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Go to SocioSite (http://www.sociosite.net). Choose “Subject
Areas.” Choose “Crime” or “Criminology.” Find an example of research that has
been done using experimental methods. Explain the experiment. Choose at least
five of the key terms listed at the end of this chapter that are relevant to
and incorporated in the research experiment you have located. Explain how each
of the five key terms you have chosen plays a role in the research example you
have found.

Go to the Stanford Prison Experiment website
(http://www.prisonexp.org). Read the information provided about the Stanford Prison
Experiment.
1. Write a brief essay on the study, including the purpose
of the study, the type of experiment, the participant selection process, the
problems encountered during the study, and the results.
2. Go to the discussion questions provided on the website.
Answer the questions listed. What conclusions do you make about the Stanford
Prison Experiment?

Under what conditions do you think that randomized
assignment of subjects to a specific treatment is ethical in criminal justice
research? Was it ethical for Sherman and Berk (1984) and the researchers who
conducted the replication studies to randomly assign individuals accused of
domestic violence to an arrest or a nonarrest treatment? What about in a
laboratory study with students similar to yourself? Do you think it would be
ethical to assign students randomly to be “prisoners” in a study similar to
Zimbardo’s (2007)?

Write 8 to 10 questions for a one-page questionnaire on fear of crime among students. Include some questions to measure characteristics (such as income or year in school) that might help explain their attitudes. Make all but one of your questions closed ended.

After writing the questionnaire for Exercise 2, write at
least two research hypotheses for what you intend to find and explain your
reasoning. For example, do you expect female students to experience a greater
fear of crime than male students? If so, why?

Write 10 questions for a one-page questionnaire that
concerns your proposed research question. Your questions should operationalize
at least three of the variables on which you have focused, including at least
one independent and one dependent variable (you may have multiple questions to
measure some variables). Make all but one of your questions closed-ended. If
you completed the research proposal exercises in Chapter 4, you can select your
questions from the ones you developed for those exercises.

Conduct a preliminary pretest of the questionnaire by
conducting cognitive interviews with two students or other persons similar to
those to whom the survey is directed. Follow up the closed-ended questions with
open-ended probes that ask the students what they meant by each response or
what came to mind when they were asked each question. Take into account the
feedback you receive when you revise your questions.

Let’s take a look at the structure of the GSS survey first.
1. First, run frequencies for the variables race, educcat,
and polhitok.
2. Look carefully at the number of cases for each of these
measures. Why do you think the figure is so much smaller for one measure than
for the other two? Recall the discussion of the GSS in this chapter.

The April 1992 issue of the Journal of Contemporary
Ethnography is devoted to a series of essays reevaluating Whyte’s (1943)
classic field study, Street Corner Society. A social scientist interviewed some
of the people described in Whyte’s book and concluded that the researcher had
made methodological and ethical errors. Whyte and others offer rejoinders and
further commentary. Reading the entire issue of this journal will improve your
appreciation of the issues that field researchers confront.

Search the web for information on focus groups (previous,
upcoming, or ongoing) involving victims, offenders, fear of crime, crime
prevention, or another criminological topic. List the websites you found, and
write a paragraph about the purpose of each focus group and the sample
involved. How might these focus groups be used to influence public policy?