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1. Reread chapter 4. Then choose 1 of the following articles to read:"The Timing of Property Crime, Violent Crime, and Substance Use among Juveniles"(Gottfredson & Soule, 2005) or "Gang Interventions in Jails: A National Analysis"(Ruddell et al., 2006). In a narrative format of 750 or more words, summarize: 

 (a) the research problem, 

 (b) research design, 

 (c) data-gathering strategy, 

 (d) type of sampling used [be specific], 

 (e) if you chose Gottfretson and Soule, the dependent and independent variable(s), 

 (f) if you chose Ruddell et al, any causal assumptions that may have been identified, and 

 (g) the key findings and/or policy issues of whichever article you chose.

2. Was a sample or the entire population of elements used in the study? What type of sampling procedure was selected? Evaluate the sampling method in terms of its representativeness of the population. How would you improve on the sampling methods to increase the representativeness of the data? If no sampling methods are mentioned, propose one that would have been appropriate. Evaluate the generalizability of the findings to other populations?

3. Eight major types of sampling are discussed in chapter 4. Choose 3 probability and 3 nonprobability sampling procedures and discuss when it would be appropriate to use each one. Provide an example for each from your agency or occupation.

4. Did the authors of the article rely on primary or secondary data in their analysis? What benefits and limitations are there to using that kind of data in general and in this study specifically?

5. Assume you are a Captain in the Internal Affairs Division for a large metropolitan police department (say the size of Dallas, TX). The Chief of Police has asked you to summarize the data on traffic stops from the previous year and has given you one week to produce a report that will be presented to the city's Public Safety Committee. In 2010, 198,608 traffic stops were conducted (that is, by the way, the actual data from Dallas; it's a city with really bad drivers). There is no time for you to analyze the entire data set of the traffic stops. You remember from your graduate research methods class something about "sampling". So that is what you decide to do. In detail, discuss which sampling method you would use to analyze this data and why. Remember, you are not collecting new data, but will be using data the department has already collected. Be sure to discuss the population, sampling frame, and sample size. What steps would you take to ensure the representativeness of the sample and generalizability of the data? Minimum word count is 300 words.