Based on Russell Schutt's Investigating the Social World, the most successful new social research text to have been published in a generation, The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice has been revised and adapted specifically for criminal justice courses and programs. It uniquely helps to teach research design and techniques within the context of substantive criminology and criminal justice issues of interest to students and the field. With expanded coverage of topics like causation, ethics, and qualitative analysis, along with a comprehensive and unique ancillary package, the third edition is a text both students and instructors will appreciate.

Table of Contents

1. Science, Society, and Criminological Research Reasoning About the Social World The Social Science Approach Strengths and Limitations of Social Research Types of Research Methods Social Research Philosophies Validity: The Goal of Social Research Conclusions 2. The Process and Problems of Criminological Research Criminological Research Questions The Role of Criminological Theory Social Research Strategies Guidelines for Criminologists Conclusions 3. Conceptualization and Measurement Concepts Measurement Operations Evaluation of Measures Levels of Measurement Conclusions 4. Sampling Sample Planning Sampling Methods Sampling Distributions Units of Analysis and Errors in Causal Reasoning Conclusions 5. Causation and Research Design Causal Explanation Research Designs and Criteria for Causal Explanations Conclusions 6. Experimental Designs True Experiments Quasi-Experiments Validity in Experiments Interaction of Testing and Treatment Ethical Issues in Experimental Research Conclusions 7. Survey Research Survey Research in the Social Sciences Questionnaire Development and Assessment Question Construction Organization of the Questionnaire Survey Designs Ethical Issues in Survey Research Conclusions 8. Qualitative Methods Fundamentals of Qualitative Methods Participant Observation Intensive Interviewing Focus Groups Analysis of Qualitative Data Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research Conclusions 9. Qualitative Data Analysis Features of Qualitative Data Analysis Techniques of Qualitative Data-Analysis Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis Visual Sociology Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Ethics in Qualitative Data Analysis Conclusions 10. Analyzing Content: Historical, Secondary, and Content Analysis, and Crime Mapping Analyzing Secondary Data Historical Events Research Comparative Methods Content Analysis Crime Mapping Methodological Issues When Using Secondary Data Combining Research Designs Ethical Issues in Secondary Data Analysis Conclusions 11. Evaluation Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice A Brief History of Evaluation Research Evaluation Basics Evaluation Alternatives True Randomized Experimental Designs in Evaluation Research Quasi-Experimental Designs in Evaluation Research Nonexperimental Designs Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Ethics in Evaluation Conclusions 12. Quantitative Data Analysis Introducing Statistics Preparing Data for Analysis Displaying Univariate Distributions Summarizing Univariate Distributions Crosstabulating Variables Analyzing Data Ethically: How Not to Lie About Relationships Conclusions 13. Reporting Research Results The Research Proposal Research Report Goals Research Report Types A Bit More on Writing Data Displays Ethics and Reporting Conclusions

Author Biography

Ronet Bachman , Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. She is coauthor of Statistical Methods for Crime and Criminal Justice and coeditor of Explaining Crime and Criminology: Essays in Contemporary Criminal Theory. In addition, she is author of Death and Violence on the Reservation and coauthor of Stress, Culture, and Aggression in the United States as well as numerous articles and papers. Russell K. Schutt, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Lecturer on Sociology in the Department of Psychiatry (Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center) at the Harvard Medical School. He completed his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. (1977) degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (1977--1979). In addition to Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research, now in its 6th edition, Making Sense of the Social World (with Dan Chambliss), and adaptations for the fields of social work (with Ray Engel) and criminology/criminal justice (with Ronet Bachman), he is the author of Organization in a Changing Environment, coeditor of The Organizational Response to Social Problems, and coauthor of Responding to the Homeless: Policy and Practice. He has authored and coauthored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and research reports on homelessness, service preferences and satisfaction, mental health, organizations, law, and teaching research methods. His recent funded research experience includes a National Cancer Institute-funded study of community health workers and recruitment for cancer clinical trials, a large translational research project for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Women's Health Network, a National Institute of Mental Health-funded study of housing alternatives for homeless persons diagnosed with severe mental illness, and evaluations of case management programs in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and in the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. His publications in peer-reviewed journals range in focus from the effect of social context on cognition, satisfaction and functioning to the service preferences of homeless persons and service personnel, the admission practices of craft unions, and the social factors in legal decisions.