Survey Research

1. Survey Research

2. Asking questions • Census probably earliest form of survey • Karl Marx • Political surveys & polls • When to use surveys: for information that cannot be obtained in other ways • Thoughts, opinions, hidden behaviors

3. Surveys • Not appropriate for situations in which the information can be obtained in other ways, i.e., records • Examples in CJ: victimization studies and self-reports • Frequency of offending: ask offenders about how many they have committed

4. Surveys • Prevalence: how many people commit crimes within a given time frame • Other studies in CJ: public views as to how people feel about crime, criminal justice policy, and other issues • Examples: guns, sentencing, police performance, laws concerning drugs

5. Surveys • Often used to determine feasibility of a program, or what people say they will do • i.e., people may support a program, but not be willing to participate • Cautionary notes about asking people to predict what they will do—may over or underestimate (night day care and after school program)

6. Other uses • Surveys before and after the implementation of a program • Can attitudes, beliefs, etc be changed by an intervention? • General purpose crime survey: fear of crime, contacts with the police, security measures, attitudes toward sentencing

7. Other uses • Survey after an encounter with the police

8. Types of questions • Open ended and closed ended • Closed ended easier to code • However, closed ended may leave out some important response—pretesting is useful • Open ended may provide more information, but are difficult to quantify, and some responses will be irrelevant, indecipherable, etc.

9. Questions • Important that items be clear • Identify terms (i.e., many citizens do not know what recidivism means, or furloughs or work release, or gun control, the difference between jail and prison, etc. • Questions should be short, and should not be complex—if they are, they may need to be broken down

10. Other issues on questions • Avoid double barreled questions • Avoid negative items or emphasize the NOT • Try to avoid biases • i.e., associating a question with a particular person or group (i.e., the President’s proposal)

11. Other issues • Avoiding phrases with particular meanings • i.e., 63% of respondents in a survey said to little money was being spent on assistance to the poor, while 23% indicated that we were spending too little on welfare • Welfare a vague and potentially loaded term-depends on what you want to know

12. Other issues • Social desirability—some answers are the expected ones • Personality tests are often correlated with the Crown-Marlowe Social Desirability scale to determine if this is a problem • Self-reported crime is problematic • See p. 253 for an example of alleviating social desirability in an interview

13. Other challenges to self-report • Legal issues among offenders • Memory problems • Interviewing people at repeated intervals • Crime calendar

14. Questionnaires • Tendency to try to compress questionnaires, squeeze questions onto one line, use as few pages as possible • Not a good idea—people will miss questions • Better to have a longer questionnaire that will go quickly • Contingency questions

15. Questionnaires • Matrix questions • Advantages: uses space efficiently, compare responses, easier to complete • Potential “response set” problems • Can alternate direction of statements • Just World Scale

16. Order of questions • Sometimes order will influence how people answer • i.e., if asked a series of questions about crime, and then asked to rank the most serious problems, crime will be likely to come out higher • Could have more than one version of the questionnaire to assess

17. Order • With written questionnaires, start with interesting but not “sensitive” questions, routine questions at the end • With interviews, start with routine working into interesting and then sensitive questions

18. Types of surveys • 1. Self-administered Groups or individually Groups such as classes, meetings, assemblies, during training sessions, etc. Individually while at some place (i.e., probationers when visiting probation officers) Computerized surveys

19. Types of surveys • 2. Mailed • Also can use a combination of “home delivery” and mail • 3. Face to face surveys Individual or groups (focus groups) • 4. Telephone surveys

20. Surveys • Self-administered • Administer the questionnaire, use of a proctor • Least expensive, fastest method if it is feasible

21. Mailed • Development and testing of questionnaire • Important for the questionnaire to look good • “Warning” mailings • 2 purposes: (1) explain the study; (2) used to “clean” addresses (getting correct addresses)—because people move, addresses often out of date (alumni surveys)

22. Mailed questionnaires • Cover letter—affiliation (don’t fake) (avoid controversial affiliations), purpose of the study, how that person was selected, importance of the study (if it has no importance, we shouldn’t be bothering people) • Questionnaire, return self-addressed “stamped” envelope

23. Mailed • “Stamped” could be actual stamps, metering by the post office (paying the postage), and business reply permits • Follow ups • Must either be a “blanket” follow up (if surveys are anonymous) or specifically tracked for those who did not respond (confidential)

24. Mailed • Reminder postcards or new packet • Generally get some responses to a follow up • Acceptable response rates 50% considered adequate, 60% good, 70% very good • Even at 50%, is the sample representative? • Comparison of sample demographics with population demographics

25. Response rates • Will vary with the population of interest • Police • Judges, legislators • Probation and parole • Prisons • Citizens • Techniques for improving