NCJ Number
176067
Date Published
1997
Length
543 pages
Annotation
This text explains research design and research methods used in criminological and criminal justice research and uses examples of criminal justice studies to illustrate the techniques described.
Abstract
The first chapter introduces theoretical and methodological aspects of criminal justice research, outlines the steps involved in the research process, and examines the selection and specification of a research problem. Additional chapters focus on ethics in criminal justice research, the experimental model and other variations used in research design, alternative data-collection strategies, and the Uniform Crime Reports. Further chapters explain survey research, including types of sampling, questionnaire construction, mail surveys, advantages and disadvantages of self-report surveys, interview procedures, and telephone surveys. Other chapters discuss participant observation and case studies; unobtrusive measures, secondary analysis, and uses of official statistics; validity, reliability, and triangulated strategies; scaling and index construction; data analysis; policy analysis; evaluation research; and proposal writing. Case examples, figures, tables, chapter review questions, glossary, index, appended additional guidelines and answers to questions in a quiz in Chapter 12, and chapter reference lists