Cognitive Interviewing to Improve Questionnaires for Justice-Involved Youth

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 1931-1951
Author(s):  
Jason R. Silva ◽  
Beth Fera ◽  
Susruta Sudula ◽  
Deborah Koetzle ◽  
Craig Schwalbe
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cognitive Interviewing ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Justice Research ◽  
Response Sets ◽  
Criminal Justice Research ◽  
Insight Into

This study demonstrates the utility of cognitive interviewing for survey and scale development in criminal justice research and identifies common comprehension problems with survey items for justice-involved youth. A cognitive interviewing strategy was utilized with a sample of youth who completed a survey examining risk factors for recidivism. A content analysis of interviews was used to identify patterns and to classify the nature and type of comprehension issues youth experienced. Five specific comprehension issues were identified including reading comprehension, item ambiguity, precondition binds, double-barreled questions, and double negatives. Findings illustrate the value of cognitive interviewing for pretesting survey items for justice-involved youth and provide further insight into issues surrounding word choice, question structure, and response sets. Results also point to the need to reassess the validity of established scales used in contemporary studies. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Feminist Methods and Sources in Criminology and Criminal Justice

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Howe
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Advanced Education ◽  
Justice Research ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Feminist Methods ◽  
Criminal Justice Research ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Criminology And Criminal Justice

AbstractThis article by Adrian Howe is based on a presentation given at the ‘Sources and Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice Conference’ in November 2015, jointly sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Education and the Socio-Legal Studies Association. She begins by querying whether there are indeed distinct feminist methods in the social sciences. She outlines the impact of what she calls the ‘methodical revolution’ on the criminology discipline, Foucault's contribution and Foucauldian methodologies deployed in criminological and criminal justice research.

Issue Emergence, Evolution of Controversy, and Implications for Competitive Framing

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Franklin Fowler ◽  
Sarah E. Gollust ◽  
Amanda F. Dempsey ◽  
Paula M. Lantz ◽  
Peter A. Ubel
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Hpv Vaccine ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
The Media ◽  
External Events ◽  
Insight Into

Although scholarship on competitive framing acknowledges that framing is a dynamic process in which the early stages may matter most, very little research has focused on the dynamics of issue emergence. In this article, we draw on several literatures to develop theories for how controversy related to new issues will emerge and expand in news coverage. Through a comprehensive content analysis of 101 local newspapers across the fifty U.S. states, we explore the dynamic and evolving process wherein a new issue—the HPV vaccine—emerged into public discourse and a legislative debate over school requirements for vaccination began. We find that coverage of controversy is a function of proximity, driven primarily by events within a state, although external events also influence local coverage. We also find that the legislative discussion in the media did not necessarily start out as controversial, but as the issue evolved, we observe a large increase in the proliferation of both actors taking positions and the types of arguments made to influence debate. The findings yield important insight into issue emergence with implications for how future research might test competing frames to better understand how the presentation of controversy in the mass media affects public opinion.

Mixed Methods, Ethnography, and Criminology/Criminal Justice Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 134-154
Author(s):  
Nigel G. Fielding
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Future Contribution ◽  
Justice Research ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Criminal Justice Research ◽  
Crime And Criminal Justice

This chapter provides an overview of the historical dimensions of ethnographies using mixed-methods approaches, supported by examples from selected landmark works within this tradition. It presents the epistemological assumptions about knowledge production, positionality, and the types of questions typically asked by a criminologist using mixed methods and makes clear how they differ from ethnographies using other approaches and traditions. The chapter considers what ethnographies using a mixed-methods approach can produce that other approaches may not be able to. It then details how ethnographies using mixed methods can contribute to policy development, framing this against the perspectives and needs of policymakers. The chapter concludes by assessing the potential future contribution of ethnographically grounded mixed-methods research to crime and criminal justice issues.

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