WS - E - Conducting Community Surveys

Contents Introduction Why undertake a community survey 1 How was the survey developed? 2 What is the local-level Crime Victimization Survey? 3 How have surveys been used by police 3 Use of telephone surveys 4 Overcoming fears of surveys 5 Survey development Thinking about and setting goals 7 What do you really want to know from the survey 8 Tailoring the survey to fit your needs 9 Modifying the level of analysis 9 Modifications to reflect local conditions 9 Modifications to incorporate measures of planned police initiatives 10 Modifications to survey should be consistent and neutral 10 Who ya gonna call? The critical issue of sample size 10 Population and samples 11 Issues of probability sampling 11 Generating the sample frame 13 What is the appropriate sample size? 13 How representative is the sample? 15 Survey administration Carrying out a survey 16 Coordination and quality control 16 Selection, training, and supervision 17 Analyzing and interpreting survey results Frequencies and crosstabulations 19 More sophisticated analyses 20 Conclusion 20 Appendixes Appendix A. Terminology Appendix B. References Appendix C. Seven basic steps for conducting telephone surveys Appendix D. Costs Conducting Community Surveys iii iii