Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice: A Primer

Research should be enjoyable - whether it is a college student completing a project for a degree or a professor meeting requirements or expectations associated with his or her position. Learning the basics for conducting research is the first step. This text is a reader-friendly primer which has as its strength the facility to positively and gently ease the reader into the task of conducting research.

Each chapter begins with a vignette, describing a hypothetical situation in which students might find themselves. By chapter's end, students should be equipped with the knowledge on how to address the confusion or problem presented in the appropriate scenario. Another pedagogical tool is the Methodological Link which refers to excerpts from actual criminal justice and criminological research, the full text which is available in a companion text Readings for Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Each chapter also ends with Methodological Queries, questions and exercises requiring students to apply what has been learned.

Uses practical examples from criminal justice scenarios to bring complex and involved issues to lifeHypothetical scenarios at the beginning of each chapterShows the relevance of research methodology to the practical problems of everyday criminal justice operations in a reader-friendly manner

Part I: Purpose of Research - Doing Criminological Research; Research Ethics; Part II: Problem Formulation - Getting Started; The Language of Research; Part III: Research Design - Qualitative Research; Quantitative Research; Research Designs; Part IV: Data Collection; Questionnaire Construction; Sampling; Data Collection; Part V: Data Analysis - Data Processing and Analysis; Inferential Statistics; Writing the Research; Part VI: Closure - Summing up