1. Agency records Content analysis Secondary data
Record research
Agency records
Content analysis
Secondary data

2. Agency records Published statistics
Nonpublic records for routine internal use
Data collected by agency staff for specific research

3. Published statistics Compilations of data Census bureau
NCVS, Census of children in custody, FBI (UCR), Survey of inmates in local jails, correctional populations in the US

4. Published statistics Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
Criminal Victimization in the U.S. (based on NCVS)
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
Public perceptions, characteristics of agencies, Gallup polls

5. Published data Ecological fallacy
Summary data cannot be used, for example, to describe individual facilities or individual inmates.
Example use: high levels of crack use in the population were found in cities that had high robbery rates, lower rates of burglary

6. Published statistics
Useful in the understanding of social trends and forces.
Consider examples
(i.e., breakdown of the family, media violence, etc)

7. Nonpublic agency records
Usually kept on individuals
Must be made available to researchers
In some instances (children and youths) records require special protection (i.e., names and identifying information blacked out, of staff must pull information

8. Child abuse
Various data sources had to be used, including school records, juvenile records, DFS, marriage license bureaus, law enforcement records at the adult level
Unreported activity a problem

9. Hot spots Calls for service (CFS)
50% of calls in Minneapolis came from 3% of locations
“hot spots”
Potential problems: duplicate calls for same incident, false reports

10. Agency records
Agency records can reflect decision making rather than actually what is happening
Baumer et al—inconsistencies between juvenile probation violation and other indicators of client behavior such as new arrests and EM infractions. Pos were not catching violations

11. Agency records
If unexpected patterns appear, review data collection procedures
(i.e., 1% violation rate)
Example from drug rehab facility

12. New data collected by staff
Adding a question onto an existing form
Drug Forecasting, ADAM (arrestee drug abuse monitoring system)
Supplementary interviews
Cooperation of staff: how intrusive is the data collection?

13. Problems
Agency data is a function of offender behavior, organization’s ability to detect behavior, and decisions about how to respond to behavior
Agency data are not always designed for research, but rather for legal mandates, and specific personnel
Erasing of records (computer tape example

14. Problems Backlogging old records Example of judge vs. jury sentencing
Records sometimes do not “match up”
Might be better to maintain records on individuals rather than incidents, but this is not always done
Clerical errors

15. Content analysis Study of messages and the meaning of those messages
Can be applied to any form of communication
Books, magazines, movies, songs, speeches, TV programs, letters, laws, constitutions
TV program example

16. Content analysis Sampling See p. 340 Open ended and close ended coding
Manifest and latent content
Examples
Crimes reported in newspapers
TV and crime

17. Content analysis
Showing content to criminals and obtaining their reactions as to victimization
Assault example
Burglary example
Gang related homicides—had to classify information in homicide files, need for reliability checks, interrater

18. Secondary analysis NIJ and BJS
Interuniversity consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
National Youth Survey (NYS)
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, established by the BJS and ICPSR