Criminal Justice Research Methods

Criminal Justice Research Methods provides students with an accessible, easy-to-understand guide to all aspects of social scientific research methods. It features a comprehensive discussion of qualitative and quantitative data gathering strategies and a plethora of current examples to help readers understand the process of doing research and investigating issues that are relevant to criminal justice and criminology.

The opening chapter differentiates between pure and applied research, explains the relationship between theory, and method, identifies different types of research, and clarifies why research is necessary. Additional chapters cover ethical adherence, experimental designs, and crime data and sampling techniques. Students explore survey research designs and learn effective skillsets for interviewing and observing. The final chapters examine unobtrusive measures and secondary analysis; validity, reliability, and triangulated methods; and scaling and index construction. Throughout, learning objectives, summaries, discussion questions, and key terms support student engagement and retention.

Concise and highly contemporary, Criminal Justice Research Methods is ideal for courses with emphasis on research in criminal justice and criminology.

James F. Anderson, Ph.D. is a tenured professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at East Carolina University. He holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University and a master's degree in criminology and criminal justice from Alabama State University. Dr. Anderson's research interests include gang violence, legal rights of prisoners, criminological and victimological theories, crime and public health, epidemiological approaches to the study of crime, alternatives to traditional correctional strategies, rights of criminal justice professionals, crime as an epidemic, and opioid addiction. He is the author of Criminological Theories: Understanding Crime in America (2nd ed.) and coauthor of Significant Prisoner Rights Cases; American Criminal Procedures; and Criminal Justice and Criminology: Terms, Concepts, and Cases.