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