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Chapter 9:

Survey Research

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Self-Administered Questionnaires

• 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?

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?

Discussion Question 1

What if you administered a survey? Would you use the Internet? Why or why not?

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

Discussion Question 2

What if you were interviewed as part of a research project? How would you expect the researchers to behave?

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

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

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

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?

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

Strengths of Survey Research

• Particularly useful in describing large populations

• Standardized questionnaires can ensure uniform responses and measurement

• Protects against respondents interpreting concepts differently

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

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