1110-0057 Supporting Statement Part B

Part B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

The information collected will be used for collection development activities rather than to produce estimates about populations. For the most part, the small scale testing activities undertaken as part of this clearance will involve LEA or officer samples, with respondents selected either to cover a range of demographic subgroups or to include specific characteristics related to the agency’s ability to report data according to the topic of the survey. In some instances, a probability sample may be drawn, such as for mail surveys or to permit statistical comparisons about the effectiveness of alternative procedural treatments. A description of the plans for selecting respondents for each individual test will be provided to OMB at the time the development activities are submitted for approval. In situations where an experiment is proposed, justifications and methods for selecting sample sizes will be included in the proposal. As part of the justification, a discussion of power analysis for determining minimum sample sizes and testing for Type II error probabilities (determining if null hypotheses were correctly rejected) will be included as necessary.

2. Procedures for Collecting Information

Data collection procedures for the testing conducted under this clearance will be varied and will most likely include group administration, personal visits, telephone interviews, mail surveys, in-person interviews, web-based surveys, and in-person focus groups. Statistical results will generally be limited to response rates, item nonresponse rates, frequency distributions of data items, reliability estimates, and analysis of behavior coding and respondent debriefing data. More specific information about data collection procedures will be contained in the description provided to OMB at the time the development activities are submitted for approval.

3. Methods to Maximize Response

In general, reminder phone calls, letters, or second questionnaires will be used to maximize response rates in group administration, mail, and web-based surveys. Reminder phone calls and/or letters to participants will be used to encourage them to keep their appointments. Tallies will be kept of the number of nonrespondents to all testing activities. More detailed information about the specific methods used to maximize response will be contained in the description provided to OMB at the time the development activities are submitted for approval.

4. Testing of Procedures

This submission for an agency’s generic information clearance consists of tests of data collection instruments and survey/assessment procedures. It is expected that all the development activities conducted under this clearance will result in more refined and clearer questionnaires and/or data collection procedures and thus reduced respondent burden.

5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

Advice on statistical aspects of each individual survey will be sought as the testing program proceeds. Depending on the nature of the research, staff from the Crime Statistics Management Unit will have primary responsibility for data collection and analysis. However, the FBI has partnered with the BJS to develop statistical improvement initiatives for the FBI UCR Program. Specifically, the partnership has included efforts to increase the level of NIBRS participation to develop a statistically representative sample of incident-based reporting agencies for reported crime data. Further efforts with BJS include a current study which is examining the development of nationally representative estimates using the UCR SRS data. The BJS and the FBI have also entered into a joint endeavor with the National Academy of Sciences to examine ways for both agencies to modernize their crime statistics capabilities, to include new types of offenses and criminal incident data and means, for conducting and publishing statistical and analytical studies. It is expected that new FBI UCR Program initiatives will benefit from the statistical design resources BJS is capable of providing. Bryan A. Sell, [email protected], 304-625-8258 is the contact person for general questions about the FBI UCR Program data collection activities submitted to OMB for approval. Cynthia Barnett-Ryan, [email protected], 304-625-3576 is the point of contact for questions regarding data collections and statistical aspects of study designs.

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