Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice / Edition 4

by Mark L. Dantzker, Ronald D. Hunter, Susan T. Quinn

Overview

What are criminal justice and criminological research? Why conduct this research? And, how is this research completed? Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice answers these questions by clearly explaining the basics of social science research using a simple and easy-to-understand approach. The essentials to a foundational understanding of criminal justice research methods are all there, including scientific theory, research language, and research design. The Fourth Edition features updated case studies and numerous revisions to topics such as sampling, research design, quantitative and qualitative research studies, data collection, and data analysis. Conducting research should not be a daunting chore. Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice makes the task of learning how to conduct research understandable, enjoyable, and applicable to the criminal justice topics students are most interested in.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781284113013
Publisher:	Jones & Bartlett Learning
Publication date:	12/13/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mark L. Dantzker is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Dantzker is a widely published author in the criminal justice and criminology fields. Dr. Dantzker earned his Ph.D. in Administration from the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Texas-Arlington, and has close to twenty years of experience in criminal justice, policing, and criminology.

Ronald D. Hunter,PhD,is Professor of Criminal Justice/Criminology at Georgia Gwinnett College, School of Liberal Arts. He received his PhD in Criminology from The Florida State University. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Hunter was a Sergeant with the Tallahassee (FL) Police Department. He has presented numerous papers at regional, national, and international criminology/criminal justice meetings. Police-Community Relations and the Administration of Justice; Crime and Criminality: Causes and Consequences; Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice: A Primer; Police Systems and Practices: An Introduction; and, The Effects of Environmental Factors Upon Convenience Store Robbery in Florida are among the criminal justice text books that Dr. Hunter has authored or co-authored. He has published many articles and book chapters dealing with crime prevention, policing, research methods, and criminological theory. Dr. Hunter has received awards and recognitions from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences; the Southern Criminal Justice Association; Western Carolina University; Jacksonville State University, Florida State University; and, Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” He is a former President of the Southern Criminal Justice Association and of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

Susan T. Quinn is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice/Criminology at Georgia Gwinnett College. Prior to becoming part of the GGC faculty, she was a senior data analyst with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Dr. Quinn earned her PhD in Criminology from Florida State University in 2010.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Section 1 Functions

Chapter 1 Research: What, Why, and How 3

What You Should Know! 3

The Nature of Scientific Inquiry 4

Social Science Research and the Real World 4

Science Versus Casual Inquiry 5

The Scientific Method 6

The Relationship Between Theory and Research 7

Theory 8

The Purpose of Research 9

What Is Research? 9

Types of Research 12

Descriptive Research 12

Explanatory Research 13

Predictive Research 13

Intervening Research 13

Why Research Is Necessary 14

Curiosity 14

Social Problems 14

Theory Testing 14

Factors That Influence Research Decisions 14

How Research Is Done 15

Identifying the Problem 15

Research Design 16

Data Collection 17

Data Analysis 17

Reporting 17

Summary 18

Chapter 2 Research and Ethics 21

What You Should Know! 21

Ethics 22

The Researcher's Role 22

Belmont Report 24

Ethical Considerations 24

Ethical Ramifications 24

Harm to Others 25

Privacy Concerns 25

Voluntary Participation 26

Deception 28

The Professionalism of Research 28

Ethical Research Criteria 29

Reasons for Confidentiality and Privacy 31

Summary 32

Chapter 3 The Beginning Basics 35

What You Should Know! 35

Getting Started 36

Picking a Topic 36

The Purpose of the Research 38

Exploring 38

Describing 39

Explaining 39

Become Familiar with the Library 41

Critiquing the Literature 42

Understanding Writing Styles 42

Knowing What to Look For 44

The Research Question 45

Hypotheses 46

Summary 48

Chapter 4 The Vocabulary of Research 51

What You Should Know! 51

The Language of Research 52

Theory 52

Conceptualization 53

Operationalization 54

Variables 55

Hypotheses 56

Assumptions 57

Other Necessary Terms 58

Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research 60

Qualitative Research Defined 61

Merits and Limitations of Qualitative Research 61

Quantitative Research 61

The Research Process 62

What You Have Not Done Before 62

Summary 63

Section II Procedures

Chapter 5 Sampling 67

What You Should Know! 67

Sampling 68

Probability Theory 69

Probability Sampling 70

Simple Random Samples 70

Stratified Random Samples 70

Systematic Samples 71

Cluster Samples 72

Nonprobabiiity Sampling 72

Purposive Samples 73

Quota Samples 74

Snowball Samples 74

Convenience Sample 75

Sample Size 76

Confidence Levels 76

Sampling Formulas 77

A Commonly Used Sampling Formula 77

A Sampling Size Selection Chart 78

Summary 79

Chapter 6 Introduction to Research Design 81

What You Should Know! 81

Empirical Observation 82

Causality 82

Experimental Research Designs 83

Quasi-Experimental Research Design 88

Quantitative Levels of Measurement 89

Summary 91

Chapter 7 Research Designs 93

What You Should Know! 93

Research Designs 93

Descriptive Research Design 95

Historical Research Design 95

Cross-Sectional Research Design 97

Longitudinal (or Time Series) Research Design 97

Case Study Research Design 99

Determining Correlations and Causations 100

Evaluation Research 102

Summary 103

Chapter 8 Qualitative and Quantitative Research Designs 105

What You Should Know! 105

Qualitative Research Design 106

Field Interviews 106

Structured interviews 106

Semi-Structured Interviews 107

Unstructured Interviews 108

Focus Groups 109

Field Observation 110

Ethnographic Research 112

Sociometry 113

Quantitative Research Design 114

Survey Research 114

Quantitative Field Observation 116

Summary 117

Chapter 9 Questionnaire Development 119

What You Should Know! 119

Surveys and Questionnaires 120

Rules for Questionnaire Construction 121

Rule One: Start With a List of All the items One Is Interested in Knowing About the Group, Concept, or Phenomenon 124

Rule Two: Be Prepared to Establish Validity and Reliability 124

Rule Three: Word the Questionnaire Appropriately for the Target Audience 127

Rule Four: Clearly Identify Who Should Answer the Questions 128

Rule Five: Avoid Asking Questions That Are Biased, Leading, or Double-Barreled in Nature 128

Rule Six: Before Constructing a Questionnaire, Decide Whether to Use Open- or Closed-Ended Questions or a Combination of Both 129

Rule Seven: Keep in Mind That Respondents May Not Have All the General Information Needed to Complete the Questionnaire 129

Rule Eight: Whenever Possible, Pretest the Questionnaire Before It Is Officially Used 131

Rule Nine: Set Up Questions So That the Responses Are Easily Recognizable Whether the Questionnaire Is Self-Administered or an Completed in an Interview 133

Rule Ten: Organize the Questionnaire to Keep the Respondents' Interest, Encouraging Them to Complete the Entire Questionnaire 133

Scales 133

Scaling Procedures 134

Arbitrary Scales 134

Attitudinal Scales 134

Summary 137

Chapter 10 Data Collection 139

What You Should Know! 139

Survey Research 140

Mail Distribution of Surveys 140

Surveys and the Internet 142

Interviews 144

Face-to-Face Interviews 145

Structured, Semi-structured, and Unstructured Interviews 145

Telephone Interviews 147

Field Observation 147

Secondary Data 150

Sources of Secondary Data 151

Content Analysis 153

Summary 155

Section III Final Steps

Chapter 11 Data Preparation and Analysis 159

What You Should Know! 159

Data Preparation 160

Data Coding 160

Data Entry 161

Data Cleaning 165

Missing Data 165

Recoding Data 166

Data Analysis 167

Statistical Analysis 168

Descriptive Statistics 169

Frequency Distributions 169

Displaying Frequencies 170

Measures of Central Tendency 171

Measures of Variability 174

Summary 176

Chapter 12 Inferential Statistics 179

What You Should Know! 179

Statistical Analysis 179

Overview of Inferential Statistics 180

Measures of Association 180

Statistical Significance 181

Comparative Statistics 181

Crime Rates 182

Crime-Specific Rates 182

Percentage Change 183

Trend Analyses 183

Inferential Statistics 184

Bivariate Analysis 184

Contingency Tables (or Cross-Tabulations) 184

Bivariate Regression 184

Multivariate Analysis 186

Student t Test 186

Correlation 186

Analysis of Variance 186

Multiple Regression 187

Other Multivariate Techniques 188

Summary 190

Chapter 13 Writing up the Research 193

What You Should Know! 193

The Research Paper 193

The Title Page 194

Abstract 194

The Introduction 195

Methodology 197

Results 199

Conclusions 199

References or Bibliography 200

Tables and Figures 202

Appendices 204

Summary 205

Chapter 14 Summing Up 207

What You Should Know! 207

Research Ethics 208

Ethical Concerns 208

Getting Started 209

Picking a Topic 209

Reviewing the Literature 209

The Research Question 209

Doing Criminological Research 209

Steps in the Research Process 210

The Language of Research 210

Theory 210

Conceptualization 211

Operationalization 211

Variables 211

Hypotheses 211

Sampling 211

Validity 212

Reliability 212

Data 212

Sampling 213

Probability Theory 213

Probability Sampling 213

Nonprobability Sampling 214

Sample Size 214

Confidence Levels 214

Introduction to Research Design 215

Causality 215

Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research Designs 216

Research Design 217

Descriptive Research Design 217

Historical Research Design 217

Cross-Sectional Research Design 218

Longitudinal (or Time Series) Research Design 218

Case Study Research Design 218

Correlational and Causal-Comparative Research 218

Qualitative Research 219

Field Interviewing 219

Focus Groups 219

Field Observation 219

Ethnographic Study 220

Quantitative Research 220

Survey Research 220

Questionnaire Construction 221

Scales 222

Data Collection 222

Surveys 223

Interviews 223

Field Observation 223

Secondary Data 224

Content Analysis 224

Data Preparation 224

Data Analysis 225

Statistical Analysis 225

Frequency Distributions 225

Other Ways to Describe the Data 226

Inferential Statistics 226

Measures of Association 227

Statistical Significance 227

Bivariate Analysis 227

Multivariate Analysis 227

Writing the Research 228

Summary 229

References 231

Appendix 237

Institutional Review Board Application 237

What Is IRB Approval? 237

Who Should Complete the IRB Application Form? 238

How Long Does an IRB Review Take? 238

General Overview of Information in IRB Applications 238

Read This If You Are Using a Published Instrument 240

Read This If You Are Creating Your Own Instrument or Modifying an Existing Instrument 240

Forms and Letters 241

Glossary 243

Author Index 251

Subject Index 253