Chapter 9:

1. 1 Chapter 9: Agency Records, Content Analysis, and Secondary Data

2. 2 Introduction • Data from agency records – agencies collect a vast amount of crime and CJ data • Secondary analysis – analyzing data previously collected • Content analysis – researchers examine a class of social artifacts (typically written documents)

3. 3 Topics Appropriate for Agency Records • Most commonly used in descriptive or exploratory • Content analysis often center on links between communication, perceptions of crime problems, individual behavior, CJ policy

4. 4 Types of Agency Records • Published Statistics – gov’t organizations routinely collect and publish compilations of data (e.g., NCVS, Census Bureau, BJS; often available in libraries and online • Nonpublic Agency Records – agencies produce data not routinely released (e.g., police departments, courthouses, correctional facilities) • New Data Collected by Agency Staff – collected for specific research purposes; less costly + more control

5. 5 Units of Analysis and Sampling • If you use agency records, be attentive to match or mismatch between UoA appropriate for research question and UoA represented in aggregate form • You can go from individual to aggregate, but not aggregate to individual • Sampling – taking subsets of agency records is relatively simple and quite useful

6. 6 Units of Analysis in Criminal Justice Data • Criminal Activity • Incidents • Crimes violated • Victims • Offenders • Court Activity • Defendants • Filings • Charges and Counts • Cases • Appearances • Dispositions • Sentences • Apprehension • Arrests • Offenders • Charges • Counts • Corrections • Offenders • Admissions • Returns • Discharges

7. 7 Sources of Reliability and Validity Problems • Virtually all CJ record keeping is a social process – “social production of data” • Records reflect decisions made by CJ personnel as well as actual behavior by juveniles and adults • Discretion factors in to recordkeeping • CJ organizations are more interested in keeping track of individual cases than in examining patterns • Potential for clerical errors due to volume of data

8. 8 Content Analysis • Systematic study of messages – can be applied to virtually any form of communication • Decide on operational definitions of key variables • Decide what to watch, read, listen to & time frame • Analyze collected data • Well-suited to answer “Who says what, to whom, why, how, and with what effect?”

9. 9 Aspects of Sampling and Coding in Content Analysis 1 • First establish your universe, then your units of analysis and sampling frame, then sample • Communications need to be coded according to some conceptual framework • Choice between depth & specificity of understanding: • Manifest content – visible, surface content – similar to using closed-ended survey questions • Latent content – underlying meaning

10. 10 Aspects of Sampling and Coding in Content Analysis 2 • Reminders: • Remember operational definition of variables, and their mutually exclusive & exhaustive attributes • Pretest coding scheme • Assess coding reliability via intercoder reliability method and test-retest method

11. 11 Secondary Analysis • Sources – websites (BJS, NCVS, ICPSR, NACJD), libraries • Advantages – cheaper, faster, benefit from work of skilled researchers • Disadvantages – data may not be appropriate to your research question; least useful for evaluation studies (which are designed to answer specific questions about specific programs)