Maxfield, Michael G. & Babbie, Earl R. (2011). Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology, 6th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing

1. 1
Agency Records,
Content Analysis, and
Secondary Data

2. OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Topics Appropriate for Agency
Records and Content Analysis
 Types of Agency Records
 Units of Analysis and Sampling
 Reliability and Validity
 Content Analysis
 Secondary Analysis

3. 3
•Agency records, secondary data, and content
analysis do not require direct interaction with
research subjects
•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)

4. 4
•Most commonly used in descriptive or
exploratory
•Topics appropriate to research using content
analysis center on the important links
between communication, perceptions of crime
problems, individual behavior, and criminal
justice policy

5. 5
•Published Statistics
•Nonpublic Agency Records
•New Data Collected by Agency Staff

6. 6
•Government organizations routinely collect
and publish compilations of data
•FBI, Census Bureau, BJS, Federal Bureau of
Prisons, Administrative Office of US Courts
•Often available in libraries and online
•Ted Robert Gurr (1989)
•Used published statistics on violent crime
dating back to thirteenth-century England to
examine how social and political events
affected patterns of homicide through 1984

7. 7
•Agencies produce data not routinely released
•Police departments, courthouses, correctional
facilities, BJS: Correctional Population in the US,
National Center for State Courts: Court Caseload
Statistics
•Child Abuse, Delinquency & Adult Arrests
•Crime Hot Spots: Geographic areas and times of
day that signal concentrations of various types of
crime
•Agency Records as Measures of Decision Making
•“Expect the Expected”

8. 8
•Collected for specific research purposes
•Less Costly, More Control
•“Hybrid" source: Combines the collection of
new data—through observation or interviews—
with day-to-day criminal justice agency
activities
•Need to obtain the cooperation of
organizations and staff

9. 9
•If you use agency records, be attentive to
match or mismatch between Units of Analysis
appropriate for research question and Units of
Analysis 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

10. 10
Criminal Activity
•Incidents Apprehension
•Crimes violated •Arrests
•Victims •Offenders
•Offenders •Charges
Court Activity •Counts
•Defendants Corrections
•Filings •Offenders
•Charges and Counts •Admissions
•Cases •Returns
•Appearances •Discharges
•Dispositions
•Sentences

11. 11
•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

12. 12
•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
•As a mode of observation, content analysis
requires a considered handling of the what, and
the analysis of data collected in this mode, as in
others, addresses the why and with what effect

13. 13
•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

14. 14
•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

15. 15
•Chermak (1998) sampled all crime stories
from every 5th day in first 6 months of 1990
– 1,557
•Sought to see how content determines
allotment of space and prominence of place
(inches of coverage in paper, where stories
were placed, size of headlines)
•Also coded offense type, # of crimes,
weapon usage, location, offender/victim
characteristics

16. 16
•Thompson & Haninger (2001) sampled 55 of
over 600 E-rated games
•Experienced undergrad gamer played for 90
minutes or until game reached natural conclusion
•Experienced gamer/researcher and undergrad
gamer reviewed videotape of videogaming session
•Coded: # of violent incidents, # of deaths, drugs/
alcohol/tobacco, profanity and sexual behavior,
weapon use, explicit music
•Measured duration of violent acts and # of deaths
to length of game playing for standardized
measures

17. 17
•Rosenfeld, Bray, and Egley (1999): how gang
membership might facilitate homicide in different
ways
•Content analysis of police case files for homicides
in St. Louis over a 10-year period
•Gang-motivated killings: Resulted from gang
behavior or relationships, such as an initiation
ritual, the ‘throwing' of gang signs, or a gang fight
•Gang-affiliated homicides: Involves a gang
member as victim or offender, but with no
indication of specific gang activity

18. 18
•Data collected by other researchers are often
used to address new research questions
•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), validity