Exam 1 In-class

Exploratory research

What is it?

Where is it?

Descriptive research

How big is the problem?

Whom does the problem affect?

EX: What is the gender gap pay?, What is the divorce rate?

Explanatory research

What is the effect of it?

What causes it?

Evaluation research

Does the program work?

How can we make the program better?

Inductive reasoning

Goes from specific - general

Makes specific observations and then draws a general conclusion

Observations based on info collected provide evidence a problem exists; explain its nature

• To make generalizations

• Research conducted to generate theories (Qualitative)

Inductive reasoning Example

There is a rise in drug-related night arrests in high-crime neighborhoods, often involving young men with criminal records. These observed trends of likely characteristics need to further empirical investigation to affirm if a broad generalization can be drawn from specific instances/data points.

Deductive reasoning

General to even more specific

A specific conclusion follows a general theory

• Your conclusion will be correct if all the statements you say are correct

Involves theory testing

Deductive reasoning Example

According to deterrence theory, individuals are less likely to commit crimes if they perceive the consequences are severe and certain. The criminal justice system imposes strict penalties for theft. Therefore, based on deterrence theory, individuals are less likely to commit theft in areas where these penalties are consistently enforced.

Research Circle

The process of conducting research, moving from theory to data and back again, or moving from data to theory and back again

• Comprises 3 main research strategies

  • Inductive research

  • Deductive research

  • Descriptive research

Conceptualization Example

What is party ID? What is political ideology?

republic , independent, or democrat are DISTINCT from conservative, liberal, or moderate

a moderate is not necessarily a democrat or a republican

EX: Support to “take away guns” varies by party ID and political ideology

gun control - conservatives, republican VS. gun regulation - conservatives, republican - lean to yes

Conceptualization

Specific on terms used in research

defining concepts

Operationalization

Constructs within the idea

Response choices, or numbered variables

turns the construct into measurable variables

Target audience is aware of what the word means

Be aware of the variability of your audience responses

• Do you believe your audience knows what you are measuring

EX: strongly , moderately, slightly

Agree, neutral, disagree - neutral is not a distinct answer - what are you measuring?

Operationalization EX#1

Rape myths

• sections of questions

  • victim inviting it - female

  • was not rape (victim blaming)

  • victim lying

  • offender didn’t mean to - male

    • Only include heterosexual relationships

Units of analysis

who are you asking

Independent/dependant variables

Independant variable

causes the dependent variable to change (the cause)

• correlation does not equal causation

Dependant variable

(the effect) independent variable causes the change

• Outcome of the experiment

Contorl condition

baselive vs. experienment

Control variables (Independant variable)

you have it as functioning the same

Historical ethics in research

Grew from biomedical research

Nuremberg code

• Subjects must voluntarily consent participation

  • Place where the Nazi trials took place - stemmed from illegal human experiments during the Holocust/concentration camps

Stanley Milgrams Obedience Study (1961)

Ethical issues:

Subject’s were not told that there was no real person on the other side of the wall being subjected to the testing

Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)

Ethical issues:

Participants not told if they could leave or not

Experimentor inserted himself into the experiment

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1932-1972)

Ethical issues:

Only used 600 Black men as participants, but they aren’t any different from other races - unequal distribution

Participants were unaware for years that penicillin existed and could aid them

Different stages of Syphilis is deadly

Belmont Report

Basic ethical principles → Application

Respect for persons → informed consent

Beneficence → risk/benefit assessment

Justice → selection of subjects of research

Anonymity

Identity of participants not known to researcher(s)

Confidentiality

Only the research investigators know identity of participants

Privacy

the control of others access to information about you

Deception

mostly field studies

Tearoom trade - (a study of male homosexual

encounters in public restrooms), about 100 men were observed engaging

in sexual acts as Humphrey’s pretended to be a “watchqueen” (a voyeur

and lookout). Subjects were followed to their cars, and their license num-

bers were secretly recorded. Names and addresses were obtained from

police registers when Humphreys posed as a market researcher. A year

later, in disguise, Humphreys used a deceptive story about a health sur-

vey to interview the subjects in their homes.

debriefing

Valid results

Publishing data you did not manipulate

Honesty and openness

no “whitewashing“ - the practice of erasing, downplaying, or altering the race, culture, and context of minority or non-white figures

need to write about figures in main text

• reliability/validity

Intsitutional review board (IRB)

check on ethics for appropriate research

Informed consent

• Obtain acknowledged consent

• Voluntary participation

  • No harm to participant

  • Protected populations

  • Voluntary participation

  • No harm to participants

Validity

Accuracy with which a measure gauges the concept under consideration

Types of Validity

• Face

• Content

• Criterion

• Construct - theory bases

  • Discriminant

  • Convergent

Face Validity

• you believe it to be what you are measuring “take it at face value“

The “common sense“ nature of a measure

Not the GOLD standard from validity

Content Validity

What does the research say?

An instrument that measures the phenomenon

Criterion Validity

Variable validated by a supplemental variable

Difficult to obtain

• To discern you are measuring exactly what you believe you are measuring

Construct Validity

• Theory based

  • Measures behave theoretically and observationally similar

• Convergent validity - Highly interrelated

• Discriminant validity - Measures are, in fact, unrelated

Convergent Validity

Make sure that these other scales (through not directly related) are theoretically associated with self-efficacy in as much that the other scales measure their own underlying characteristics

EX: A new risk assessment tool should be compared with other well-established measures of recidivism risk

Discriminant Validity

EX: strongly agree to strongly disagree 1-5

EX: A risk assessment tool measuring recidivism risk should not too strongly correlate with general criminal behavior

Reliability

Consistency with which a measurement device yields the same numbers upon repeated applications - REPLICATION

Inter-item reliability

Use of multiple items to measure a single concept

• Higher scores indicate greater levels of disorder (1= “strongly disagree“ to 4= “strongly agree“)

• Higher scores indicate greater levels of order (1= “strongly agree“ to 4= “strongly disagree“)

Test-retest reliability

Phenomenon does not change between two points in time

• Observer reliability

  • Same person, different time

• Inter-observer

  • Different people, same time

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

Roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies voluntarily contribute monthly crime data to the FBI

Components

• National Incident-Based reporting system (NIBRS)

• Law enforcement officers killed in action (LEOKA)

• Hate crime statistics

• Cargo theft reporting

• Police employee

• supplementary homicide reports

• law enforcement suicide data collection (LESDC)

• National use-of-force

Clery Act (2022)

Official submission of University Crimes to a online database

Uniform Crime Reports: Part 1 Index Crimes

Violent Crimes (F.A.R.M.)

• Forcible rape

• Aggravated assault

• Robbery

• Murder and non-negligent manslaughter

Property Crimes (L.A.M.B.)

• Larceny-theft

• Arson

• Motor-vehicle theft

• Burglary

Human Trafficking (I.T.C.H.)

• Involuntary servitude

• Trafficking

• Commercial sex acts

• Human Trafficking