Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice / Edition 6

by Ronet D. Bachman, Russell K. Schutt

Overview

The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Sixth Edition continues to demonstrate the vital role research plays by integrating in-depth, real-world case studies with a comprehensive discussion of research methods. By pairing research techniques with practical examples from the field, Ronet D. Bachman and Russell K. Schutt equip students to evaluate and conduct research. Covering research findings from critical areas in criminal justice, such as police use of force, cybercrime, and race, this text helps students understand the importance of research, not just the process.

The Sixth Edition of this best-selling text retains the strengths of previous editions while breaking ground with emergent research methods, enhanced tools for learning in the text and online, and contemporary, fascinating research findings. Students engage with the wide realm of new research methods available to them, delve deeper into topics relevant to their field of study, and benefit from the wide variety of new exercises to help them practice as they learn.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506306810
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/28/2016
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ronet Bachman, Ph D, is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. She is coauthor of Statistical Methods for Crime and Criminal Justice (3rd ed.) 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; and Violence: The Enduring Problem as well as numerous articles and papers that examine the epidemiology and etiology of violence, with a particular emphasis on women, the elderly, and minority populations. Her most recent federally funded research was a mixed-methods study that investigated the long-term trajectories of offending behavior using official data of a prison cohort released in the early 1990s and then interviewed in 2009.

Russell K. Schutt, Ph D, is a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School (Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center), and a Research Associate at the Edith Nourse Rogers Veterans Administration Medical Center. He completed his BA, MA, and Ph D (1977) at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (1977–1979). His other books include Understanding the Social World: Research Methods for the 21^st Century, Fundamentals of Social Work Research (with Ray Engel), Making Sense of the Social World (with Dan Chambliss), and Research Methods in Psychology (with Paul G. Nestor)—all with SAGE Publications, as well as Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (Harvard University Press) and Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited with Larry J. Seidman and Matcheri S. Keshavan, Harvard University Press). Most of his peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters focus on the effect of social context on cognition, satisfaction, functioning, and recidivism; the orientations of service recipients and of service and criminal justice personnel; and the organization of health and social services. His research has been supported by the Veterans Health Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute, the Fetzer Institute, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the University of Massachusetts, and other state and local funders.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Science, Society, and Criminological Research
Reasoning About the Social World
The Social Science Approach
Social Research Philosophies
Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Specific Types of Research Methods
Strengths and Limitations of Social Research
Chapter 2: The Process and Problems of Criminology Research
Criminological Research Questions
Social Research Foundations
The Role of Theory
Social Research Strategies
Social Research Standards
Chapter 3: Research Ethics
Historical Background
Ethical Principles
Research Involving Special Populations: Prisoners and Children
Case Studies: Sexual Solicitation of Adolescents and Milgram Revisted
Chapter 4: Conceptualization and Measurement
Concepts
Case Study: Defining Youth Gangs
Case Study: Defining Substance Abuse
Case Study: Defining Poverty
Case Study: Defining Inmate Misconduct
Variables and Levels of Measurement
Did We Measure What We Wanted to Measure?
Chapter 5: Sampling
Sample Planning
Sampling Methods
Sampling Distributions
Chapter 6: Causation and Research Design
Causal Explanation
Criteria and Caustions for Nomothetic Causal Explanations
Case Study: Media Violence and Violent Behavior
Research Designs and Causality
Case Study: Using Life Calendars: Do Offenders Specialize in Different Crimes?
Case Study: Offending Over the Life Course
Case Studies: Gender, Social Conrol, and Crime
Units of Analysis and Errors in Causal Reasoning
Chapter 7: Experimental Designs
History of Experiments
True Experiments
Case Study: Prison Classification and Inmate Behavior
Case Study: The Effect of Incarceration on Employment
Quasi-Experiments
Case Study: The Effectiveness of Drug Courts
Case Study: The Effects of the Youth Criminal Justice Act
Case Study: Reduced Caseload and Intensive Supervision in Probation
Case Study: Does an Arrest Increase Delinquency?
Validity in Experiments
Factorial Survey Design
Case Study: How Citizens View Police Misconduct
Ethical Issues in Experimental Research
Chapter 8: Survey Research
Survey Research in the Social Sciences
Questionnaire Development
Case Study: Measuring Violent Victimizations
Writing Survey Questions
Organization of the Questionnaire
The Cover Letter
Survey Designs
Ethical Issues in Survey Research
Chapter 9: Qualitative Methods: Observing, Participating, and Listening
Fundamentals of Qualitative Methods
Case Study: Life in a Gang
Participant Observation
Case Study: The Researcher as Hooligan
Systematic Observation
Case Study: Studying Public Disorder and Crime
Intensive Interviewing
Case Study: Jurors’ Stories of Death
Focus Groups
Case Study: An Analysis of Police Searches
Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research
Analyzing Content: Secondary Data Analysis, Comparative Analysis, Content Analysis, Crime Mapping, and Big Data
Analyzing Secondary Data
Case Study: Police Protection by Neighborhood
Comparative Methods
Case Study: Homicide Across Nations
Content Analysis
Case Study: Media Portrayals of Abducted Children
Crime Mapping
Case Study: Social Disorganization and the Chicago School
Case Study: Gang Homicides in St. Louis
Case Study: Using Google Earth to Track Sexual Offending Recidivism
Big Data
Case Study: Predicting Where Crime Will Occur
Case Study: Predicting Recidivism With Big Data
Methodological Issues When Using Secondary Data
Ethical Issues When Analyzing Available Data and Content
Chapter 11: Evaluation Research
A Brief History of Evaluation Research
Evaluation Basics
Questions fo Evaluation Research
Case Study: Family Justice Center Initiative
Case Study: Process Evaluation of an Anti-Gang Initiative
Case Study: How Does the Risk Skills Training Program (RSTP) Compare to D.A.R.E.?
Case Study: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Therapeutic Communities
Design Decisions
Evaluation in Action
Case Study: Problem-Oriented Policing in Violent Crime Areas—A Randomized Controlled Experiment
Quasi-Experimental Designs in Evaluation Research
Case Study: Decreasing Injuries from Police Use-of-Force
Case Study: Drinking and Homicide in Eastern Europe
Nonexperimental Designs
Case Study: Vocational Education for Serious Juvenile Offenders—A One-Shot Design
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Policy Research: Increasing Demand for Evidence-Based Policy
Basic Science or Applied Research
Ethics in Evaluation
Chapter 12: Mixing and Comparing Methods
What Are Mixed Methods?
Case Study of Convergent Parallel Design: School Security and Discipline
Case Study of Exploratory Sequential Design: American Indian Homicide
Case Study of Embedded Design: Investigating Rape
Strengths and Limitations of Mixed Methods
Types of Mixed Methods Designs
Comparing Results Across Studies
Case Study of Meta-Analysis: The Effectiveness of Anti-Bullying Programs
Case Study of Meta-Analysis: Do Parent Training Programs Prevent Child Abuse?
Case Study of Meta-Synthesis: Female Drug Dealers
Ethics and Mixed Methods
Chapter 13: Quantitative Data Analysis
Introducing Statistics
Case Study: The Causes of Delinquency
Preparing Data for Analysis
Displaying Univariate Distributions
Summarizing Univariate Distributions
Cross-Tabulating Variables
Regression and Correlation
Analyzing Data Ethically: How Not to Lie About Relationships
Chapter 14: Analyzing Qualitative Data
Features of Qualitative Data Analysis
Qualitative Compared With Quantitave Data Analysis Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis
Techniques of Qualitative Data Analysis
Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis
Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis
Case Study: Narratives of Desistance from Crime and Substance Abuse
Ethics in Qualitative Data Analysis
Chapter 15: Reporting Research Results
Research Report Goals
Case Study: Seeking Higher Education for Inmates
On Writing Research
Research Report Types
Displaying Research
Special Considerations for Reporting Qualitative or Mixed-Methods Research
Ethics, Politics, and Reporting Research
Plagiarism
Appendix A: Questions to Ask About a Research Article
Appendix B: How to Read a Research Article

Editorial Reviews

Thorough coverage of the topics…extensive use of learning and teaching aids (highlights, exercises and key term descriptions)”

Charles E. Wilson

…It is more extensive than the previous books I used…I anticipate that students will find this text easy to understand.”

Raymund E.Narag

Making research accessible to students (increasing their confidence)”

Sanjay Marwah

Most comprehensive research methods textbook in criminal justice and criminology”

S. Hakan Can

Ample examples of criminal justice research studies”

Eileen M. Ahlin

The clear and concise writing of the material facilitates understanding. Reading this text is not an overwhelming task for my students.”

Margaret Pate

This is my primary text and because the book is both comprehensive and accessible I plan to continue to use it.”

Mark G. Harmon