Chapter 9:

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Agency Records, Content Analysis, and Secondary Data

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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Apprehension•Arrests•Offenders•Charges•Counts

Corrections•Offenders•Admissions•Returns•Discharges

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

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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?”

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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

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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

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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)

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