CCJ 4700 - Exam 1 Questions and Correct
Answers | Latest Update
What are the two realities that explain how we know what we know?
✓ -:- Experiential - direct experience
✓ Agreement - what we've been told
What is tradition? Give an example.
✓ -:- Things that "everybody knows"
✓ Ex: Driving on the left side of the road i n the U.S. is dangerous
What is authority? Give an example.
✓ -:- Trusting the judgement of someone with special expertise
Ex: You are more likely to believe a judge regarding your driver's license suspension than
your parents
Errors in Personal Human Inquiry
✓ -:- Inaccurate Observation - overcome by using measurement devices
Overgeneralization - overcome by replicating the study to see if you get the same results
Selective Observation - specify in advance the number and types of observations
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Purposes of Research
✓ -:- Explore - examine an issue or policy about which little is known
Describe - observe and describe the scope of a problem or policy response
Explain - answer "why?"
Apply - Applied research is often used to evaluate the effects of specific criminal justice
programs
Two major types of applied research:
- Evaluation research
Comparing program goals to results
- Policy analysis Anticipate future consequences of alternative actions
What is the research process?
✓ -:- Problem or Objective - Describes what will be studied
Literature Review - Summarizes the prior research on the topic
Research Questions - Specifies what the research will answer
Subjects For Study - Whom or what will be studied
Measurement - Identifies the key variables of the study
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Data Collection Methods - Explains how observations will be collected
Analysis - Specifies how the observations will be analyzed
References - List of materials consulted and cited
Schedule - A timeline for the various stages of the proposal
Budget - Species where money to support the research will be spent
Social Scientific Theory
✓ -:- Discovering what is, not what should be
- Cannot settle debates on value
- Problematic with evaluators
Ex: What constitutes a good parole officer?
Social science aims to find...
✓ -:- Patterns of regularity in social life created by norms, rules, and
observations
What kind of patterns do social regularities represent?
✓ -:- Probabilistic
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