Criminal Justice and Scientific Inquiry
We live in a world of two realities: _____.
a. | expressed and assumed |
b. | experiential and agreement |
c. | expressed and agreement |
d. | experiential and assumed |
Experiential and agreement
As a rule, possible harm to subjects may be justified when the potential benefits of the study outweigh the possible harm.
True or False
True
The scientific criteria for causality include ____.
a. | a correlation between the cause and the effect |
b. | the effect preceding the cause in time |
c. | the effect being caused by some third variable |
d. | a cause that is not probabilistic |
A correlation between the cause and the effect
An empirical measure that adequately reflects the meaning of the concept under consideration is said to have ____.
a. | reliability |
b. | validity |
c. | accuracy |
d. | exhaustiveness |
validity
In most cases, the methods used to select subjects must meet the scientific norm of ____.
a. | generalizability |
b. | informed consent |
c. | equivalence |
d. | neutrality |
generalizability
Things we know from direct experience are a direct result of ____ reality.
a. | agreement |
b. | expressed |
c. | assumed |
d. | experiential |
Experiential
One of the most important issues addressed by institutional review boards relates to _____.
a. | voluntariness of participation |
b. | the adequacy of the experimental design |
c. | whether funding was received from an appropriate source |
d. | the qualifications of the researcher |
Voluntariness of participation
When we say something is valid, we make a judgment about the extent to which relevant evidence supports that inference as being ____.
a. | reliable |
b. | probable |
c. | true or correct |
d. | interesting |
true or correct
What might be a useful indicator of the dimension “victim harm”?
a. | economic gain |
b. | gender of victim |
c. | physical injury |
d. | gender of offender |
physical injury
Which situation presents a threat to internal validity?
subjects dropping out of an experiment
If you have concluded that a particular pattern exists and have developed a general understanding of why, you may be tempted to ignore facts that don’t fit. This illustrates _____.
a. | inaccurate observation |
b. | overgeneralization |
c. | illogical reasoning |
d. | selective observation |
Selective observation
According to federal regulations, which of the following populations is classified as a “special” population?
a. | public employees |
b. | juvenile delinquents |
c. | undergraduate students |
d. | new parents |
juvenile delinquents
Suppose a researcher describes the age, race, and gender distributions for people who are charged with shoplifting. The unit of analysis is ____.
a. | individuals |
b. | demographic groups |
c. | arrest records |
d. | stores at which shoplifting occurs |
Individuals
The words or symbols in language used to illustrate subjective thoughts or mental images about things we may encounter in daily life are known as ____.
a. | operations |
b. | concepts |
c. | observations |
d. | measurements |
concepts
Shortening the time between pretest and posttest or perhaps even offering cash payments to participants in an experiment are techniques that may be used to ____.
a. | limit diffusion |
b. | decrease experimental mortality |
c. | decrease the effects of instrumentation |
d. | control threats to testing |
decrease experimental mortality
Scientific inquiry is a(n) _____ activity.
a. | conscious |
b. | private |
c. | casual |
d. | informal |
Conscious
Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo designed a simulated prison to measure ____.
a. | the dispositional hypothesis |
b. | the innate predisposition to violence |
c. | the situational hypothesis |
d. | how violent inmates can be subdued |
The situational hypothesis
Which type of study attempts to account for errors in drawing a sample by measuring the same people on two or more occasions?
a. | cohort study |
b. | panel study |
c. | trend study |
d. | cross-sectional study |
panel study
What level of measurement allows you to arrange attributes from greater than to less than, but does not allow you to tell how much greater or how much less than one attribute is from another?
a. | nominal |
b. | ordinal |
c. | interval |
d. | ratio |
ordinal
The maturation threat refers to _____.
a. | older subjects being more likely to take research participation seriously |
b. | the impact of natural, developmental processes on experimental outcomes |
c. | the natural development of researcher expertise as more research is completed |
d. | younger subjects generally do better because they are easier to manipulate |
the impact of natural, developmental processes on experimental outcomes |
A(n) _____ can be thought of as a complex set of relationships among several concepts.
a. | analysis |
b. | theory |
c. | operationalization |
d. | generalization |
Theory
In the U.S., adult prisoners _____.
a. | have, historically, been physically harmed by research participation |
b. | must be paid the prison system’s typical inmate wage for participation |
c. | cannot participate in research that asks about their criminal history |
d. | can get extra “good time” in exchange for participating |
Have, historically, been physically harmed by research participation |
Which pair refers to whether an explanation seeks to explain a particular event or a class of events?
a. | idiographic and nomothetic |
b. | inductive and deductive |
c. | quantitative and qualitative |
d. | social and cultural |
idiographic and nomothetic
Since its inception, the ____ has served as a measure to monitor the volume of crime, including crimes not reported to police.
a. | UCR |
b. | NCVS |
c. | NIBRS |
d. | NSDUH |
NCVS
Neither the subjects nor the researcher can identify which group is the control group and which is the experimental group. Which design is being used?
a. | cross-sectional |
b. | double-blind |
c. | a blind experiment |
d. | of no value |
a blind experiment