Test Bank

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Use of Statistics in Criminal Justice and Criminology

Multiple Choice

1. The process of gathering and analyzing data in a systematic and controlled way using techniques and procedures that are accepted by other scientists in a discipline is commonly referred to as ______.

A. speculation

B. counter-intuitive induction

C. science

D. deductive introspection

2. Procedures used by scientists to gather and analyze scientific data are referred to as what?

A. methods

B. modus operandi

C. operational nox

D. formation

3. A hypotheses is best described as ______.

A. a set of proposed and testable explanations about reality that is bound together by logic and evidence

B. a law governing the coherence of social and criminal phenomena

C. a set of rules governing the application of statistical analytic techniques for examining quantitative data

D. a single proposition, deduced from a theory, that must hold true in order for the theory itself to be considered valid

4. Which of the terms below can best be described as a set of proposed and testable explanations about reality that is bound together by logic and evidence?

A. validity

B. hypothesis

C. law

D. theory

5. Studies intending to assess whether policies, programs, or interventions are effective are referred to as what style of research?

A. evaluation research

B. exploratory research

C. confounding research

D. matriculation research

6. A sample can best be described as ______.

A. the grouping of people, places, and objects used to generalize to the population

B. a subset pulled from a population with the goal of ultimately using the people, objects, or places in the sample as a way to generalize to the population

C. the entire set, or universe, of people, places, or objects used to generalize to a population

D. a technique used by social science researchers in attempts to prove existing theoretical propositions true in the general population

7. In order to ensure that a sample mirrors the population from which it was drawn a scientist would employ which type of sampling technique?

A. quota sampling

B. purposive sampling

C. probability sampling

D. snowball sampling

8. Despite suffering from a variety of problems, why is the NCVS considered so useful for research?

A. The NCVS is actually not all that useful because it is replete with methodological errors.

B. The NCVS is useful due to the fact that it facilitates research into the characteristics of crime victims.

C. The NCVS is only useful because it contains files that are quite small and easy to interpret.

9. Two sources of actual, real-world data used in this text are ______.

A. UCR and NCVS

B. MMPI and BJS

C. ICPSR and MMPI

D. DSM and ICPSR

10. Crimes reported within the Uniform Crime Report are sorted into eight index offenses. Which of the following represent those specific indices?

A. aggravated manslaughter, vehicular homicide, pedophilia, human trafficking, drug possession, environmental offenses, piracy, and infanticide

B. terroristic assault, hate crimes, murder, manslaughter, infanticide, patricide, drug offenses, and suicide

C. pedophilia, necrophilia, kidnapping, white-collar crime, airline hijacking, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and traffic offenses

D. homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson

11. The organization that is responsible for the collection of data for the Uniform Crime Reports is the ______.

A. Federal Bureau of Investigation

B. Central Intelligence Agency

C. American University

D. Bureau of Justice Statistics

12. The Uniform Crime Reports conform to the “hierarchy rule,” meaning what?

A. In multiple-crime incidents, only the most serious offense is reported to the UCR.

B. In multiple-crime incidents, every offense is recorded in official records.

C. In multiple-crime incidents, each crime is reported, but the most serious offense is listed first.

D. In all criminal incidents, larger metropolitan law enforcement organizations are given prominence with crimes committed in rural areas listed in special indices of the UCR.

13. The most obvious weakness of the Uniform Crime Report rests on what?

A. The fact that rural crime is too often relegated to lower ranking indices.

B. The fact that only those crimes brought to the attention of the police are included in the database.

C. The fact that the continued use of multistage cluster sampling prevents serious analysis at the individual case level.

D. The fact that the vast majority of data collected and included in the UCR is relegated for use by specially designated federal agents only.

14. The National Crime Victimization Survey is conducted by which agency?

A. The Federal Bureau of Investigation

B. The Central Intelligence Agency

C. The Bureau of the Census

D. The Inter-University Consortium on Political and Social Research

15. GIGO, an acronym commonly used in both computer science and the discipline of statistics, is used to represent what phrase?

A. Gig In Gig Out

B. Going In Going Out

C. Gang In Gang Out

D. Garbage In Garbage Out

16. Research that does not set out to test a theory or explore a new area of research but proposes to simply report characteristics or aspects of a given phenomenon is referred to as what type of research?

A. evaluation research

B. descriptive research

C. expositional research

D. neo-investigative research

17. A sampling technique in which all people, objects, or areas included within a population have an equal and known chance of being selected for inclusion into a sample is known as what type of sampling procedure?

A. purposive sampling

B. snowball sampling

C. probability sampling

D. multistage Cluster sampling

18. Which of the following are commonly used statistical packages in the criminal justice sciences?

A. SPSS, STATA, SAS

B. Numbers, Microsoft Excel

C. Run, SigmaPlot, Do, ESRI

D. ADMB, CJEstat, DataPlot

19. Data that are collected improperly or carelessly can be salvaged through which procedure?

A. Improperly collected data cannot be salvaged by high powered statistical operations.

B. The best method to salvage bad data is through data mining.

C. Negative binomial regression can render even the worst data useful.

D. Data imputation can solve all problems associated with bad or “dirty” data.

20. Measures of ______ complement measures of central tendency by offering information about whether the data tend to cluster tightly around the center or whether they are very spread out.

A. statistics

B. regression

C. sampling

D. dispersion

21. With the exception of purely descriptive research, the ultimate goal in most statistical analyses is do what?

A. test a hypothesis

B. generalize from a population to a sample

C. generalize from a sample to a population

D. test a theory

22. Nonscientific information is that which is collected ______.

A. informally

B. without regard for correct methods

C. anecdotally

D. all of these

23. What is the Bureau of Justice Statistics responsible for?

A. evaluating other federal agencies’ use of statistics

B. gathering, maintaining, and analyzing data on various criminal justice topics at the county, state, and national levels

C. calculating statistics for the government to determine public opinion on political matters

D. all of these

24. Everybody who conducts a study bears an obligation to ______.

A. be very clear and open about the methods they used

B. provide brief outlines on the procedures used

C. conform to at least some of the proper scientific methods

D. all of these

25. Studies using ______ statistical analyses do not contribute to theory and research or to policy.

A. scientific

B. rigorous

C. flawed

D. none of these

26. ______ are small pieces of theories.

A. Studies

B. Hypotheses

C. Laws

D. None of these

27. ______ sampling hopes to ensure that a sample mirrors the population from which is was drawn.

A. Nonprobability

B. Probability

C. Snowball

D. None of these

28. The ______ software package is best for extremely large data sets.

A. SPSS

B. SAS

C. Stata

D. none of these

29. The ______ software package is known for its simplicity and ease of use.

A. SPSS

B. SAS

C. Stata

D. none of these

30. The ______ software package is excellent for regression modeling.

A. SPSS

B. SAS

C. Stata

D. none of these

31. Measure of ______ complement measures of central tendency.

A. dispersion

B. redundancy

C. usefulness

D. none of these

32. Statistics are ______ in that many of the concepts you learn at the beginning form the building blocks for more complex techniques.

A. repetitive

B. abstract

C. cumulative

D. none of these

33. ______ is the key to learning statistics.

A. Replication

B. Adding and subtracting

C. Multiplying

D. None of these

34. ______ are smaller than populations.

A. Studies

B. Samples

C. Parameters

D. none of these

35. Data sets from ______ software package are available for download to accompany your course textbook.

A. SPSS

B. SAS

C. Stata

D. none of these

1. Before a theory can be considered valid, it is first necessary that the hypothesis upon which it is built holds true.

2. A key aspect of scientific research is replication, conducted for purposes of determining whether the original study’s results are reproduced when different samples are used.

3. According to the scientific method, it is vital to the integrity of a discipline that a researcher maintains strict secrecy with respect to the methods, samples, and techniques used in the analysis of data within any particular study.

4. Evaluation research is rarely conducted within the fields of criminal justice or criminology due to its inherent tendency to produce unreliable and often invalid results.

5. Research conducted by social scientists treading into unfamiliar territory when there is limited knowledge regarding a certain phenomenon is referred to as “exploratory” research.

6. In most statistical analyses, the underlying purpose is to generalize from a population to a sample in order to provide the social science community with the best fitting data and results.

7. The most highly prized statistical package used by researchers in the social sciences is Microsoft Excel due to its ability to perform high powered analytic procedures quickly and efficiently.

8. Learning statistics is a cumulative process because the concepts build upon each other, with the more basic analyses providing building blocks for the more complex ones.

9. In order to be a successful student of statistics, a strong base of knowledge in arithmetic and basic algebra is necessary.

10. Statistical methods are the backbone of criminal justice research and enable the construction and expansion of knowledge about criminality and the criminal justice system.

11. The Bureau of Justice Statistics is an important source of data and information on the criminal justice system.

12. Research that tests theories or examines issues related to criminal justice and is ultimately published in academic journals and books is the basis for most of what is known about criminal offending and the justice system.

13. It is better to rely on the personal opinions and observations of people who have worked within the criminal justice system for a long time than on data gathered using scientific methods and analyzed with statistics.

14. Science is grounded in theory.

15. A hypothesis must hold true in order for the theory itself to be considered valid.

16. Exploratory research occurs when there is limited knowledge about a certain phenomenon and researchers embark into unfamiliar territory as they attempt to study this social event.

17. The National Crime Victimization Survey contain annual data collected by the federal government on crimes reported to police agencies nationwide.

18. Replication is repetition of a particular study that is conducted for purposes of determining whether the original study’s results remain true when new samples or measures are employed.

19. A focus group is a subset pulled from a population with the goal of using the people, objects, or places to make generalizations to that population.

20. Theories are proposed explanations for certain events.

1. Describe the various problems afflicting the Uniform Crime Reports.

2. Explain briefly why replication is vital to scientific inquiry. Include in your answer an explanation of the role that clarity and transparency of methods plays in replication.

3. What are the differences between theories and hypotheses?

4. What is the relationship between science and methods?

5. List the four types of research discussed in this chapter.