Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice

Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice 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. Although learning research methods takes effort, this text has been designed to be user-friendly, even when dealing with some fairly complex theoretical and methodological concepts. The most critical points are clearly stated and illustrated with examples from real research chosen to be interesting in their own right. Even though it has been written primarily for criminology and criminal justice majors, there is an underlying recognition that the social and behavioral sciences share essentially all of the same research methods in attempting to better understand social phenomena. Consequently, the text begins by introducing students to each of the social and behavioral sciences, as well as to related disciplines, such as psychiatry, history, and education.