CH.10 Content analysis: historical, secondary, and content analysis and crime mapping

Question 1

secondary data analysis

Answer 1

collection of data previously taken before you by someone else. for major types: surverys, official statistics, official records, historical documents.
95% of police data is collected is put into the FBI . ingham has been doing it for a while.
Good source for secondary data: ICPSR (icpsr.umich.edu), US census, the national archinve of criminal justice data, general social survey.

Question 2

advantages of using secondary data

Answer 2

allows for analysis of social processes in other inaccesable settings. saves time and money. allows researcher to avoid data collection problems.
depending onthe specific data set and topic:
facilitate comparisons
allows inclusions of more variables and more diverse sample.
combination of data for multiple studies
allows for longitudinal studies.

Question 3

most common sources

Answer 3

social science surverys data collected in studies funded by federal and state governments.
official records maintained by government aganecies for administrative rather than research purpose.

Question 4

historical research -events

Answer 4

research in which social events of a time period in the past are studied
One useful technique is event structure analysis:
systemic coding of key events or national characteristics to identify the underlying structure of actions.
the codes are used to create events sequences. compare between cases, create ideographical causal explanation for a key event,

Question 5

event structure analysis consists of:

Answer 5

classifying historical information into discrete events
ordering events in a temporal sequence
identifying prior steps that are prerequisites for subsequent events.
representing connections between events in a diagram
eliminating from the diagrams connections that are mot necessary.

Question 6

comparative methods

Answer 6

research comparing data from more than one time period and/ or more than one nation.
two types: descriptive comparative research; reserach that seeks to understand the structire, antire or scope of anations or nations’s criminal justice systems or rates of crime
analyiitc comparative research: research that seeks to understand how national systems work and the factors related to their operation is.

Question 7

comparative methods usally examine phenomenau across societies

Answer 7

study several countries, different social groups within a country, culture and how nations deal with crime.

Question 8

content analysis

Answer 8

look at all different news ads and see drink specials are. what is more prominent? priority? then develop fixed choice responses that can then develop quantitative data and can be analyzed statistically.

Question 9

qualitative data analysis

Answer 9

involves coding and categorized texts, discovering relationships among constructs in the text, and a statistical analysis of those findings.

Question 10

secondary data analysis

Answer 10

taking data, texts, that already exist and subjecting them to a new form.

Question 11

identifying a population of documents of other textual sources

Answer 11

units can surveyed are numerous, proceeds several stages: identify a population of documents or ot
her textual sources for study.
determine the units of analysis

Question 12

elects sample of units from pop.

Answer 12

simple random sampling, stratified sampling

Question 13

design coding for variable to be measured

Answer 13

decide what unit of text to code, develop categories for codes. then test and refine.

Question 14

base statistical analysis on counting occurrences of particular items

Answer 14

words themes and phrases, test relationships.

Question 15

crime mapping

Answer 15

data used to indentify the spatial distribution of crime along with social indicators (e.g. poverty) that are similarly distributed across areas.
THREE MAIN FUNCTIONS OF C.M. for research:
??
depict the realtioship between crime and economic disadvantages.
depict the relationship between gang motivated homicides and economic disadvantages.
???

Question 16

special methodological challenges inc content analysis.

Answer 16

documents and other evidence may have been lost or damaged.
existing evidence may represent a biased sample ( newsworthy figures or those who were more prone to writing)
the feelings of individuals involved in past events may be hard, in not impossible, to reconstruct.

small number of cases.
variable cross-national record keeping practices.
the meaning if concepts and the operational definition of variables may change over time and between nations or regions.

Question 17

responsible use of secondary data

Answer 17

rewuires good understanding of the primary data source.
what were the agencies goals for collecting the data?
who was responsible for data collection, and what were their qualifications?
when and what data were collected and what were they intended to measure?
what were the methods?????ask.

how is the information organized? are identifiers available on the same case to identify data.
how consistent are the data with the data available from other sources?
what is known about the success of the data collection effort?

Question 18

ethical issues in secondary analysis

Answer 18

generally confidentiality is not an issue because existing data from research studies is usually in public use files.
confidentiality may be an issue in historical records and official agency records; identifiers should be removed and files have been created so that any researchers can access it without violating confidentiality.)
the freedom of information act stipulates that all persons have a right access all federal agency records unless the records are specifically.

Question 19

IRB

Answer 19

always go through them when doing reserach on human subjects, concerns arise when surverys are conducted or other data are collected in other countries. if the researchers lacks much knowledge