Criminal Justice: Research Methods

This book explains and illustrates criminal justice research topics, including ethics in research, research design, causation, operationalization of variables, sampling, methods of data collection (including surveys), reliance on existing data, validity, and reliability. For each approach, the book addresses the procedures and issues involved, the method’s strengths and drawbacks, and examples of actual research using that method. Every section begins with a brief summary of the research method. Introductory essays set the stage for students regarding the who, what, when, where, and why of each research example, and relevant discussion questions and exercises direct students to focus on the important concepts.

is a core text for criminology and criminal justice research methods courses. It strives to offer a general foundation of knowledge that transcends particular topics or subject areas, allowing students to apply research methods and concepts to a multitude of scenarios. Even though the textbook has been written primarily for criminal justice and criminology majors, there is an underlying recognition that research methods and findings are common among all of the social sciences.

connects key concepts to real field research and practices using contemporary examples and recurring case studies throughout the book that demonstrate how concepts relate to students’ lives. Authors Callie M. Rennison and Timothy C. Hart introduce practical research strategies used in criminal justice to show students how a research question can become a policy that changes or influences criminal justice practices. The book’s student-driven approach addresses both the "why" and the "how" as it covers the research process and focuses on the practical application of data collection and analysis.

From research design, to fieldwork to writing-up, this book captures every part of the research process, drawing on a range of topics such as migration control, immigrant detention and border policing. It also reflects on more neglected areas such as the interpersonal and institutional contexts of research and the ontological and epistemological assumptions embedded within data analysis methods. It makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the major developments in current research in this field, how and why they occur and with what consequences.

The eleven chapters in this volume of Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance discuss a variety of issues of methodological significance in research in the fields of criminology and criminal justice studies. As scholarly work on various aspects of crime, deviance, criminal justice, and social control has progressed tremendously in recent decades, both in terms of scope as well as with respect to theoretical approaches, the employed methods of investigation have also broadened and advanced to be as sophisticated as those used in any other area of contemporary social-science inquiry.