Deck 2: The Process and Problems of Research of Criminological Research

Question 1

There are several steps to critically reviewing previous research. Which of the following is NOT an example of critically reviewing previous research listed in your book?

A) Dr. Smith collected research articles on domestic violence and read only the abstracts.
B) A research assistant located several articles for later review.
C) A graduate student decided on using some "descriptors" to search for literature.
D) Erica assessed each article separately and then conducted an integrated review.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which is the correct order of steps to developing a research question?

A) identify; refine; evaluate
B) identify; evaluate; refine
C) evaluate; identify; refine

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In your textbook, which of the following is NOT a suggestion on best practices for searching the research literature?

A) create a list of search items and then narrow your search
B) identifying approprioate databases to search
C) examining newspaper and magazine articles
D) specifiying your research question

Answer 3

C

Question 4

It is often a good idea to narrow your literature search by requiring that abstracts contain combinations of words or phrases that include more of the specific details of your research question. What is this tactic called in your book?

A) locating the articles
B) using Boolean search logic
C) using appropriate subject descriptors
D) creating a tentative list of search terms

Question 5

Dr. Smith's newly developed theory on criminal behavior cannot be tested. His research is in violation of which of the following requirements of theory?

A) theoretical constructs
B) feasability
C) critical review
D) falsifiability

Question 6

Theory and data have a two-way, mutually reinforcing relationship. Researchers may make this connection by starting with a social theory and then testing some of its implications with data. What is this process called?

A) deductive reasoning
B) assessing feasability
C) inductive reasoning
D) clarifying social importance

Question 7

Dr. Williams used the theory of differential association (theory that focuses on how associating and learning from delinquent peers influences crime) to collect and interpret data on vandalism committed in groups and individually. He invoked which type of process in conducting his research?

A) inductive reasoning
B) assessing feasability
C) deductive reasoning

Question 8

A graduate student collected qualitative data on domestic violence and used the data to develop a theory that explained the patterns in her data. Which type of process did she use in conducting her research?

A) deductive reasoning
B) theory testing
C) assessing feasability
D) inductive reasoning

Question 9

Unexpected patterns in data, which stimulate new ideas or theoretical approaches are commonly referred to as ______.

A) serendipitous findings
B) deductive findings
C) anomalous Findings

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT an example of a hypothesis?

A) The higher the level of poverty in a community, the higher its rate of crime.
B) The more liquor stores in a community, the higher its rate of crime.
C) Will a community with higher crime rates also have a high level of poverty?
D) The older the person, the less crime they will commit over time.

Question 11

A ______ is a characteristic or property that can vary, whereas a ______ has a fixed characteristic or property.

A) variable; constant
B) constant; variable
C) hypothesis; question

Question 12

In a study examining type of crime committed in an all-male prison, what should gender be considered?

A) a variable
B) a constant
C) a construct

Question 13

A research assistant wanted to see whether or not poverty predicted crime rates. In this example, what term represents crime rates?

A) independent variable
B) dependent variable
C) constant
D) predictor variable

Question 14

A research assistant found that as an individual's self-control increased, their criminal activity decreased. This is an example of what type of relationship between self-control and criminal activity?

A) negative relationship
B) null relationship
C) positive relationship

Question 15

A researcher hypothesized that as liquor sales increased, so would the crime rate in areas near those liquor stores. What type of relationship between liquor sales and crime rates did this researcher hypothesis?

A) a negative relationship
B) a positive relationship
C) an inverse relationship
D) a constant relationship

Question 16

A researcher had evidence that unemployed spouse abusers recidivate (i.e., reoffend). So, when he conducted an interview with Joe, an unemployed spouse abuser, he concluded that Joe would most likely recidivate. What type of reasoning did this researcher use to make his conclusion?

A) inductive reasoning
B) deductive reasoning
C) overgeneralization
D) selective observation

Question 17

According to your text, empirical generalizations refer to statements that describe ______.

A) findings
B) precision
C) feasability
D) importance

Question 18

Crime is lower in those communities where the police patrol on foot is an example of a ______.

A) assertion
B) hypothesis
C) research question
D) research statement

Question 19

A researcher engaged in a small-scale study to examine a new policing strategy to address domestic violence, but because they were worried about the generalizability of their results, they conducted replications of their study in other locations. Which of the following best describes the type of study in which the researcher engaged?

A) the research circle
B) inductive research
C) deductive research
D) the research method

Question 20

A researcher wanted to examine if vandalism of a school decreased if the school had and enforced policies against vandalism. What is the dependent variable?

A) youth caught vandalizing the school
B) the school's policies
C) vandalism of a school

Question 21

When someone is measuring the consequence of a proposed influence, the consequence is called the ______.

A) dependent variable
B) constant
C) independent variable
D) direction of association

Question 22

A positive relationship was found between youth with low self-control and their criminal behavior. Self-control is considered the ______.

A) dependent variable
B) constant
C) independent variable
D) direction of association

Question 23

Once we formulate a research question and choose a theory, we start the process of moving from the general to the specific. This is called ______.

A) assessing feasability
B) inductive reasoning
C) scientific method
D) deductive reasoning

Question 24

Indicate which of the following examples does NOT represent inductive reasoning.

A) Specific data are used to develop a general explanation.
B) It starts at bottom of the research cycle.
C) Data is explored for patterns.
D) Data is created by theory to explain a pattern.

Question 25

Which of the following statements is NOT true about hypotheses?

A) Theory can lead to hypotheses.
B) Hypotheses are basically the same as research questions.
C) Hypotheses can be tested.
D) Tests derived from hypotheses can be replicated.

Question 26

Starting with a specific idea and moving to a more general one is an example of ______ reasoning.

A) deductive reasoning
B) assessing feasability
C) inductive reasoning
D) clarifying social importance

Question 27

. Deductive reasoning is mostly used in ______ research, whereas inductive reasoning is mostly used in ______ research.

A) quantitative; qualitative
B) qualitative; quantitative
C) exploratory; explanatory

Question 28

A graduate student conducted qualitative interviews with 30 people on their experience of illegal drug use. She learned about a factor related to illegal drug use that had not been considered in previous studies. As such, she developed a theory with this new information and created a quantitative survey to assess her new hypotheses. This is an example of which of the following?

A) forming hypotheses
B) the reserach circle
C) identifying a research question
D) direction of association

Question 29

According to your text, research circle comprises of three main research strategies. Which of the following is NOT one of these strategies?

A) descriptive research
B) inductive research
C) deductive research
D) evaluative research

Question 30

A researcher that found a correlation between alcohol and crime predicted that crime rates were affected by the number of bars in an area. Which of the following was most likely her hypothesis?

A) The more bars in an area, the higher the rate of crime.
B) The higher the crime rate, the more bars in an area.
C) The higher the crime rate, the higher percentage of people drinking alcohol.

Question 31

______ is stressed by researchers who focus attention on the subjective dimension of the social world and refers to an understanding of a social process or social setting is one that reflects fairly the various perspectives of participants in that setting.

A) Authenticity
B) Measurement validity
C) Generalizability
D) Causal validity

Question 32

Whereas ______ generalizability refers to whether findings about one group hold for other groups, ______ generalizability refers to whether findings based on a subset of the population hold true for that population.

A) internal; external
B) cross-population; sample
C) sample; cross-population
D) internal; measurement

Question 33

A study conducted in Minneapolis found that those arrested for domestic violence did not respond the same way as those arrested for the same crime in different cities. As such, the findings were not considered ______.

A) internally valid
B) generalizable
C) reliable

Question 34

Sometimes political pollsters may study a sample of likely voters and then generalize their findings to the entire population of likely voters. This is an example of ______ generalizability that social scientists try to avoid.

A) cross-population
B) sample
C) valid
D) external

Question 35

If we seek to describe the frequency of domestic violence in families, we need to develop a valid procedure in defining what we intend to measure. This is an example of ______ validity.

A) measurement
B) external
C) internal
D) generalizable

Question 36

We have reached the goal of ______ when our statements or conclusions about empirical reality are correct.

A) authenticity
B) generalizability
C) validity

Question 37

Researchers avoid coming up with conclusions that people will like or conclusions that suit their personal preferences. This refers to them establishing which of the following?

A) truth
B) validity
C) observations

Question 38

The goal of ______ is to reflect fairly the perspectives of participants in a setting that we study.

A) authenticity
B) reliability
C) validity
D) observations

Question 39

A research question is a question about some aspect of crime, criminals, or the criminal justice system, the answer to which is sought through collection and analysis of the firsthand, verifiable, empirical data.

Question 40

Refereed journals refer to a group of published papers based on newspaper or magazine articles that have been reviewed by researchers on their importance and relevance to social scientists.

Question 41

Imagine you read 30 articles on youth violence and you start to write your literature review. You know that you must discuss each article that you read.

Question 42

Theoretical constructs refer to parts of a theory that describe what is important to look at to understand, explain, predict, and "do something about" the subject.

Question 43

We cannot test an idea fairly unless we use deductive reasoning, stating our expectations in advance and then designing a way to test the validity of our claims.

Question 44

A graduate student that began her study at the bottom of the research circle and worked upward, engaged in deductive research.

Question 45

The research circle is really a spiral.

Question 46

In a hypothesis predicting the relationship between two variables, the direction of association can be either positive or negative.

Question 47

One concern about inductive research is that it may not be generalizable.

Question 48

Dr. Williams found that youth who participated in a program to reduce bullying in schools were less likely to bully or be bullied. The prevalence of bullying in youth was the dependent variable.

Question 49

A researcher using a theory that asserted feelings of real or perceived strain was associated with criminal activity developed a hypothesis and then carried out a research study. This research utilized deductive reasoning.

Question 50

Hypotheses with a categorical independent variable simply state that one category of the independent variable is associated with higher (or lower) values of the dependent variable.

Question 51

Reanalysis of data qualifies as inductive research, because the hypotheses were derived from theory and then tested with the data.

Question 52

A research predicted that youth in a risk-reduction program were less likely to engage in criminal activity. The independent variable in this case was whether youth were in the risk-reduction program.

Question 53

A variable can change, but a constant remains the same.

Question 54

One way to make sure that measurement validity is addressed is by creating clear definitions of what we intend to measure.

Question 55

It is common practice to assume that results from a small sample of people from one community would be the same results among individuals in a different community.

Question 56

"Battered women serve as experts of their own lives" is an example of authenticity.

Question 57

Generalizability is more concerned with validity of claims being made one group to another, whereas measurement validity is more concerned with what terms and definitions are used as measures in research.

Question 58

List and describe the three ways researcher's should evaluate their research questions.

Question 59

Define theory and theoretical constructs. Then describe the relationship between them. Provide one example of a theory and one of its theoretical constructs provided in the textbook.

Question 60

Define inductive and deductive reasoning. Then, indicate the type of reasoning is typically associated with quantitative and qualitative methods.

Question 61

A researcher wanted to examine whether or not an individual's self-reports of violence was influenced by the number of friends they reported that were violent. Indicate the dependent and independent variables. Then provide a hypothesis on the relationship between these two variables.

Question 62

Use the following example to answer a set of questions:
If the discrepancy between one's aspirations and expectations is high, then the level of perceived strain is high.
Considering this is an "if-then" hypothesis, what is the original hypothesis? What is the independent variable and dependent variable in this study? What direction of association does this hypothesis predict?

Question 63

Use the following example to answer a set of questions:
Tom wants to examine the causes of domestic violence. He wants to start with social theory and then test some of its implications with data. He would like to explain the causes of domestic violence using independent variables derived from previous research.
Erica wants to explore factors related to domestic violence of Latino immigrants, where barely any research has been done. She wants to start with interview data she collected and then identify patterns in her data. She would like to inform future studies with this information.
Which researcher utilized deductive reasoning and which used inductive reasoning? Which type of research (qualitative or quantitative) and (explanatory or exploratory) did Tom and Erica conduct? Provide two differences between their studies.

Question 64

Sometimes the research circle is better described as a research spiral. Explain why this is the case. Explain this using the terms of inductive research, deductive research, and hypothesis.

Question 65

A graduate student utilized differential association theory in her research and examined an independent variable of personal beliefs favorable to committing crime on the dependent variable of self-reported crime. She found that this was not the case for all individual's that self-reported crime and she chose to refine her hypotheses and develop a new study. Describe what type of research she could engage in to use her data to develop new theoretical constructs. Then explain how this is representative of the research circle.

Question 66

Explain the concept of authenticity. What type of research is associated with authenticity? Provide an example of a way a researcher could pay attention to authenticity.

Question 67

Provide the definition of theory and describe at least three ways theory helps us in social science research. Then, apply these three ways theory can help us to the example of youth violence.

Question 68

Both deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning are essential to criminologists. However, sometimes we cannot always make useful predictions for every social situation or research problem that we seek to investigate. We may find unexpected patterns in the data we collect. What is the term used to describe this? Define that term. Then provide some suggestions on the process a researcher could invoke in order to make sense of their unanticipated findings.

Question 69

Compare and contrast inductive and deductive research. Describe the main motives for each of these types of research and then explain how they could be used within the same research study demonstrating your knowledge of the research circle.

Question 70

Come up with a research question and a hypothesis on a topic related to criminology. Then explain the difference between a research question and a hypothesis. After that, indicate what your dependent and independent variables are, as well as a constant (if you have one), and what direction of association your hypothesis assumes.