
Respondents are asked similar questions or
alternate forms of the question with the
expectation of receiving the same answer.
 Split-half Reliability
With this method, the scale or index is
divided in half and administered after
being fully administered. The results from
the two are compared. If there is a high
correlation between two, the measure is
considered reliable.
 Interrater Reliability
is the extent which two or more
individuals agree (coders vs. researcher).
This method emphasizes consistency of
the implementation of rating system
Ensuring the validity of indicators.
 Face Validity
This is a subjective assessment the
researcher makes in with the results appear
valid. Due to its inherent subjectivity, it
may or may not be valid.
 Convergent Validity or Criterion-related
validity
validity is achieved when different
approaches to the determination yield the
same answer. (Utilizing State Data +
Individual Research Data)
 Construct Validity
seeks agreement between a theoretical
concept and specific measuring device or
procedure.
# of going out at night => Fear of Crime
 Content Validity
refers to the degree to which a measure
covers the range of meanings included
within the concept.
How safe do you feel walking along in this
area after dark?
 Concurrent Validity
This is when a researcher compares the
test results with another known indicator.
High score on the vocational test =>
Good Mechanic
Sampling
the process of selecting units (e.g., people,
organizations) from a population of interest
so that by studying the sample we may fairly
generalize our results back to the population
from which they were chosen
 Nonprobability Sampling
refers to the group of sampling techniques
in which the probability of being selected
or sampled is unknown. More convenient
to use, less expensive, and easier to
collect. The accuracy of results is not
known, so the reliability and therefore, the
validity of the research can’t be asserted.
o Judgmental sampling
a researcher makes an informed guess
about a representative sample.
the media on election night
o Convenience Sampling
a researcher takes samples from an
accessible, unrepresentative large
group. May be useful for pre-testing
questionnaires prior to administering
them, but the results are seldom
representative of the entire population.
Using a large class of students or
conducting interviews at a shopping
center.
o Quota sampling:
a researcher will begin by setting up a
matrix of important groups to be
sampled. The proportion of samples for
each group = the proportion each group
of the total population.
how middle-school children feel about
their school
o Purposive Sampling (or Theoretical
Sampling)
a researcher purposely picks extreme
cases to illustrate contrasting types or
features to make a point.
what makes the best inner-city schools?
o Snowball Sampling
starts from a single participant or small
number of participants by asking them
to identify others like him or her who
might be willing to participate in a
study
qualitative research for gang
membership
 Probability Sampling
provides researchers with a variety of
sampling techniques which can be used to
develop generalizations. With probability
sampling, the potential for any member of
the population to be sampled is equal to
that of all others.
o Simple Random Sampling
all members of the target population
have an equal probability of being
selected. All of population members are
 numbered from 1 to N. Random
numbers are used to select those who
will be sampled.
o Systematic sampling
the researcher selects every Kth case
after selecting the first case randomly.
o Stratified Sampling:
it may be useful to divide the
population into strata or subgroups, and
then sample within each group. The
purpose of using the function of
stratification is to organize the
population into homogeneous subsets
o Proportionate Stratified Sampling
is a refinement of stratified sampling,
that the researcher decides to keep the
sample sizes in proportion to the size of
each strata or subgroup?
o Cluster Sampling
we use multistage samples, where the
population is divided into primary and
subsets. we want to determine
residents’ opinions about their school
system in a large city. Cluster sampling
can be used to achieve a representative
sample without knowing names or
residential addresses.
Memo
When an insight does occur during coding or
examining field notes or day’s observation, it
is essential to get it down in writing. Memos
are small pieces of data analysis that capture
emergent ideas.
Triangulation
We use more than one method to find the
same answers or research the same
conclusions
The five crucial components in field
research
 Population and Sampling Design
 Data Analysis and Role of Memos
 Data Quality: Validity and Reliability
 Access
 Human Subject Protection Issues
IRBs (Institutional Review Boards)
 Board members make judgments about the
overall risks to human subjects and
whether these risks are acceptable, given
the expected benefits from actually doing
the research.
 They determine whether the procedures to
be used include adequate safeguards
regarding the safety, confidentiality, and
general welfare of human subjects.
Sample Population
 If population is homogeneous => 6 to 8
cases
 If population is heterogeneous => 12 to 20
cases.