The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice
Web Exercises
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
1. Use the Web to find information regarding alcohol consumption and crime. Write a short report on your findings. How is “alcohol consumption” conceptualized and measured in the various sources you find?
2. How would you define “rape”? Write a brief definition. Based on this conceptualization, what circumstances constitute rape? Describe a method of measurement that would be valid for a study of rape (as you define it). Now go to the Rape Victim Advocates’ website at www.rapevictimadvocates.org. Go to “Myths & Facts.” Discuss some facts about rape that you were previously unaware of or some myths you believed. Rewrite your definition of rape based on your new knowledge. What additional circumstances constitute rape based on your new conceptualization?
3. Sign up for a free account on Survey Monkey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/. Create a survey on a topic of your choice. Include 10 fixed-choice questions, with at least two questions at each level of measurement (i.e., nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio). Make sure that response choices are mutually exclusive and exhaustive. Five open-ended questions should also be included in your survey.
4. Gallup announced that it will no longer poll voters in the 2016 election. Review the article announcing their decision (http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/10/07/446648644/gallup-says-goodbye-to-the-2016-horse-race). What measurement and reliability issues may have factored into their decision? Design survey questions to address those issues. Remember to include response categories that are nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio.
5. The Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define sexual assault differently. Visit their websites to view their definitions of sexual assault. Discuss how these different conceptualizations impact research findings. Why might the two agencies differ with respect to their definitions? How do the differences impact what types of data should be collected from survey respondents?
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5366
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/sexualviolence/definitions.html
6. Review a report from the Emergency Department Data/Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) at http://www.samhsa.gov/data/emergency-department-data-dawn/reports?tab=47. What are the levels of measurement (i.e., nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio) for the variables? Are categories mutually exclusive, or exhaustive? Are any categories missing? Would another conceptualization of variables yield more reliable results?