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1. Run a frequency of each of the three indicators again.
Do you notice anything about V7330_r’s coding compared to the others? Why was
it coded that way? HINT: Think about the math in Exercise 2a.
2. What do high scores on this measure reflect? Low scores?

Select three scholarly journal articles that describe
criminological research using a sample drawn from some population. (you can
find articles on the Student Study Site,
http://edge.sagepub.com/bachmanprccj7e). Identify the type of sample used in
each study, and note any strong or weak points in how the sample was actually
drawn. Did the researchers have a problem due to non response? Considering the
sample, how confident are you in the validity of generalizations about the
population, based on the sample? Do you need any additional information to
evaluate the sample? Do you think a different sampling strategy would have been
preferable? What larger population were the findings generalized to? Do you
think these generalizations were warranted? Why or why not?

Draw a snowball sample of people who have some
characteristic of interest that is not common (i.e., have been skydiving). Ask
friends and relatives to locate a first contact, and then call or visit this
person and ask for names of others. Stop when you have identified a sample of
10. Review the problems you encountered, and consider how you would proceed if
you had to draw a larger sample.

All adult U.S. citizens are required to participate in the
decennial census, but some do not. Some social scientists have argued for
putting more resources into a large representative sample so that more
resources are available to secure higher rates of response from hard-to-include
groups. Do you think that the U.S. Census should shift to a probability-based
sampling design? Why or why not?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of
probability-based sampling designs compared with nonprobability-based designs?
Could any of the research described in this chapter with a nonprobability-based
design have been conducted instead with a probability-based design? What are
the difficulties that might have been encountered in an attempt to use random
selection? How would you discuss the degree of confidence you can place in the
results obtained from research using a nonprobability-based sampling design?

1.Propose a sampling design that would be appropriate if you
were to survey students on your campus only. Define the population, identify
the sampling frame(s), and specify the elements and any other units at
different stages. Indicate the exact procedure for selecting people to be
included in the sample.
2. Propose a different sampling design for conducting your
survey in a larger population, such as your city, your state, or the entire
nation.
Web Exercises

How much pressure is too much pressure to participate in a
probability-based sample survey? Is it OK for the U.S. government to mandate
legally that all citizens participate in the decennial census? Should companies
be able to require employees to participate in survey research about
work-related issues? Should students be required to participate in surveys
about teacher performance? Should parents be required to consent to the
participation of their high school–age students in a survey about substance
abuse and health issues? Is it OK to give monetary incentives for participation
in a survey of homeless shelter clients? Can monetary incentives be coercive?
Explain your decisions.

Federal regulations require special safeguards for research
on persons with impaired cognitive capacity. Special safeguards are also
required for research on prisoners and on children. Do you think special
safeguards are necessary? Why or why not? Do you think it is possible for
individuals in any of these groups to give voluntary consent to research
participation? What procedures might help make consent to research truly
voluntary in these situations? How could these procedures influence sampling
plans and results?

Go to the Student Study Site
(http://edge.sagepub.com/bachmanprccj7e) and choose two research articles that
include some attention to causality (as indicated by a check in that column of
the article matrix). Describe the approach taken in each article to
establishing causality. How do the approaches differ from each other? Which
approach seems stronger to you?

There’s a lot of “sound and fury” in the social science
literature about units of analysis and levels of explanation. Some social
researchers may call another a reductionist if the latter explains a problem
such as substance abuse as caused by lack of self-control. The idea is that the
behavior requires consideration of social structure, which is measured at a
group level of analysis rather than an individual level of analysis. Another
researcher may be said to commit an ecological fallacy if she assumes that
group-level characteristics explain behavior at the individual level (such as
saying that immigrants are more likely to commit crime because the
neighborhoods with higher proportions of immigrants have higher crime rates).
Do you favor causal explanations at the individual or the group (or social
structural) level? If you were forced to mark on a scale from 0 to 100 the
percentage of crime that results from problems with individuals rather than
from problems with the settings in which they live, where would you make your
mark? Explain your decision.
Developing a Research Proposal