Changing the Latitudes and Attitudes about Content Analysis Research

The current research employs the use of content analysis to teach research methods concepts among students enrolled in an upper-division research methods course. Students coded and analyzed Jimmy Buffett song lyrics rather than using a downloadable database or collecting survey data. Students’ knowledge of content analysis concepts increased after a lecture on the topic of content analysis, but it further improved after participating in the song coding, data cleaning, and writing of results. Additionally, students reported high satisfaction with the project and believed it was an interesting and enjoyable technique for learning about research methods. We provide suggestions for incorporating similar data collection activities in undergraduate research methods courses

Changing the Latitudes and Attitudes about Content Analysis Research

The current research employs the use of content analysis to teach research methods concepts among students enrolled in an upper-division research methods course. Students coded and analyzed Jimmy Buffett song lyrics rather than using a downloadable database or collecting survey data. Students’ knowledge of content analysis concepts increased after a lecture on the topic of content analysis, but it further improved after participating in the song coding, data cleaning, and writing of results. Additionally, students reported high satisfaction with the project and believed it was an interesting and enjoyable technique for learning about research methods. We provide suggestions for incorporating similar data collection activities in undergraduate research methods courses

Effectiveness of Residence Restrictions in Preventing Sex Offense Recidivism

Many municipalities have recently extended residence restrictions for sex offenders beyond the provisions of state law, although the efficacy of these measures in reducing recidivism has not been empirically established. This study used arrest histories in Jacksonville, Florida, to assess the effects of a recently expanded municipal 2,500-foot residence restriction ordinance on sex crimes and sex offense recidivism. Using a quasiexperimental design, pre- and posttest measures of recidivism were compared, and no significant differences in citywide sex crimes or recidivist sex crimes were found. In addition, time-series analysis revealed no significant differences in sex crime trends over time when compared with nonsex crimes from the same offender sample. After controlling for several demographic factors, individual-level multivariate results indicate that the timing of the residence restriction policy was not associated with a meaningful change in sex crime arrests or sex offender recidivism after the policy implementation date, suggesting that the residence restriction did not achieve its intended goal of reducing recidivism. </jats:p

Uncollaring the Criminal Understanding Criminal Careers of Criminal Clerics

Much of the extant work on criminal careers has been conducted on longitudinal samples of children and adolescents in the general population or on samples of officially processed offenders. The researchers herein examined key criminal career dimensions among a large sample of clerics who had allegations of sexual abuse levied against them between the years 1950 and 2002. Results indicate that although some of the clerics' criminal career parameters evince similar patterns to those from other offender samples, there are important differences with respect to onset, career duration, and recidivism. In addition, previously abused clerics as well as clerics who exhibited an early onset of abuse were more likely to accumulate police investigations, whereas married clerics were more likely than nonmarried clerics to evince a higher number of police investigations. Implications and future research directions are outlined