This document discusses survey research methods. It defines survey research as administering questionnaires systematically to a sample population to describe or explore larger populations. It describes different question formats, administration methods like mail/phone/internet surveys, and considerations for designing valid and unbiased surveys. The strengths of surveys are their utility for describing large groups, while weaknesses include superficial coverage of complex topics.

1. 1
Chapter 9:
Survey Research
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

2. 2
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives
• Understand that survey research involves the administration
of questionnaires in a systematic way to a sample of
respondents selected from some population
• Describe how survey research is especially appropriate for
descriptive or exploratory studies of large populations
• Describe examples of surveys as the method of choice for
obtaining victimization and self-reported offending data
• Summarize differences between open-ended or closed-
ended questions, and offer examples of the advantages and
disadvantages of each
• Recognize how bias in questionnaire items encourages
respondents to answer in a particular way or to support a
particular point of view

3. 3
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives, cont.
• Describe different ways to administer questionnaires, and
offer examples of how they can be varied
• Recognize why it is important for interviewers to be
neutral in face-to-face surveys
• Provide examples of the advantages and disadvantages
of each method of survey administration
• Discuss how survey data can be somewhat artificial and
potentially superficial
• Understand how specialized interviews with a small
number of people and focus groups are different from
surveys as examples of collecting data by asking
questions

4. 4
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
• Survey research is perhaps the most
frequently used mode of observation in
sociology and political science, and
surveys are often used in criminal
justice research as well
• You have no doubt been a respondent
in some sort of survey, and you may
have conducted a survey yourself

5. 5
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Survey Research Topics
• Counting Crime: asking people about
victimization counters problems of data
collected by police
• Self-Reports: dominant method for
studying the etiology of crime
• Frequency/type of crimes committed
• Prevalence (how many people commit crimes)
committed by a broader population

6. 6
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Survey Research Topics, cont.
• Perceptions and Attitudes: To learn how
people feel about crime and CJ policy
• Targeted Victim Surveys: Used to evaluate
policy innovations and program success
• Other Evaluation Uses: e.g., measuring
community attitudes, citizen responses, etc.
• Chicago Community Policing Evaluation Consortium
• General Purpose Crime Surveys

7. 7
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Guidelines for Asking Questions
• How questions are asked is the single most
important feature of survey research
• Open-Ended: Respondent is asked to
provide his or her own answer
• Closed-Ended: Respondent selects an
answer from a list
• Choices should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive
• Questions and Statements: Likert scale

8. 8
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Guidelines for Asking Questions, cont.
• Make Items Clear: Avoid ambiguous questions; do
not ask “double-barreled” questions
• Short Items are Best: Respondents like to read
and answer a question quickly
• Avoid Negative Items: Leads to misinterpretation
• Avoid Biased Items and Terms: Do not ask
questions that encourage a certain answer
• Designing Self-Report Items: Use of computer-
assisted interviewing techniques

9. 9
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Questionnaire Construction
• General questionnaire format: critical,
must be laid out properly and uncluttered
• Contingency Questions: Relevant only to
some respondents—answered only based
on the previous response
• Matrix Questions: Same set of answer
categories used in multiple questions

10. 10
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Ordering Questions
• Ordering may affect the answers given
• Estimate the effect of question order
• Perhaps devise more than one version
• Begin with most interesting questions
• End with duller, demographic data
• Do the opposite for in-person interview surveys

11. 11
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Self-Administered Questionnaires
• Can be home-delivered
• Researcher delivers questionnaire to home of
sample respondent, explains the study, and then
comes back later
• Mailed (sent and returned) survey is most
common
• Researchers must reduce the trouble it takes to
return a questionnaire

12. 12
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Warning Mailings & Cover Letters
• Used to increase response rates
• Warning Mailings: “Address correction
requested” card sent out to determine incorrect
addresses and to “warn” residents to expect
questionnaire in mail
• Cover Letters: Detail why survey is being
conducted, why respondent was selected, why
is it important to complete questionnaire
• Include institutional affiliation or sponsorship

13. 13
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Self-Administered Questionnaires, cont.
• Monitoring returns: Pay close attention to the
response rate; assign #’s serially
• Follow-up mailings: Nonrespondents can be
sent a letter, or a letter and another
questionnaire; timing
• Acceptable response rates: 50% is adequate,
60% is good, and 70% is very good
• Would we rather have a lack of response bias than a high
response rate?

14. 14
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Computer-Based Self-Administration
• Via Fax, Email, Web Site/Page
• Issues
• Representativeness
• Mixed in with, or mistaken for, spam
• Requires access to Web
• Sampling frame?

15. 15
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Discussion Question 1
What if you administered a survey? Would
you use the Internet? Why or why not?

16. 16
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
In-Person Interview Surveys
• Typically achieve higher response rates than
mail surveys (80-85% is considered good)
• Demeanor and appearance of interviewer
should be appropriate; interviewer should be
familiar with questionnaire and ask questions
precisely
• Can probe for additional responses
• When more than one interviewer administers,
efforts must be coordinated and controlled
• Practice interviewing

17. 17
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Discussion Question 2
What if you were interviewed as part of a
research project? How would you expect the
researchers to behave?

18. 18
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Computer-Assisted Interviews
• Reported success in enhancing
confidentiality
• Reported higher rates of self-reporting
• Computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI):
Interviewers read questions from screens and then
type in answers from respondents’
• Computer-assisted self-interviewing (CASI):
Respondent keys in answers, which are scrambled so
that interviewer cannot access them

19. 19
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Telephone Surveys
• 95.5% of all households have telephones
(2005, U.S. Census Bureau)
• Random-Digit Dialing
• Obviates unlisted number problem
• Often results in business, pay phones, fax lines
• Saves money and time, provides safety to
interviewers, more convenient
• May be interpreted as bogus sales calls;
ease of hang-ups

20. 20
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing
• A set of computerized tools that aid
telephone interviewers and supervisors by
automating various data collection tasks
• Easier, faster, more accurate, but more
expensive
• Formats responses into a data file as they
are keyed in
• Can automate contingency questions and
skip sequences

21. 21
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Discussion Question 3
What if researchers called your landline or
mobile and asked you to participate in a
survey over the phone? Would you agree to
do it? Why or why not?

22. 22
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Methods Comparison
• Self-administered questionnaires are generally
cheaper, better for sensitive issues than interview
surveys
• Using mail: Local and national surveys cost the
same
• Interviews: More appropriate when respondent
literacy may be a problem, produce fewer
incompletes, achieve higher completion rates
• Validity low, reliability high in survey research
• Surveys are also inflexible, superficial in coverage

23. 23
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Strengths of Survey Research
• Particularly useful in describing large
populations
• Standardized questionnaires can ensure
uniform responses and measurement
• Protects against respondents interpreting
concepts differently

24. 24
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Weaknesses of Survey Research
• Standardized questionnaire items often
represent the least common denominator in
assessing people’s attitudes, orientations,
circumstances, and experiences
• Superficial coverage of complex topics
• Survey research cannot readily deal with the
specific contexts of social life
• Some populations might be hard to contact
through customary sampling methods

25. 25
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Should You Do It Yourself?
• Consider start-up costs
• Finding, training, and paying interviewers
is time-consuming and not cheap, and
requires some expertise
• Mail surveys are less expensive, and can
be conducted well by 1–2 persons
• The method you use depends on your
research question