Chapter 6 - Telephone Surveys, Victim Surveys Flashcards
What are the three basic interview forms?
-Structured interviews
-Unstructured interviews
-Depth interviews
What are structured interviews?
Consists of check-off responses to questions that are factual and easily fit an expected pattern
What are unstructured interviews?
Provides open-ended responses to questions
What are depth interviews?
More intensive or detailed interviews that are particularly useful in life histories or case studies
What are the general rules for interviewing?
- training & orientation
- appearance & demeanor of the interviewer
- familiarity with the questions
- follow the question wording exactly
- record responses exactly
- probe respondents for more details
What are the advantages of interviews?
-personal contact between researcher & respondent
-higher response rate (than mail surveys)
-able to clarify questions
-interviewer also an observer- note non-verbal communication
what are the disadvantages of interviews?
-time consuming
-cost
-possible interviewer effects or biases
What is the interviewer effect?
biases introduced by the interviewer (ex: gender of interviewer effect, race or ethnicity of interviewer effect)
What is a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI)
A software package incorporated into telephone surveys
What are the disadvantages of telephone surveys?
- low call-backs
- respondents distractions and interruptions
- “interesting” questions throughout the survey
- excludes those without phones
- lower response rates compared with interviews
- may be hard to get in-depth responses
What is the randomized response technique (RRT)?
coping with resistance to sensitive questions by using indeterminate questions; the actual question answered is known only to the respondent
What is the general time frame that household surveys should be conducted?
No earlier than 10 am and no later than 8 pm
What is probing?
Asking follow up questions that focueses, expands, or clarifies the response given
Mentioned in the textbook, what are the ten commandments of interviewing?
-Never begin an interview cold
-Remember your purpose
-Present a natural front
-Demonstrate aware hearing
-Think about appearance
-Interview in a comfortable place
-Don’t be satisfied with monosyllabic answers
-Be respectful
-Practice, practice, and practice some more
-Be cordial and appreciative
What are vignettes?
The use of short stories as a data-gathering device
What are screening questions?
Preliminary questions employed to determine appropriate respondents for the main portion of a survey
What is random digit dialing?
enables the researcher to overcome a major shortcoming of telephone surveys by dialing random numbers
What is a hundred bank?
The first eight digits of any ten-digit telephone number
What is the branching procedure?
Interview technique used to narrow down sensitive responses such as income into less threatening categories or ranges
What are victim surveys?
Involve questioning a representative sample of the population to obtain an estimate of victimization
When did the NCVS begin and when was it redesigned?
1972; mid 1990s
What is bounding in victim surveys?
The initial interview in a panel serves as a boundary or means of establishing exactly when events have taken place
For personal and household crime, what does victim surveys overestimate and UCRs tend to underestimate?
crime; the true rate of crime is in between those estimates
For occupational, corporate, and public order crime, how is crime represented in victim surveys and uniform crime reports?
they both underestimate crime
What are problems with victim surveys (and surveys in general)?
-Cost of large samples
-false reports
-mistaken reporting
-poor memory
-telescoping
-sampling bias
-overreporting and underreporting
-interviewer effects
-coding unreliability and mechanical errors
-problems measuring certain crimes
What is telescoping in terms of victim reports?
the tendency of respondents to move forward and report as having occurred events that actually occurred before the reference period
What is a reverse record check?
Validation of reported behavior on the basis of studying a group whose behavior is already known
What are demand characteristics?
Overagreeableness on the part of those surveyed; respondents give the researcher the response they believe is demanded
What were changes were made to the NCVS?
-Expanding list of questions asked
-Decision use CATI technology
-More victimization have been reported
