JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 KNOWLEDGE/POWER DYNAMIC

For our first discussion you will need to analyze the following question: How does the knowledge/power dynamic relate to crime and justice research?

A significant part of a discussion approach is the interaction between you and your fellow classmates as you explore, discuss and try to come to terms with new concepts and how they relate to our study of criminal justice research methods. So the requirements for your discussion are as follows”

DISCUSSION REQUIREMENTS:

You are expected to log in and participate in the discussion activities at least every other day, which is necessary if you are to meaningfully interact on discussion issues presented in class. This “every other day” requirement may be appropriately interpreted as 3 days per week.

You are expected to “fully participate” in the discussion. This means that, in addition to posting a response to the topics presented, you are expected to respond to comments from your fellow students, and questions from me.

DQ2 KNOWLEDGE/POWER DYNAMIC IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESEARCH

Access the library and use the Research Help link. Find EBSCOHost and watch the video tutorial on conducting a Basic Search in the EBSCOHost database. Use the knowledge you’ve gained from watching this video and conduct a search for articles from scholarly journals using this topic. Share with your peers some of the key words/search terms you used to access these articles. Which terms were most helpful and enabled you to find articles that discussed the knowledge/power dynamic in criminal justice research?

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 2 Discussion

DQ1 QUANTITATIVE VERSUS QUALITATIVE

What are the main differences in designing quantitative versus qualitative research?

DISCUSSION REQUIREMENTS:

You are expected to log in and participate in the discussion activities at least every other day, which is necessary if you are to meaningfully interact on discussion issues presented in class. This “every other day” requirement may be appropriately interpreted as 3 days per week.

You are expected to “fully participate” in the discussion. This means that, in addition to posting a response to the topics presented, you are expected to respond to comments from your fellow students, and questions from me.

DQ2 JUSTIFICATION OF METHODS

Review the Blood Spatter Analysis (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. video and the table with the analysis details from the Assignments page this week.

When investigating a crime scene, what types of quantitative data would you want to identify, and what type of qualitative data would be helpful in solving a crime? Share your analysis with your peers and critique their analysis.

DISCUSSION REQUIREMENTS:

You are expected to log in and participate in the discussion activities at least every other day, which is necessary if you are to meaningfully interact on discussion issues presented in class. This “every other day” requirement may be appropriately interpreted as 3 days per week.

You are expected to “fully participate” in the discussion. This means that, in addition to posting a response to the topics presented, you are expected to respond to comments from your fellow students, and questions from me.

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 3 Discussion

DQ1 SAMPLING TECHNIQUES—HIDDEN POPULATIONS

Do you have access to any hidden population that is involved in some sort of deviant or criminal activity? If not, provide a hypothetical hidden population that you would be interested in researching. Explain why you would want to do research on this particular population, and what you would want to try and learn from that research.

DISCUSSION REQUIREMENTS:

You are expected to log in and participate in the discussion activities at least every other day, which is necessary if you are to meaningfully interact on discussion issues presented in class. This “every other day” requirement may be appropriately interpreted as 3 days per week.

You are expected to “fully participate” in the discussion. This means that, in addition to posting a response to the topics presented, you are expected to respond to comments from your fellow students, and questions from me.

DQ2 SAMPLING TECHNIQUES—TECHNIQUES

Think about the hidden population you’ve identified. Choose one of the following research methodologies and describe for your peers how you would set up a means to study this group. (Cluster sampling; quantitative; qualitative; mixed methods; stratified sampling; systematic sampling.) Discuss why you believe this methodology would work well in studying your hidden population.

DISCUSSION REQUIREMENTS:

You are expected to log in and participate in the discussion activities at least every other day, which is necessary if you are to meaningfully interact on discussion issues presented in class. This “every other day” requirement may be appropriately interpreted as 3 days per week.

You are expected to “fully participate” in the discussion. This means that, in addition to posting a response to the topics presented, you are expected to respond to comments from your fellow students, and questions from me.

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 4 Discussion

DQ1 Deciding How to Research

You are the Shift Lt. in charge of a DUI task force for your small department. This is a very specialized and expensive component of your department’s efforts to reduce driving under the influence of either drugs or alcohol, and you have been told to research the success of your task force for the past 6 months and to present these findings to the Chief and Deputy Chief at the next Command Briefing scheduled for this coming Friday. Your task force consists of 12 mobile units, each with an officer having specialized training, two K9 units, and the 6-month span from June 1 through 12/31 of this past year. To research this, you will have to resort to sorting through the tickets written during that time frame for details and you can use daily/weekly/monthly staff reports for overall statistics.

You must post at least three times each week. Explain your experiment by day 3 (your main posting) of this class week. Then on day 4, you will go to any fellow class student and critique their experiment on the grounds of internal and external validity, while suggesting ways to improve the design and validity of their experiment. Last, your third posting (you are welcome to post more) will be in response to the critique made of your initial posting by the classmate who is immediately before you in the alphabet.

DQ2 Real-World Complications

Given the sample in topic 1, what real-world complications could you see in being able to perform the DUI research listed above, and as that Shift Lieutenant, what systems or procedures would you implement to ensure your follow-up report was more accurately and meaningfully created? To validate your conclusion about real-world complications, you might want to do a quick library search to locate studies done concerning DUI research. What complications did those researchers discuss?

DISCUSSION REQUIREMENTS:

You are expected to log in and participate in the discussion activities at least every other day, which is necessary if you are to meaningfully interact on discussion issues presented in class. This “every other day” requirement may be appropriately interpreted as 3 days per week.

You are expected to “fully participate” in the discussion. This means that, in addition to posting a response to the topics presented, you are expected to respond to comments from your fellow students, and questions from me.

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 5 Discussion

DQ1 MEDIA USE OF STATISTICS

Look for, or brainstorm for a few examples of the use of statistics by the media. For example, advertising on the Internet and in newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. These statistics should all relate to some aspect of criminal justice. How many examples showing the use of the statistics by the media can you find? Provide at least three examples and summarize them. Your examples should be specific and detailed. If your example comes from a newspaper or magazine article, provide the source.

DQ2 MEDIA DISTORTION

Are statistics likely to confuse people or distort information? Provide at least two specific examples where the media used statistics where you believe that the information was confusing and distorted. What information do think should have been provided? If your example comes from a newspaper or magazine article, provide the source.

 

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 6 Discussion

DQ1 ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD RESEARCH

Come up with what you believe to be an interesting crime and justice ethnography based on whatever field of criminal justice that most interests you. You can use an idea that takes advantage of your existing contacts or one that would require you to make new contacts. Identify two or three issues that you believe would be interesting to study given this ethnography.

How would you gain entry into the field site?

Be sure to comment on two of your classmates posts and their ethnographic approach.

DQ2 ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD RESEARCH DIFFICULTIES

What difficulties might you encounter in gaining the trust and cooperation of your research subjects? What effect(s) would that possibly have on your research?

Be sure to comment on what two of your classmates identify as possible difficulties to their research, and provide feedback.

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 7 Discussion

DQ1 RESEARCH TRENDS—SIGNIFICANCE

Think of crime and justice research trends that have been covered in your textbook or use a real-life example you can think of. Examples can include mixed methods research, international crime research, and human rights issues and research.

Discuss the following: Which trend in crime and justice research do you think is the most significant to the field of crime and justice? Why?

DQ2 WHAT DOES YOUR RESEARCH TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR TOPIC OF INTEREST?

Based on what you have identified as an area of interest in response to question number 1, search any library database and find an article in a peer-reviewed journal that addresses your topic. Summarize the article and tell your peers why you believe this is a critical issue in criminal justice.

 

 

 

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 2 WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

Paper #1 Due – Blood Spatter Analysis

Review the Blood Spatter Analysis (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. tutorial and see the table below:

String convergence shows the lamp as central

Point of origin appears to be close to the wall

Flow patterns indicate sheets affected most

Blood fully clotted, little skeletonization, no spattered clots, no apparent coughing of blood

Using the Blood Spatter Analysis tutorial and the table provided, identify the gaps in evidence. Use your knowledge of the EBSCOHost database and find an article which discusses one of the following research methodologies and its application to evaluating blood spatter evidence. Prepare a one-to-two-page paper for your instructor which:

Identifies which research methodology the authors used.

Summarizes the research article.

Discusses why you chose this article.

Identifies how you would apply this methodology to the fact pattern here.

Identifies the next steps you would take in your investigation to close those gaps.

Make sure that your paper complies with APA, 6th ed. Style formatting. Refer to the APA resources posted in the Files section of the Course Menu in your class, or to library and writing center resources. Remember, you must post your initial response on the discussion board by Day 3 of Week 2 at the latest. Your paper should include a comparison of your initial response to that of your classmates, and include any changes in your perspective based on their posts.

This paper is worth 80 points. A rubric for this assignment is available in the Files section of the Course Menu.

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 5 WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

Paper #2 due – DUI Task Force Experiment

Remember that discussion you had last week? You will be using it this week to write this paper as follows:

In this paper, you will design an experiment to test some aspects of your DUI Task Force from last week’s discussion.

Following the basic steps of conducting an experiment, design a mock experiment related to the discussion. Your experiment design should include the following:

Pre-test

Random assignment to a control group and treatment group

A treatment

A post-test

Write a one-to-two-page report summarizing your mock experiment. Include the following:

Your experiment design

How you would collect the data

What you expect the findings of this mock experiment to be

The major threats to the internal and external validity of your experiment

Include a minimum of three (3) credible sources in your references

Use APA format

This paper is worth 80 points. A rubric for this assignment is available in the Files section of the Course Menu.

Remember to submit your assignment for grading when finished.

 

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 7 Assignment

Written Assignment —Probation Drug Screen Results

You are the probation chief for an office of 19 probation officers, one drug screening officer (DSO), and miscellaneous staff supervising 4,200 defendants. Your DSO has been completing screens monthly according to the following table.

 

Ttl + = Total Positive Ttl – = Total Negative Ttl + THC = Total Positive for Marijuana Ttl + OPI = Total Positive for Opiates Ttl + AMP = Total Positive for Amphetamines Ttl + mAMP = Total Positive for Methamphetamines Ttl + BZO = Total Positive for Benzodiazepines Ttl + BARB = Total Positive for Barbiturates Ttl + ETOH = Total Positive for Alcohol

Write a two- to three-page report summarizing your research. Include the following.

Describe the research issue that you believe needs to be studied.

Identify one or two hypotheses you would expect to find based on this data.

Create a research design.

Make sure your design identifies how data will be collected.

From whom data will be collected

Identify variables and how your research design will account/accommodate variables.

How will you collect the data?

Specifically address how your research design will address your hypotheses.

This paper is worth 80 points. A rubric for this assignment is available in the Files section of the Course Menu.

 

JADM 350 Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Week 8 Final Exam

Question 1 (TCO 1) The most commonly used source of research funding for crime and justice academics is:

the Public Broadcast System (PBS)

the NIJ

the BJS

the FBI

the Ford Foundation

Question 2 (TCO 1) A method that uses a written questionnaire or formal interview to gather quantitative data on the backgrounds, behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes of a large number of people or agencies is called

survey research

experimentation

sampling

nonreactive research

all of the above

Question 3

(TCO 1) During the Enlightenment, people believed in

logical reasoning

emphasis on experiences in the material world

a belief in human progress

a questioning of traditional religious authority

all of the above

Question 4

(TCO 1) Interpretive social science (ISS) can be traced to German sociologist

Auguste Comte

Sigmund Freud

Sir Karl Popper

Karl Marx

Max Weber

Question 5

(TCO 2) A person with an I.Q. of 8090 is usually considered to be

very superior

superior

bright normal

average

dull normal

Question 6

(TCO 2) Criminal justice researchers typically sample

People

Subset of reported crimes

Legal case decisions

CRJ processing decisions

All of the above

Question 7

(TCO 2) The ______________ is a mathematical relationship that states: whenever many random samples are drawn from a population, a normal distribution is formed, and the center of the distribution for a variable equals the population parameter.

central limit theorem

system sampling

confidence intervals

sampling interval

sampling theorem

Question 8

(TCO 2) A random sample in which a researcher selects every kth (e.g., 12th) case in the sample frame using a sampling interval is a

central limit theorem

systematic sampling

confidence interval

sampling interval

sampling theorem

Question 9

(TCO 2) Snowball sampling is

a nonrandom sample in which the researcher begins with one case, and then, based on information about interrelationships from that case, identifies other cases, and repeats the process again and again

a sample in which the sampling elements are selected using something other than a mathematically random process

a nonrandom sample in which the researcher first identifies general categories into which cases or people will be selected, and then selects cases in order to reach a predetermined number of cases in each category

a nonrandom sample in which the researcher selects anyone he or she happens to come across

a nonrandom sample in which the researcher uses a wide range of methods to locate all possible cases of a highly specific and difficult-to-reach population

Question 10

(TCO 3) When a researcher studies left-behind artifacts, existing data, graffiti art, and documents, this is called

direct observation

systematic observation

“snooping”

nonreactive data

indirect observation

Question 11

(TCO 3) The physical remains of human activity are called

fossils

rocks

physical traces

archival material

records

Question 12

(TCO 3) Coding systems identify four characteristics of text content. They are:

Frequency, Space, Direction, and Intensity

Height, Weight, Eye Color, and Build

Space, Time, Distance, and Volume

Length, Width, Depth, and Area

Question 13

(TCO 3) A code book is

the systematic reorganization of raw data into a format that is computer readable

a set of rules stating that certain numbers are assigned to variable attributes

a document describing the coding procedure and the location of data for variables in a format that computers can use

the act of writing the code categories directly on the questionnaire

a data field

Question 14

(TCO 3) A table that shows the distribution of cases into categories of one variable, that is, the number or percent of cases in each category, is called

a histogram

univariate statistics

a frequency distribution

descriptive statistics

numerology

Question 15

(TCO 3) The mode is

a distribution of scores where the three measures of central tendency do not equal one another

the largest and smallest scores within a distribution of scores

the middle point of a distribution of scores (½ fall below and ½ fall above the median)

the most common or frequently occurring number in a distribution of scores

the arithmetic average of a distribution of scores

 

Question 16

(TCO 4) Scientific misconduct includes

when a researcher fakes of invents data

when a researcher falsely reports how research was conducted

stealing the ideas or writings of others

violations of people’s rights in the collection of data

all of the above

Question 17

(TCO 4) A(n) _____________ is form of circular reasoning in which someone appears to say something new but is really talking in circles and making a statement that is true by definition

spurious relationship

reductionism

tautology

teleology

ecological fallacy

Question 18

(TCO 4) A threat to internal validity that occurs when the treatment “spills over” from the experimental group and control group subjects modify their behavior because they learn of the treatment is called

instrumentation

experimental mortality

“spill over effect”

experimental effects

diffusion of treatment

Question 19

(TCO 4) The biggest problem with mail questionnaires is

they are not very accurate

they cost too much

they have a low response rate

people lie on the questionnaire

Question 20

(TCO 5) A form of research that describes a culture and understanding another way of life from the native point of view is called

ethnography

explicit knowledge

common knowledge

tacit knowledge

common sense

Question 21

(TCO 5) Qualitative data in which a researcher attempts to capture all the details of a social setting in an extremely detailed description and convey an intimate feel for the setting and the inner lives of people in it is called

ethnography

explicit knowledge

thick description

tacit knowledge

common sense

Question 22

(TCO 5) Systematically collecting historical materials and analyzing those materials for the purpose of constructing a descriptive and/or theoretical account of what has happened in the past is called

historical research

comparative research

historical-comparative research

bilateral research

Question 23

(TCO 5) Transcience is _________________.

focusing on one idea or thing so much that is misdirects one’s attention so that other, simple things, are forgotten

searching unsuccessfully for information that the person possesses but cannot recall despite trying to do so at the moment (it is on the tip of my tongue)

mistaking fantasy for reality, or what one heard from a friend or what one saw in a movie for one’s own experience

being asked questions in such a way that a person begins to distort his or her memory and believe things happened that did not happen

experiencing the slow, continuous decay of memory over time, such that the more distance in the past an event occurred, the less detail is recalled about it

Question 24

(TCO 6) Which of the following maps is used by researchers to primarily orient their data?

Spatial map

Face map

Social map

Temporal map

Member map

Question 25

(TCO 6) The principle that researchers should examine events as they occur in natural, everyday ongoing social settings refers to which of the following:

artificialism

reflexivity

temporalism

naturalism

ethnography

Question 26

(TCO 6) This refers to deciphering the meaning found in language and images, in the form of signs, as well as their complex interrelationships. It requires us to question commonsense assumptions and challenges us not to take for granted that there is an objective reality that stands apart from human creation and interpretation:

Anachronism

Baconian fallacy

Case review

Semiotics

Pseudoproof

Question 27

(TCO 6) A Latin legal concept that means that once a legal precedent has been made by a court, all subsequent judicial decisions should follow that precedent unless there is a compelling reason not to, is called

mens rea

actus reus

stare decisis

the law of order

case law

Question 28

(TCO 7) A second stage of coding of qualitative data, in which a researcher organizes the codes, links them, and discovers key analytic categories, is called

axial coding

open coding

coding

selective coding

Question 29

(TCO 7) Models or mental abstractions of social relations or processes are called ________. They are pure standards against which the data or “reality” can be compared.

replications

copies

imaginative concepts

non-reality ideas

ideal types

Question 30

(TCO 7) The conceptual categories in an explanation used as part of the illustrative method are called

empty boxes

illustrative methods

theoretical methods

empirical methods

analytic comparisons

Question 31

(TCO 7) _______________ is restating an author’s ideas in one’s own words and giving proper credit to the original source.

A citation

Borrowing

Coping

Paraphrasing

Plagiarism

 

Question 32

(TCO 7) A summary of a research project’s findings placed at the beginning of a report for an applied, nonspecialist audience, usually a little longer than an abstract, is called

the executive summary

editing

revising

sketching

freewriting

Question 33

(TCO 8) A skewed distribution is

distribution of scores where the three measures of central tendency do not equal one another

the largest and smallest scores within a distribution of scores

the middle point of a distribution of scores (½ fall below and ½ fall above the median)

the most common or frequently occurring number in a distribution of scores

the arithmetic average of a distribution of scores

Question 34 (TCO 1) Explain the knowledge/power dynamic.

Question 35 (TCO 1) What are the four errors of personal experience that reinforce one another in a person’s life?

Question 36 (TCO 2) What are the four ways to improve statistical reliability?

Question 37 (TCO 2) Define quota sampling.

Question 38 (TCO 3) List three topics appropriate for existing documents/statistics research.

Question 39 (TCO 3) Explain a graphed linear relationship.

Question 40 (TCO 4) In three lines or less, explain the Stanley Milgram study. (p. 115)

Question 41 (TCO 4) Provide a short explanation of the role a field researcher adopts when he or she does not disclose to the research subjects the purpose or objective of the study.

Question 42 (TCO 5) List three suggestions for “staying safe in unsafe settings.”

Question 43 (TCO 5) What are the first three of seven steps in conducting legal research?

Question 44 TCO 6) In some states a police dog is classified as a police officer. If you were describing the emotional binds between the handler and the dog, would they be best described in qualitative or quantitative terms? Why?

Question 45 (TCO 6) A type of experimental design that considers the impact of several independent variables simultaneously is called _________________. The treatment or manipulation is not each independent variable but is rather what?

(TCO 7) List the three steps of writing in the text.

(TCO 7) List three of the six suggestions for writer’s block in the text.

Describe the relationship between politics and research and include in your answer the influence of funding.

(TCO 2) List and briefly explain four of the eight types of statistical validity.

(TCO 2) What is cluster sampling?

(TCO 3) What is the difference between manifest coding and latent coding

(TCO 3) What are the steps in calculating the standard deviation?

Question 52 (TCO 3) What are the steps in calculating the standard deviation?

Question 53 (TCO 4) Explain the terms covert observation, deep cover, shallow cover, and explicit cover.

Question 54 (TCO 4) What are the five characteristics of a causal hypothesis?

Question 55 (TCO 5) Explain the concept of “thick description.”

Question 56 (TCO 5) What are three principles of participant observation?

1. (TCO 6) What is the difference between an ethnographer and an informant?

2. (TCO 6) What is happening statistically when there is a deliberate distortion of the past designed to protect the appearance of a particular image? What is it called?

3. (TCO 7) Explain the four similarities between quantitative and qualitative forms of data analysis.

4. (TCO 7) According to the conclusion to the book, what should be the ultimate purpose of criminal justice/criminology research? Explain.