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CJ 325: Research Methods (Navarro): Government Documents

This guide is designed to accompany the 9/21/15 library research session on source evaluation for John Navarro's Criminal Justice Research Methods (325) course.

Your Resource

Sexual victimization in prisons and jails reported by inmates, 2011-12 (NCJ 241399).

Beck, A. J., Berzofsky, M., & Caspar, R. (2013). Sexual victimization in prisons and jails reported by inmates, 2011-12 (NCJ 241399). U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112.pdf

Questions to Address in Evaluating your Resource

Skim through your document and respond to the following:

  1. What is the purpose of this report? (Hint: a lot of information is on page 8 of the report).

  2. What does the source provide to convince you that this is a credible information source?

  3. How does the format and presentation of the information within the report influence your evaluation? Consider the text and statistics presented.

  4. What are some of the issues that could complicate the data collection of sensitive information? Focus again on page 8. 

  5. What research question(s) could this source help you answer if you were to write a paper on sexual deviance? Answer this question by also considering your overall evaluation of the source and whether you'd use the source or not. 

How your Source was Located

Your resource was located using a specific Google search to limit to .gov resources. The search is as follows: site:.gov "sexual victimization" AND "prison"

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