Please answer the following Criminal Justice Stats and Methods related questions in essay-style format.
Question #1
Part 1: Develop a longitudinal research design that focuses on patterns of antisocial behavior.
a. Describe your target population and the sampling strategy (i.e., probability versus non-probability) that you think would be most effective/efficient in a longitudinal design. What is the unit of analysis in this design?
i. Provide operational definitions of the key components in this design. Specify and provide justifications for your antecedent/independent variable(s) as well as your outcome/dependent variable(s). What are the levels of measurement (i.e., nominal, ordinal, interval/ratio) for your key components?
ii. How do longitudinal designs account for the effect of age on antisocial behavior?
iii. Explain issues of experimental control in regard to this particular type of design.
iv. How does longitudinal research address questions of validity and reliability?
v. What statistical analysis would you use to determine if antisocial behavior is stable or unstable over time? Defend your use of the statistical analysis.
Part 2: Then, describe a complementary cross-sectional design.
vi. Describe your target population and the sampling strategy (i.e., probability versus non-probability) that you think would be most effective/efficient in a cross-sectional design. What is the unit of analysis in this design?
vii. Provide operational definitions of the key components in this design. Specify and provide justifications for your antecedent/independent variable(s) as well as your outcome/dependent variable(s). What are the levels of measurement (i.e., nominal, ordinal, interval/ratio) for your key components?
viii. How do cross-sectional designs account for the effect of age on crime?
ix. Explain issues of statistical control in regard to cross-sectional designs.
x. How does cross-sectional research address questions of validity and reliability?
xi. What statistical analysis would you use to determine if antisocial behavior is stable or unstable over time? Defend your use of the statistical analysis.
Part 3: Contrast the longitudinal research design with the cross-sectional one.
xii. Compare the designs with respect to time, the number of observations, and threats to internal/external validity.
xiii. Provide the advantages and disadvantages associated with each type of research design. What are the limitations (if any) of each?
Question #2
The State of Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) has asked you to design a study that will help in reducing the amount of labor hours spent on pre-sentence investigations. As the system is now, probation & parole officers in the state must conduct a pre-sentence investigation report (PSI) on every convicted felon. The PSI is a detailed social history of the offender which includes: family background (marriage, children, parents, home addresses, siblings, etc.); financial information (income, bank accounts); employment history; military service and record; physical and mental health issues; alcohol use, drug use, prior arrests and convictions, juvenile court history; educational history and school records; and, hobbies and interests.
The PSI takes an officer between 30 and 60 hours to complete and some of the information is difficult to obtain. The Commissioner of the KDOC has asked you if the PSI can be streamlined to include only the information that is needed to provide a judge a sufficient guideline to impose sentence and any treatment plan. How would you conduct a study that would allow you to answer this question? Explain what data you would need, how you would collect it, what hypotheses you would formulate and how you would test the data. Be specific and identify the levels of measurement for your variables and what statistical test(s) you would use.
Question #3
The Harlan Police Department is planning to start a new foot patrol project in the Downtown area. In planning for this new project, they also want to set up a research evaluation plan so that they can determine (1) if it is effective or not and (2) if citizens are satisfied with the foot patrol project. Since you have your master's degree from KSU, the Chief wants you to design the research that will evaluate the effectiveness of the foot patrol project and also measure citizen satisfaction.
Discuss your research plan to measure the effectiveness of the project. Discuss your research design including which measures you plan to include.
Discuss your research design to measure citizen satisfaction.
For both, discuss the statistics that you think would be most helpful in measuring effectiveness and satisfaction. How will you measure variables so that you will be able to use the statistics that you want to use? What problems do you anticipate in the research? How might you anticipate dealing with those problems? What kind of sampling will be necessary for you to obtain valid, reliable, and results that can be generalized?