Terms Ch 1 1 Aggregate a group of multiple units try to group people together not just one person Ex Everyone with an AA or everyone with a BA 2 Attribute A characteristic of a unit of observation a specific value on a variable Ex Male 25 strongly agree 3 Variable An entity that can take on different values gender age agreement Independent variable causes outcome of interest Dependent Variable outcome depends on iv Ex Education IV Income DV 4 Theory A systematic explanation of a pattern has to be testable Ex Crime is a product of weakening bonds to conventional society 5 Hypothesis making your theory testable comes before you measure anything A testable statement of an expectation about the world ex Children who dislike school will be more delinquent 6 Deductive Reasoning developing specific expectations from general principals Ex The principle that all deans are meanies you might anticipate that your current dean won t let you change courses 7 Inductive Reasoning Developing general principles from a specific observation Having noted that teenagers and crime victims are less supportive of police than older people and non victims are you might conclude that people with more direct police contact are less supportive of police and explain why 8 Idiographic seeking a complete explanation of a single case Ex One gang studied in depth the researcher lives in or watches the life closely 9 Nomothetic seeking a partial explanation of a class of cases Many gangs 1 factor 1 thing studying 10 Grounded Theory A type of inductive theory that is based on grounded in field observation The researcher makes observations in natural settings then formulates a tentative theory that explains those observations Topics 11 Errors in Personal Inquiry Pages 8 10 Inaccurate Observation Overgeneralization Selective Observation Illogical Reasoning Ideology and Politics To Err is Human the problem 3 Explanation 4 Application 12 Purposes of research 1 Exploration 2 Description Describe the scope of the crime problem or policy responses to 1 Evaluation and policy evaluation research uses social scientific methods to test the results of a program or policy change 2 Policy analysis different from other forms of criminal justice research primarily in its focus on future events CH 2 Terms Topics 1 Anonymity The identity of a research subject is not known and it is therefore impossible to link data about a subject to an individual s name Anonymity is one tool for addressing the ethical issue of privacy 2 Confidentiality Researchers know the identity of a research subject but promise no to reveal any information that can be attributed to an individual Anonymity is similar but sometimes researches need to know subject s names to link information from different sources Assuring confidentiality is one way of meeting our ethical obligation to not harm subjects 3 Ethical issues in criminal justice research Do No Harm to subjects Voluntary Participation Informed Consent Anonymous Confidential No Identifiers Deception Researcher Analysis Reporting Legal Liability Special Populations Kids Prisoners etc Weigh Cost Benefits 4 Institutional review boards Play an important role in ensuring that the rights and interest of human subjects are protected But some social science researchers believe that IRBs are becoming too restrictive 2 General Purposes 1 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 2 They determine whether the procedures to be used include adequate safeguards regarding the safety confidentiality and general welfare of human subjects Terms Ch 3 1 Cohort Studies Observing a subset of units at multiple times specific units may change How a generation changes over time 2 Panel Following the same units over time How specific people change over time 3 Prospective studies Following units forward through time Ex How many people that were sexually abused as children are convicted of a sexual offense as an adult 4 Longitudinal studies Using information about multiple time periods Ex Analysis of newspaper stories about crime or number of inmates over time 5 Trend Making statements about an entire population at multiple times How concepts phenomena change over time Ex knowing whether changes in sentences for certain offenses were followed by increases in the number of people imprisoned in state institutions 6 Validity whether statements about cause and effect are true or false A descriptive term used for a measure that accurately reflects what is intended to measure Validity inference 7 Statistical Is the association large enough to be trustworthy Criterion 1 for causal If two variables do not vary together there cannot be causal relationship between them 8 Internal validity is the relationship due to the effect of some other factor criterion 3 for causal inference can something else be causing it The internal validity of causal statements may be threatened by an inability to control experimental conditions 9 External validity would we find this again under different conditions Can you generalize with the study Ex Do research findings about cause and effect apply equally to different cities neighborhoods and populations 10 Construct validity Do our variables represent the process we meant to represent Measurement problem Pg 56 Students who feel unpopular feel more depressed Does this mean that low popularity causes depressed feelings Fallacies 11 Ecological Fallacy Drawing conclusions about individuals from data about aggregates Drawing conclusions about individuals based solely on the observation of groups 12 Individualistic fallacy Drawing conclusions about aggregates from data on individuals Cause Studies 13 Necessary cause must be present for effect to occur It is necessary for someone to be charged with a criminal offense to be convicted but being charged is not enough you must plead guilty or be found guilty by the court 14 Sufficient cause guarantees effect Pleading guilty to a criminal charge is a sufficient cause for being convicted although you can be convicted through trial as well 15 Probabilistic cause changes likelihood of effect if something then probably will something else Being arrested as a juvenile makes it more likely that that someone will be arrested as an adult 16 Cross sectional Studies One shot data collection Researcher goes to collect data for one day and that s it Usually
View Full Document
Unlocking...