CHAPTER SIX

1. CHAPTER SIX SURVEY RESEARCH: INTERVIEWS AND TELEPHONESURVEYS

2. Survey Research:lnterviews and Telephone Surveys • Interviewsinvolve face-to-face interaction between the interviewer and the respondent; the purpose being to gather information. • Telephone surveys allow the researcher to obtain wide and representative samples without the need for a large field staff and are inexpensive and quick.

3. Question What are some distinct advantages of interviewing as a data-gathering strategy?

4. Three Basic Forms of Interviews • Structured Interviews (Closed Response):Questions are either factual or they seek responses that fit an expectable pattern in a check-off format. • Unstructured Interviews (Open-end Response):Interviews can be focused, clinical, or nondirective – they provide for open-ended responses. These interviews provide more qualitative detail. • Depth (Focus) Interviews:Interviews are more intensive and detailed than a standard survey with fewer subjects. These interviews are useful for life histories or case histories.

5. General Procedures In Interviews • Training and orientation: familiarize yourself with the study’s purpose. • Arranging and scheduling: i.e., timing and identification. • Demeanor; i.e., dress, language, linking interviewer with interviewee re: age, gender, etc. • Administration: be knowledgeable of questionnaire, be able to clarify questions, probing, and confidentiality. • Exit: be thankful and pay attention to informal remarks at the end for “off the record” info. • Recording: make sure the interview responses are self-explanatory and “cleaned up” for analysis.

6. Question What impact does the wording of questions have on response in surveys, public opinion polls, and victim surveys?

7. Advantages of Interviews Interviews enhance personal contact which allows for: • Observation • Clarification of misunderstandings • Control of respondents • Opportunity to employ visual aids • Probing: Follow-up questions that expand or clarify response • Make return visits • Gear language to the level of the respondent • More flexible than mail questionnaires

8. Disadvantages of Interviews • Time consuming • Costly • Potential interviewer bias and mistakes, i.e., interviewer effect • Need for field supervision • Difficulty in reaching certain respondents • Potential for questionable wording in public opinion polls, i.e., Gallup, Washington Post, etc.

9. Telephone SurveysAdvantages: • No field staff • Simple checks on interview bias • Quick and Inexpensive • Easy follow-up • More effective on locating hard-to-locate respondents • Can be done quickly through computerization (CATI: Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews). • Random Digit Dialing: Provides for stratified and simple random samples of telephone numbers.

10. Telephone SurveysDisadvantages: • Reduced scope • Less in-depth responses • High refusal rates, i.e., screening questions • Exclusion of disproportions of populations, i.e., poor and minorities

11. Recording Interviews and Telephone Surveys Recording interviews and telephone surveys can be an asset in obtaining more complete responses and more detail; however, recordings can create problems regarding issues of anonymity and concerns of actual permission regarding sensitive areas.

12. Computer Software and Interviews • Computer Assisted Programmed Interviewing(CAPI):Good for longitudinal studies. Eliminates interviewer bias, more standardized responses, assures anonymity, and reduces coding error. • Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI): Questionnaire items are flashed on a video monitor, and the interviewers can immediately enter responses on the keyboard, i.e., NCVS. • Continuous Audience Response Technology(CART):Measures response to stimuli, i.e., video presentations. • Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Administered Interviewing(ACASI): involves information on the computer screen being simultaneously played on earphones (also, CASI, without earphones).

13. Victim Surveys Victim Surveys provide a valuable additional assessment of crime.

14. National Crime Victimization Survey • The NCVS collects information on both central city households and commercial establishments. • The NCVS is comprised of National Crime Panels. Its data collection method is based on a national stratified multistage cluster samples of households and a two-stage probability sample of businesses. • The emphasis is on “bounding” where crime panels pretest or initially interview to establish reference points for the three year reporting period (helps eliminate telescoping). Household units are interviewed in six month intervals and rotated out of the panel and replaced by another sub-group every three years.

15. NCVS/UCR The true crime rate is probably somewhere between the UCR, which underestimates crime and the victim surveys, which overestimates crime. For crime types such as occupational, corporate, and public order crime, both measures underestimate crime.

16. Benefits of Victim Surveys • Provides an opportunity to obtain victim characteristics • Establishes a more accurate estimate for crimes of rape and assault that are sometimes underreported in UCR data • Local jurisdictions can conduct their own victim surveys • Provides an opportunity to obtain offender characteristics and methodology • Provides an opportunity to assess attitudes of victims, i.e., fear of crime, attitudes toward police, reasons for not reporting crimes to the police

17. Victim SurveysDisadvantages: • High cost • Mistaken interpretation of incidents • Memory failure/decay • Sampling bias • Over/underreporting/false reporting • Telescoping • Interviewer effects • Coding and mechanical error

18. Question What are some methods used for controlling methodological problems in victim surveys?

19. Problems With the Method of Assessment Problems encountered with most methods of data gathering are not inherent to the nature of the method; rather, the problems arise because the method is used as the sole means of assessment.