Deck 10: Analyzing Content: Research Using Secondary, Historical, and Comparative Data, and Content Analysis

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT used in secondary data analysis?

A) surveys conducted by others
B) surveys conducted by the investigator
C) official records
D) historical documents

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT a major type of secondary data?

A) surveys
B) historical documents
C) official reports
D) intensive interviews

Answer 2

D

Question 3

All of the following are accurate statements about the availability of secondary qualitative data EXCEPT ______.

A) there are fewer qualitative studies available than quantitative studies
B) the number of available qualitative studies is growing
C) there are more qualitative studies available than quantitative studies
D) England has been a leading contributor to the archiving of qualitative data

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Under the Freedom of Information Act, who has access to the records of the federal government?

A) government employees
B) the public
C) screened researchers
D) politicians

Question 5

The quality of secondary data analysis rests on which of the following?

A) the quality of the primary analysis
B) the generalizability of the secondary data
C) the causal validity of the primary conclusions
D) the quality of the primary data

Question 6

Which of the following is an accurate finding from Thayer's research on police size and community affluence?

A) Poorer areas had more police than wealthier areas.
B) Wealthier areas had more police than poor areas.
C) No relationship existed between police size and community affluence.
D) Wealthier areas had more police than poor areas but only in the Northeast.

Question 7

Which of the following is possible with content analysis?

A) random sample of units
B) fixed choice responses
C) statistical analysis
D) all of these

Question 8

A researcher wants to compare current plea-bargaining practices in the United States with practices in Mexico. This is an example of which type of analysis:?

A) crime mapping
B) transnational research
C) descriptive comparative research
D) true experiment

Question 9

A researcher wants to examine the relationship between campaign donations and voting practices in Australia. This is an example of which type of analysis?

A) crime mapping
B) transnational research
C) analytic comparative research
D) quasi-experiment

Question 10

All of the following are examples of comparative research projects EXCEPT ______.

A) comparing the use of the death penalty in the United States and China
B) comparing the differences in the use of plea-bargaining in Boston in the 19th century to today
C) comparing gender differences in homicide
D) comparing the use of lethal force by police in Canada and Australia

Question 11

A researcher wants to examine contemporary human trafficking, in particular the process in which individuals from another country illegally enter the United States. This is an example of which type of analysis?

A) transnational research
B) crime mapping
C) narrative analysis
D) true experiment

Question 12

Once coding procedures are developed for content analysis, their reliability should be assessed by ______.

A) testing and refining the coding procedures
B) determining the units of analysis
C) comparing different coders' codes for the same variables
D) identifying a population of documents for study

Question 13

Which of the following is an accurate summary of Archer and Gartner's research on war and postwar homicides?

A) A positive relationship between war and postwar homicides was found.
B) A negative relationship between war and postwar homicides was found.
C) No relationship was found between war and postwar homicides was found.
D) A U-shaped relationship between war and postwar homicides was found.

Question 14

Which of the following is an accurate summary of Savage, Bennett, and Danner's research on the relationship between social welfare spending and homicide?

A) A positive relationship between social welfare spending and homicide was found.
B) A negative relationship between social welfare spending and homicide was found.
C) No relationship was found between social welfare spending and homicide was found.
D) A U-shaped relationship between social welfare spending and homicide was found.

Question 15

The units that are surveyed in ______ can range from newspapers, books, or TV shows to persons referred to in other communications.

A) historical data analysis
B) case studies
C) crime mapping
D) content analysis

Question 16

Secondary data analysis refers to data that ______.

A) is considered inferior
B) was collected in the second phase of a longitudinal study
C) is being used for a different purpose than its original
D) is not central to the original research question

Question 17

Ethical concerns arise in secondary data analysis because of which of the following?

A) Subjects have not given consent for the analysis.
B) Secondary data analysis is equivalent to intellectual theft.
C) Individuals can still be harmed if sensitive information is disclosed.
D) True scientists should perform their own data collection.

Question 18

Which of the following is an accurate statement about coding procedures in content analysis?

A) The meaning of words and phrases never changes.
B) Homographs are not an issue.
C) Some phrases have special meanings.
D) All coders interpret phrases in the same way.

Question 19

A researcher studies the frequency and commonalities of burglaries in her state by examining crime data taken from the state police database from the last six years. This study is an example of ______.

A) secondary data analysis
B) historical events research
C) content analysis
D) narrative analysis

Question 20

Content analysis is similar to all of the following EXCEPT ______.

A) qualitative data analysis
B) quantitative data analysis
C) true experiment
D) secondary data analysis

Question 21

Method of agreement is used to establish ______.

A) intercoder reliability
B) the quality of secondary data
C) a causal association
D) how data will be coded to maintain subject confidentiality

Question 22

Which of the following is NOT an accurate statements about Adolphe Quételet's study of homicide in France?

A) This is an example of a study using crime mapping.
B) Homicide rates fluctuated widely from year to year.
C) Homicide rates remained relatively constant from year to year.
D) The proportion of homicides committed by a knife declined dramatically over the course of the study.

Question 23

Which of the following scholars is credited with being the first to show that the annual number of murders reported in France were relatively constant and so too were the proportion of murders committed using guns, swords, knives, stones, kicks and punches, and strangulation?

A) Adolphe Quételet
B) Émile Durkheim's
C) Francois Menard
D) none of these

Question 24

Which of the following scholars is credited with conducting one of the early studies on the relationship between religion and suicide using official statistics?

A) Adolphe Quételet
B) Émile Durkheim
C) Francois Menard
D) none of these

Question 25

Which of the following is an example of a dataset that exists in the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)?

A) Gang Involvement in Rock Cocaine Trafficking in Los Angeles, 1984-1985
B) Criminal Careers and Crime Control in Massachusetts
C) Changing Patterns of Drug Use and Criminality Among Crack Cocaine Users in New York City: Criminal Histories and CJ Processing, 1983-1984, 1986
D) All of these

Question 26

Which type of datasets are primarily warehoused at ICPSR?

A) surveys
B) official records
C) official statistics
D) all of these

Question 27

Which of the following agencies is responsible for conducting the General Social Survey (GSS)?

A) Bureau of the Census
B) National Institute of Justice
C) National Opinion Research Center
D) Bureau of Justice Statistics

Question 28

Which of the following countries has been at the forefront in efforts to promote and warehouse qualitative data?

A) United States
B) Belgium
C) France
D) England

Question 29

What kind of research focuses on the nation or other unit as a whole?

A) case-oriented research
B) temporal research
C) participatory observation research
D) field research

Question 30

Which of the following is an example of comparative research?

A) descriptive
B) analytic
C) transnational
D) all of these

Question 31

Which of the following is an example of comparative research?

A) descriptive
B) analytic
C) transnational
D) all of these

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of research that explores how cultures and nations deal with crime that transcends their borders?

A) descriptive
B) analytic
C) transnational
D) all of these

Question 33

Which of the former American Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences' presidents noted that comparative research in criminology and criminal justice took on new importance after Septermber 11, 2001?

A) John Laub
B) Robert Sampson
C) Richard Bennett
D) none of these

Question 34

Which of the following is an unobtrusive method of research?

A) participatory research
B) content analysis
C) in-depth interviewing
D) focus groups

Question 35

Which of the following is considered a step in content analysis research?

A) Identify a population of documents or other textual sources for study.
B) Determine the units of analysis.
C) Select a sample of units from the population.
D) all of these

Question 36

Which of the following words is considered a homograph?

A) bass
B) bat
C) mine
D) all of these

Question 37

Which of the following statements is accurate concerning research across national boundaries?

A) Data quality concerns are less.
B) Data quality concerns are more.
C) Data quality concerns are the same.
D) There are no data quality concerns.

Question 38

Which of the following is a sampling strategy used in qualitative research where researchers select cases because they reflect theoretically important distinctions?

A) systematic random sampling
B) simple random sampling
C) snowball sampling
D) purposive sampling

Question 39

Data to be used for secondary analysis can be located on the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) website.

Question 40

Secondary data analysis was first used in the 1990s.

Question 41

Developing reliable and valid coding procedures in content analysis is an easy and straightforward task.

Question 42

Data quality is a concern with secondary data.

Question 43

Probability sampling can be used when selecting units for a content analysis.

Question 44

Content analysis usually produces quantitative data that can be analyzed statistically.

Question 45

When conducting research involving historical data, it is not necessary to conceal the subjects' identities.

Question 46

There is no qualitative data available on the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) website.

Question 47

Content analysis typically uses fixed-choice responses.

Question 48

It is impossible for a researcher to use random samples in content analysis.

Question 49

Qualitative comparative studies are likely to rely on availability or purposive sampling.

Question 50

The original purpose for the data is not important when conducting a secondary data analysis.

Question 51

Research projects using secondary data analysis never need to be reviewed by institutional review boards.

Question 52

Primary data analysis is simply the act of compiling or analyzing data that were originally collected by someone else at another time.

Question 53

There are four major types of secondary data: surveys, official statistics, official records, and other historical documents.

Question 54

The U.S. Bureau of Census sponsors the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD).

Question 55

The General Social Survey (GSS) is a longitudinal study compiled from official statistics.

Question 56

Temporal research refers to research that accounts for the related series of events that unfold over time.

Question 57

Tests of reliability and validity are readily performed in historical research projects due to the availability of multiple measures of the same concepts.

Question 58

The first step in a content analysis is to design coding procedures for the variables to be measured.

Question 59

List the main types secondary data.

Question 60

What is a content analysis?

Question 61

Formulate a research question that would use official records for secondary data analysis.

Question 62

What are the benefits of conducting a secondary data analysis?

Question 63

Identfiy a research question that could be answered using content analysis.

Question 64

In order to maintain transparency and ethical standards of research, researchers may file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain all nonclassified data on a subject. Why is this legislation important?

Question 65

What are the ethical concerns that researchers need to address when conducting secondary data analysis?

Question 66

What are the differences between case oriented and temporal research.

Question 67

Define oral histories.

Question 68

Describe the types of research methods that can be used when conducting historical process research.

Question 69

Discuss several methodological challenges with historical research.

Question 70

Compare and contrast descriptive and analytic comparative research.

Question 71

Discuss the similarities and differences between content analysis and secondary data analysis.

Question 72

Identify the steps in the proper order for conducting a content analysis.

Question 73

Discuss four common methodological questions that a researcher conducting a secondary data analysis should be able to answer.