Essential Criminal Justice and Criminology Research Methods, CourseSmart eTextbook

For all research methods courses in criminal justice and criminology programs.

 

This criminal justice and criminology research methods text brings together thorough and balanced coverage of both quantitative and qualitative methods, including deeper coverage of the mixed-methods approach than any other text. It showcases the field’s most relevant and important research, helping students understand both the significance and relevance of criminal justice and criminology research. This text is designed to keep readers engaged through user-friendly writing, outstanding student research projects, and many hands-on exercises. It is also rigorous, logically coherent, and comprehensive — providing everything students need to become critical consumers and competent producers of research-based knowledge.

PART I. DISCIPLINARY, THEORETICAL, AND PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

1. Criminal Justice and Criminology Research: Mapping the Terrain

2. The Nature of Science and Research

3. Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations

 

PART II. CONSIDERATIONS IN RESEARCH PREPARATION

4. Ethics and Reviewing the Literature

5. Quantitative and Qualitative Research Design

6. Quantitative and Qualitative Measurement and Sampling

 

PART III. QUANTITATIVE DATA COLLECTION

7. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Crime and Justice Research

8. Survey and Interview Methods

9. Nonreactive Research: Content Analysis and Existing Documents/Statistics

 

PART IV. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH, MIXED METHODS, AND WRITING

10. Crime and Justice Ethnographic Field Research

11. Historical, Qualitative Document Analysis, Academic Legal and Mixed Methods Research

 

PART V. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

12. Analysis of Quantitative and Qualitative Data