How theory guides measurement: examples from the study of public attitudes toward crime and policing
Jackson, J.
& Kuha, J.
(2015).
How theory guides measurement: examples from the study of public attitudes toward crime and policing.
In
Bynum, T. & Huebner, B.
(Eds.),
Handbook on Measurement Issues in Criminology and Criminal Justice
.
John Wiley & Sons.
& Kuha, J.
(2015).
How theory guides measurement: examples from the study of public attitudes toward crime and policing.
In
Bynum, T. & Huebner, B.
(Eds.),
Handbook on Measurement Issues in Criminology and Criminal Justice
.
John Wiley & Sons.
In this chapter we discuss some of the fundamental ways by which theory guides measurement and we consider some of the differences between reflective and formative approaches to measurement. We use fear of crime and public attitudes towards policing as substantive examples. We finish with a cautionary tale on what latent variable modelling can and cannot say about conceptual and operational definitions.