Chapter 9: Research Using Secondary Data

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Using secondary data when conducting research ______.

a. is not as attractive as utilizing primary data

b. can be both time consuming and expensive

c. requires the use of computing equipment and transcription services

d. provides the option of investigating large data sets

2. The National Crime Victimization Survey, an example of secondary data, is known for all of the following with the exception of ______.

a. It contains a large sample size.

b. It is considered to be high quality.

c. It is locally representative.

d. It is easily accessible.

3. Santos’ research utilized data collected from which of the following?

a. police departments

b. municipal and state courts

c. state prisons

d. victims

4. Zaykowski focused on all of the following variables in her victimization research with the exception of ______.

a. victim demographics

b. victim access to service

c. victim’s mental and physical state

d. victim’s relationship with their family

5. Which of the following stages of research did Zaykowski alter due to the availability of secondary National Crime Victimization Survey data through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research?

a. literature review

b. findings

c. research question

d. research design

6. The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data sources their data from all of the following with the exception of ______.

a. federal agencies

b. state agencies

c. local agencies

d. investigator-initiated research projects

7. The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data is sponsored by which agencies?

a. Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

b. National Institute of Justice, State Administering Agency, and the U.S. Department of Justice

c. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, and the Office of Justice Programs

d. Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Bureau of Justice Statistics

8. Which of the following agencies is considered to be the primary contributor to FedStats?

a. Federal Bureau of Investigation

b. Office of Justice Programs

c. U.S. Department of Justice

d. U.S. Department of Commerce

9. The Federal Bureau of Investigation manages which of the following collection programs?

a. Summary Reporting System

b. National Incident Based Reporting System

c. National Crime Victimization Survey

d. Uniform Crime Reporting Program

10. The Uniform Crime Reporting Program data includes information from all of the following sources with the exception of ______.

a. local

b. state

c. federal

d. international

11. Which of the following offers counts of each type of in-scope crime such as murder, non-negligent manslaughter, and burglary?

a. Uniform Crime Reporting Program

b. Summary Reporting System

c. Supplemental Homicide Reports

d. National Incident Based Reporting System

12. Which of the following reporting programs provides detailed information pertaining to murder and manslaughter?

a. Uniform Crime Reporting Program

b. Summary Reporting System

c. Supplemental Homicide Reports

d. National Incident Based Reporting System

13. Which of the following reporting programs was created in an effort to gather details about nonfatal crimes?

a. Uniform Crime Reporting Program

b. Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted

c. Summary Reporting System

d. National Incident Based Reporting System

14. The following crimes fall under the National Incident Based Reporting Systems umbrella of crimes against society with the exception of ______.

a. pornography

b. gambling

c. arson

d. drug/narcotic offenses

15. Which of the following types of data topics is considered to be relatively new?

a. hate crime

b. gambling offenses

c. cargo theft

d. prostitution

16. Which of the following agencies collects data about economic conditions in the U.S. labor force that can be used to encourage economic growth and improve standards of living for Americans?

a. Department of Commerce

b. Federal Bureau of Investigation

c. Center for Disease Control and Prevention

d. Department of Justice

17. Collecting data on individuals’ income, education levels, employment status, and housing characteristics is the function of the ______.

a. American Community Survey

b. Current Population Survey

c. National Crime Victimization Survey

d. Police-Public Contact Survey

18. A geographic area used by the Census Bureau for aggregating population data is called a ______.

a. geographic information system

b. cross-sectional data

c. block group

d. geospatial data set

19. The Current Population Survey primarily gauges which of the following?

a. welfare

b. education

c. unemployment

d. income

20. Data that includes longitude and latitude coordinates of a particular research area is called ______.

a. de-identified data

b. cross-sectional data

c. public use data

d. geospatial data

21. Which of the following types of data contains annual economic information by industry?

a. Current Population Survey

b. Geographic Information Systems

c. American Community Survey

d. County Business Partners

22. Statistical Analysis Centers state-level data gathering agencies are comparable to which of the following agencies?

a. U.S. Department of Commerce

b. Bureau of Justice Statistics

c. Census Bureau

d. U.S. Department of Justice

23. Zaykowski utilized which of the following types of data gathered about the use of victim services by crime victims?

a. de-identified

b. longitudinal

c. geospatial

d. cross-sectional

24. Zaykowski used which of the following secondary data sources in her research?

a. Supplemental Homicide Reports

b. National Crime Victimization Survey

c. National Incident-Based Reporting System

d. Current Population Survey

25. Zaykowski downloaded her data from which of the following databases?

a. National Archive of Criminal Justice Data

b. Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research

c. National Incident Based Reporting System

d. Statistical Analysis Centers

26. Opting to leave a question blank on a survey or questionnaire is referred to as ______.

a. not applicable

b. bias

c. nonresponse

d. sample error

27. All of the following are common pitfalls of secondary data analysis with the exception of ______.

a. forcing the data to be what it is not

b. receiving IRB approval

c. large amounts of nonresponses

d. not applicable responses

28. The following are identified as pieces of information that should be reported when conducting secondary data analysis with the exception of ______.

a. explaining how the primary data were obtained

b. identifying the unit of analysis

c. identifying the project or program undertaken to collect the primary data

d. providing an explanation for every variable in the codebook

29. The following were identified as common pitfalls when conducting secondary data analysis with the exception of ______.

a. using codebooks in order to understand every variable in a data set

b. utilizing data that contains not applicable responses

c. changing research questions to adapt to variables

d. making variables in existing data reflect the concepts researchers are interested in studying

30. Investigators obtain identifiable private information about individuals for research purposes when using ______.

a. public use data

b. geospatial data

c. human subject data

d. de-identified data

31. Secondary use data that is available for anyone to use is called ______.

a. geospatial data

b. de-identified data

c. human subject data

d. public use data

32. The following are examples of private information with the exception of ______.

a. medical records

b. students’ school records

c. faculty members’ salaries

d. tax and social security records

33. Advantages of conducting secondary data analysis include the following with the exception of ______.

a. producing new empirical knowledge

b. requiring fewer financial resources than collecting primary data

c. easy online access

d. allowing researchers to change or adapt their research questions to best fit the data

34. Which of the following uses of secondary data requires IRB approval?

a. using data that meets the definition of human subject data

b. using publicly available data

c. using de-identified data

d. using data that does not contain private information, such as names

35. Data stripped of personal information, such as names and phone numbers is called ______.

a. geospatial data

b. de-identified data

c. human subject data

d. public use data

36. The ______ offers researchers a series of flowcharts that helps determine whether their research falls under the umbrella of “human subject.”

a. U.S. Department of Commerce

b. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

c. U.S. Department of Justice

d. U.S. Department of State

37. The first question on the Department of Health and Human Services flow chart that helps determine whether research uses human subjects is ______.

a. “Are the sources publicly available?”

b. “Does the research involve the collection or study of existing data, documents, records, pathological specimens, or diagnostic specimens?”

c. “Will information be recorded by the investigator in such a manner that the subjects cannot be identified?”

d. “Are human subjects being utilized in the data collection?”

38. ______ data are collected from the same sample at different points in time.

a. Geospatial

b. Longitudinal

c. De-identified

d. Cross-sectional

39. ______ are data collected at the same point of time, or when differences in time are noted.

a. Geospatial

b. Longitudinal

c. De-identified

d. Cross-sectional

40. Which agency distributes formula grant funds the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs?

a. Federal Bureau of Investigations

b. U.S. Department of Commerce

c. State Administering Agency

d. Office of Justice Programs

41. The ______ focuses on research and development in order to enhance crime prevention, and assistant state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies.

a. Office of Justice Programs

b. U.S. Department of Justice

c. National Institute of Justice

d. Bureau of Justice Statistics

42. The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data database is maintained by the ______.

a. National Institute of Justice

b. Statistical Analysis Center

c. Bureau of Justice Statistics

d. Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research

43. ______ is the moniker for the data repository system offering open access to a wide range of statistical data generated by government agencies.

a. Federal Statistical System

b. Statistical Analysis Centers

c. Bureau of Justice Statistics

d. Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research

44. The Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research’s main role is to archive data from which of the following fields?

a. political and social research

b. political and health and human development research

c. social research and natural science research

d. health and human development and natural science research

45. The Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted data set, which includes information on incidents resulting in the assault and killing of on-duty officers, is a part of which of the following?

a. National Crime Victimization Survey

b. Bureau of Justice Statistics

c. National Incident Based Reporting System

d. Uniform Crime Report Program

1. The data from the National Crime Victimization Survey is an example of secondary data.

2. Secondary data usually includes small samples.

3. Accessing secondary data can be very difficult in comparison to accessing primary data.

4. The federally funded data collection programs are designed to provide data on a handful of variables.

5. The National Crime Victimization Survey is the largest federally funded data source providing high quality criminal victimization data.

6. Using secondary data that is de-identified can help expedite Institutional Review Board reviews.

7. Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research users must download and have statistical software to run their analyses.

8. The main role of the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research is to archive political and social research data.

9. Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research access is free to all who register.

10. Individuals can log in to the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research website by using a Facebook or Google account that is affiliated with their university.

11. Using Boolean filters is not helpful when conducting data archive searches.

12. Documentation on how data files are structured and the variables contained in the data set can be found in codebooks.

13. Public use data involves human subjects.

14. When the analysis of existing data meets the definition of human subject data, Institutional Review Board is usually not necessary.

15. Researchers should include information on where they obtained their secondary data.

16. Scholars recommend that researchers report whether they received Institutional Review Board approval in their research.

17. Zaykowski gathered her own data on victim services.

18. Information pertaining to the variables used in data is located in codebooks.

19. Providing a high level of detail about data quality can help convince readers that the use of data is justified.

20. According to the author, secondary data analysis is subject to many pitfalls.

21. When secondary data is utilized, because researchers were not part of the original research team, they are unable to really test what they think they are testing, and may try to adapt the research question to fit the data.

22. When there is no data recorded for a particular variable in secondary data, it is called missing data.

23. Some secondary data includes a large amount of missing data, making analysis challenging.

24. Missing data is comparable to data that is considered not applicable.

25. Researchers using secondary data are always exempt from the Institutional Review Board review process.

1. What is secondary data analysis?

2. What is the purpose of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data?

3. Identify all of the subject areas that make up the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.

4. Identify the three basic steps that need to be followed in order to conduct secondary data analysis using the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) data.

5. Identify the various types of software programs that can be utilized for analyzing data.

6. What is human subject data?

7. What basic information should be included when reporting findings?

8. Identify the information about secondary data that Zaykowski reported in her journal article findings.

9. Identify the most common pitfall of utilizing secondary data, what steps can be taken to overcome this problem, and how the pitfall can impact research.

10. Identify Cuevas’ recommendation for avoiding the common pitfalls associated with using secondary data.

1. Why is using secondary data a popular approach among researchers?

2. What is the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)? How can the consortium benefit researchers?

3. Discuss the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) program. How can it help law enforcement officers?

4. Explain why researchers who utilize secondary data provide details about the types of information they have gathered, analyzed, and reported in their research findings.

5. After having read Chapter 9, you should have a better understanding of the disadvantages and advantages of secondary data. Would you prefer to utilize original or secondary data? Why?