For this Discussion Board, students are asked to develop a brief questionnaire based on the concepts you’ve learned thus far. Students are encouraged to create this questionnaire in another format and attach the completed document to the discussion thread. Please ensure to include at least one example of the following types of questions (use this as a way to get feedback for your Survey Assignment due 3/9/19):

• Open-ended
• Close-ended
• Matrix
• Contingency
• LINK:

https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/blackboard.learn.xythos.prod/5a343eaadaf7a/612479?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Week%2520%25235%2520-%2520Qualitative%2520vs.%2520Quantitative.mp4&response-content-type=video%2Fmp4&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200217T033054Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIL7WQYDOOHAZJGWQ%2F20200217%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=93004be301febfdc2abffa47696265a49ceda58e738ab4085219ac8df59a68f5

Survey Research
Chapter 7

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Introduction
Survey: ask people questions for research purposes
Most frequently used mode of observation in social science research
Respondent: individual completing the survey

Topics Appropriate to Survey Research 1
Counting crime – asking people about victimization counters problems of data collected by police
Self-reports – dominant method for studying the etiology of crime
Frequency/type of crimes committed
Prevalence (how many people commit crimes) committed by a broader population

Topics Appropriate to Survey Research 2
Perceptions and attitudes – to learn how people feel about crime and CJ policy
Targeted victim surveys – used to evaluate policy innovations & program success
Other evaluation uses – e.g., measuring community attitudes, citizen responses, etc.

Example: Survey Use
The Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey collects data from 50,000 youths in schools. Beginning in 1975, the MTF survey produces information on youths’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Data collected from the survey has been used in numerous scholarly publications and is also used in the White House Strategy on Drug Abuse to monitor youths’ drug usage (http://monitoringthefuture.org/purpose.html).

Guidelines for Asking Questions
Open-ended questions: respondent is asked to provide his or her own answer
Closed-ended questions: respondent selects an answer from a list
Choices should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive
Questionnaire: a collection of questions
May contain statements as questions
Questions and Statements – Likert scale

Additional Guidelines
Make items clear – avoid ambiguous questions; do not ask “double-barreled” questions
Short items are best – respondents like to read and answer a question quickly
Avoid negative items – leads to misinterpretation
Avoid biased items and terms – do not ask questions that encourage a certain answer
Bias: any property of a question that encourages respondents to answer in a particular way

Designing Self-Report Items
Social desirability can be problematic
Adhere to ethical standards of confidentiality and anonymity
Be sensitive to respondent embarrassment
Disclaimers can be used to help
Interview frequently to reduce memory issues
Crime calendars

Questionnaire Construction
General questionnaire format – critical, must be laid out properly
Contingency questions – relevant only to some respondents – answered only based on their previous response
Matrix questions – same set of answer categories used by multiple questions

Ordering Questions in a Questionnaire
Ordering may affect the answers given
Estimate the effect of question order
Perhaps devise more than one version
Begin with most interesting questions
End with duller, demographic data
This is opposite for in-person interview surveys

Self-Administered Questionnaires
Can be home-delivered
Researcher delivers questionnaire to home of sample respondent, explains the study, and then comes back later
Mailed (sent and returned) survey is most common
Researchers must reduce the trouble it takes to return a questionnaire

Warning Mailings, Cover Letters
Used to increase response rates: the percentage of people contacted who actually participate in the survey
Warning mailings – “address correction requested” card sent out to determine incorrect addresses and to “warn” residents to expect questionnaire in mail
Cover letters – detail why survey is being conducted, why respondent was selected, why is it important to complete questionnaire
Include institutional affiliation or sponsorship

Follow-Up Mailings
Send letter as reminder or a new survey (best)
50% response rate is adequate
60% is good
70% is very good
We would rather have a lack of response bias than a high response rate

Computer-Based Self-Administration
Cheap and easy
Can create attractive questionnaires
Face issues with representativeness, low response rates, respondents have to have a computer and Internet access
Can pair with mailed warning letter or give the option of electronically completing the survey or completing hard copy

In-Person Interview Surveys
Interview survey: researchers send interviewers to ask questions orally and record respondents’ answers
Typically achieve higher response rates than mail surveys (80-85% is considered good)
Demeanor and appearance of interviewer should be appropriate; interviewer should be familiar with questionnaire and ask questions precisely
Interviewer can probe for additional information; probe
When more than one interviewer administers, efforts must be coordinated and controlled
Practice interviewing

Computer-Assisted Interviews
Reported success in enhancing confidentiality
Reported higher rates of self-reporting
Computer-assisted interviewing (CAI): interviewers read questions from screens and then type in answers from respondents
Computer-assisted self-interviewing (CASI): respondent keys in answers, which are scrambled so that interviewer cannot access them

Telephone Surveys
Random-Digit Dialing
Eliminates unlisted number problem
Often results in business, pay phones, fax lines
Saves money and time, provides safety to interviewers, more convenient
May be interpreted as bogus sales calls; ease of hang-up

Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI)
A set of computerized tools that aid telephone interviewers and supervisors by automating various data collection tasks
Easier, faster, more accurate but more expensive
Formats responses into a data file as they are keyed in
Can automate contingency questions and skip sequences

Comparison of the Three Methods
Self-administered questionnaires are generally cheaper, better for sensitive issues than interview surveys
Cost and speed are inversely related
Using mail – local and national surveys are same cost
Interviews – more appropriate when respondent literacy may be a problem, produce fewer incompletes, achieve higher completion rates
Validity low in survey research; reliability high
Surveys are also inflexible, superficial in coverage

Qualitative Interviewing
Chapter 8

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Introduction
Qualitative interview: an interaction between an interviewer and a respondent where the interviewer has a general plan of inquiry, including topics to be covered
The interviewer might not have a specific set of questions to be asked in a particular order
Can be thought of as a purposeful conversation.
Allows researchers to study more complex processes or the “hows” involving human perspective

Topics Appropriate to Qualitative Interviewing
Qualitative interviews can be the sole way of gathering data in criminal justice studies
Allows the research to understand the subjects’ perspectives
Can gather first hand accounts of their impressions and their lived experience.
Can also be used to understand how people feel about their roles and identities

Key Features of Qualitative Interviewing
Richness, meaning, and shared cultural views
Thick descriptions that reveal meaning of actions in addition to describing actions
Critical realist approach and qualitative interviewing
Critical realist perspective: each perspective contributes to some reality of behavior
Platform for creating questions
Before creating questions, you need to figure out who you will interview and the depth of your questions

Different Kinds of Qualitative Interviews
Interview schedule: the structure of the interview that may have predetermined questions or topical areas to be discussed
Structured interview: consists of predetermined questions and answer sets
Semi-structured interview: have standardized questions but allows the interviewer to explore themes that emerge during the interview
Unstructured interview: are the most open style interviewing; provides the most breadth, depth and natural interaction with participants

Focus Group Interviews
Focus group: 6-12 people brought together to engage in guided group discussion of some topic
Used to generate hypotheses, or combined with other types of data gathering such as participant observation
Can show how opinions are produced, expressed, and exchanged in everyday life
Can be either natural groups or artificial groups
Natural groups have an existing connection
Artificial groups are made up of individuals selected according to some criteria and are brought together for research purposes

Designing Qualitative Interview Questions
Must decide what order to tell the story
A diachronic delivery of material starts at the beginning and progresses chronologically.
A synchronic framework does not depend on time

Probes
Prompt participants to elaborate on responses by filling in more detail and depth.
It is important to have built in prompts in case you have quiet respondents
You can use an attention probe (e.g., lean in), a continuation probe (e.g., nod), clarification probe (e.g., ask the respondent to clarify), or follow-up questions

Gaining Access to Participants 1
Establish your role to determine if you are an insider or outsider
Insider/outsider status: your level of insiderness depending on how close you are to a group
To gain access to a formal organization, you will need identify yourself as a researcher and make a formal request and receive formal approval

Gaining Access to Participants 2
Best to use a four step process: sponsor, letter, phone call, and meeting
To gain access to informal subcultures, researchers can use a sponsor or hang out where subjects hang out
Compensation might be necessary to encourage participation

Example: Gaining Access to an Informal Subculture
Sudhir Venkatesh conducted qualitative research on a gang in Chicago. He gained access to the gang by visiting a housing project where he befriended a gang leader named JT. Through his friendship with JT, Sudhir gained access to the gang and others living in the project. For seven years, he studied the criminal activities in the project and the crack-selling activities of the gang. His research is presented in his book Gang Leader for a Day.

Conducting Qualitative Interviews
Qualitative interviews can be in-person, on the phone, online, or a survey
Face-to-face are most common
Reflexivity: refers to your subjectivity and the meaning you give to information
During interviews you will need to develop a rapport with respondents
Can be done through informal conversations or finding something you and the respondent have in common

Rapport 1
Rapport: how you connect with subjects
Influenced by insider/outsider status
Can do a number of things to maintain rapport once an interview begins
Converse
Listen
Pay attention to meaning
Probe
Persist

Rapport 2
Play innocent
Pay attention to interview length
Word questions clearly
Sequence your moves
Be candid
Show respect
End on a positive note

Conducting Focus Group Interviews
Must decide whether to have a natural or artificial group, what the physical arrangement of the group should be, and the appropriate length of the interview
Need to be aware of groupthink and dominant group members
If you are gathering data on a sensitive topic, you must realize that participants can be upset by having to share such information and that you cannot ensure confidentiality

Recording Data 1
After recording information, researchers must transcribe the dialogue verbatim
After returning from interviews, you must write up field notes no later than the morning after
Memoing: involves writing about your research process and is important to recognize subjectivity

Recording Data 2
Operational, coding and analytic are three types of memos
Operational memos are steps that you took in the research process
Coding memos allow you to document how you coded data
Analytic memos provide ways to explore relationships in the data

Data Analysis and Making Claims
Data is managed through tables, charts and other visual displays
Data reduction involves putting aside information that seems irrelevant
Thinking units: simple framework for making sense of all the stories that emerge
Possible thinking units: meanings, practices, episodes, encounters, roles, relationships, groups, organizations, settlements, social worlds and lifestyles
Sensitizing concepts: general references and guides about what you are looking for

Grounded Theory
Grounded theory: stems from an analysis of patterns, themes, and common categories discovered in data
Combines a naturalist approach with a positivist concern for a systematic set of procedures
Theoretical sampling might be used to confirm themes that are observed
Theoretical saturation occurs when you reach the point when additional interviewing will not yield new results

Identify Codes and Themes
Coding information from interviews assigns units of meaning to data
Involves the organization of raw data into conceptual categories
Often involves lower-level concepts and higher-level concepts
Themes: higher-level concepts which include a group of lower level concepts that are usually produced from open coding

Quality and Rigor in Analyzing Qualitative Interviewing
To enhance the quality of qualitative analysis, researchers should have an established audit trail
Audit trail: extensive log of data
An important check is to look for negative cases that contradict the emerging themes
Also perform member checks where other researchers read the descriptions and verify the accuracy of the work