Essentials of Research Methods for Criminal Justice, 3rd edition

For courses in Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology.

Adapted from the best-selling Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology, this text teaches general research methods using standard and contemporary examples of criminal justice and criminology research. Featuring both qualitative and quantitative studies, this edition offers an emphasis on ethics, the latest research studies, new information on prison research, Internet resources and visual criminology. This essentials version omits coverage of data management and analysis, and places its emphasis on fundamental research skills and the literature of the field.

Hallmark Features

Features a streamlined, essentials version of the best-selling Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology.

• Omits coverage of data management and data analysis and places its emphasis on fundamental research skills and the literature of the field. 

Discusses quantitative and qualitative research–and includes classic and contemporary examples.

• Helps students become aware of fundamental research methods and the research literature shaping the field.

Includes an early chapter on ethics–see Chapter 2.

• Includes ethical issues in criminology and criminal justice research and presents cases as illustrative examples.
• Explores the issue of plagiarism and specifies the types of conduct that constitute plagiarism. 

Includes a chapter on policy analysis and evaluation research–see Chapter 11.

• Enables students to become familiar with the latest “what works” research. 

Includes useful Web sites–at the end of each chapter.

• Provides sites that explain how to do experiments, Web surveys, and questionnaire construction.

New! Chapter 4: Uniform Crime Reports and Sampling—appear in this edition.

• Combines coverage of the previous elements Chapters 4 and 5 into one chapter that examines the revised Uniform Crime Reports. 

New! More information on Internet surveys and prison research—see Chapter 5.

• Places an emphasis on the latest research techniques being used in the field. 

New! A section on offender interviews—see Chapter 6.

• Provides advice on interviewing active offenders and gaining entry into correctional facilities.

New! Fully updated to include the latest studies and material such as:

• The Human Terrain System and Minerva Consortium
• Steffensmeier and Ullmer's Confessions of a Dying Thief
• Zimbardo’s Lucifer Effect
• Sherman's Scientific Method’s Scale
• Visual Criminology
• The Scarlet M in corrections research
• Resolution of the Iowa Monster Study
• Telephone focus groups
• The latest on shield laws