Table of Contents

SECTION I: FOUNDATIONS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
Chapter 1: Science, Society, and Research Related to Crime, Criminology, and Social Control
Reasoning About the Social World
The Social Science Approach
Criminal Justice and Criminological Research in Practice
Alternative Research Orientations
More on the Role of Values in Research
Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Highlighting a Few Specific Types of Research Methods
Strengths and Limitations of Social Research
A Comment on Research in a Diverse Society
Conclusion
Chapter 2: The Process and Problems of Research Related to Crime and Criminology
Identifying a Research Question
Social Research Foundations
The Role of Theory
Social Research Strategies
Social Research Standards
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Ethical Guidelines for Research
Historical Background
Ethical Principles
Institutional Review Board
Research Involving Special Populations: Prisoners and Children
Conclusion
SECTION II: FUNDAMENTALS OF RESEARCH
Chapter 4: Conceptualization and Measurement
Concepts
Variables and Levels of Measurement
Did We Measure What We Wanted to Measure?
A Comment on Measurement in a Diverse Society
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Sampling
Sample Planning
Sampling Methods
Sampling Distributions
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Causation and Research Design
Causal Explanations
Criteria and Cautions for Nomothetic Causal Explanations
Research Designs and Causality
Units of Analysis and Errors in Causal Reasoning
Conclusion
SECTION III: RESEARCH DESIGNS
Chapter 7: Experimental Designs
History of Experiments
True Experiments
Quasi-Experiments
Validity in Experiments
Factorial Survey Design
Ethical Issues in Experimental Research
Conclusion
Chapter 8: Survey Research
Survey Research in the Social Sciences
Designing Questionnaires
Writing Survey Questions
Organization of the Questionnaire
The Cover Letter
Survey Designs
Errors in Survey Research
Ethical Issues in Survey Research
Conclusion
Chapter 9: Qualitative Methods: Observing, Participating, and Listening
Fundamentals of Qualitative Methods
Participant Observation
Systematic Observation
Intensive Interviewing
Focus Groups
Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research
Conclusion
Chapter 10: Analyzing Content: Research Using Secondary, Historical, and Comparative Data, and Content Analysis
Analyzing Secondary Data
Historical and Comparative Methods
Comparative Research
Content Analysis
Methodological Issues When Using Secondary Data
Ethical Issues When Analyzing Available Data and Content
Conclusion
Chapter 11: Social Network Analysis, Crime Mapping, and Big Data
Social Network Analysis
Crime Mapping
Big Data
Ethical Issues When Using Big Data
Ethical Issues When Using Big Data
Chapter 12: Evaluation and Policy Analysis
A Brief History of Evaluation Research
Evaluation Basics
Questions for Evaluation Research
Design Decisions
Evaluation in Action
Quasi-Experimental Designs in Evaluation Research
Nonexperimental Designs
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Policy Research: Increasing Demand for Evidence-Based Policy
Basic Science or Applied Research
Ethics in Evaluation
Conclusion
Chapter 13: Mixing and Comparing Methods
What Are Mixed Methods?
Strengths and Limitations of Mixed Methods
Comparing Results Across Studies
Ethics and Mixed Methods
Conclusion
SECTION IV: AFTER THE DATA ARE COLLECTED
Chapter 14: Analyzing Quantitative Data
Introducing Statistics
Preparing Data for Analysis
Displaying Univariate Distributions
Summarizing Univariate Distributions
Cross-Tabulating Variables
Regression and Correlation
Conclusion
Chapter 15: Analyzing Qualitative Data
Features of Qualitative Data Analysis
Qualitative Compared With Quantitave Data Analysis
Techniques of Qualitative Data Analysis
Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis
Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis
Ethics in Qualitative Data Analysis
Conclusion
Chapter 16: Summarizing and Reporting Research
Research Report Goals
Writing Is Not Easy!
Research Report Types
Displaying Research
Special Considerations for Reporting Qualitative or Mixed-Methods Research
Ethics, Politics, and Reporting Research
Plagiarism
Conclusion
Appendix A: Questions to Ask About a Research Article
Appendix B: How to Read a Research Article
Appendix C: How to Use a Statistical Package: IBM SPSS Statistics
Appendix D: How to Use a Data Spreadsheet: Excel
Appendix E: Data Sets

About the Author

Ronet D. Bachman, PhD, worked as a statistician at the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S.

Department of Justice, before going back to an academic career; she is now a professor in the

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. She is coauthor

of Statistical Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice and coeditor of Explaining Criminals

and Crime: Essays in Contemporary Criminal Theory. In addition, she is the author of Death and

Violence on the Reservation and coauthor of Stress, Culture, and Aggression; Murder American

Style; and Violence: The Enduring Problem, along with numerous articles and papers that examine

the epidemiology and etiology of violence, with particular emphasis on women, the elderly,

and minority populations as well as research examining desistance from crime. Her most recent

federally funded research was a mixed-methods study that examined the long-term desistance

trajectories of criminal justice involved drug-involved individuals who have been followed with

both quantitative and interview data for nearly thirty years. Her current state-funded research is

assessing the needs of violent crime victims, especially those whose voices are rarely heard such

as loved ones of homicide victims.

 

Russell K. Schutt, PhD, is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service and taught from 1979 to 2022. He is also a Clinical Research Scientist I at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. He completed his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (where he met Dan). In addition to ten editions of Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and one of Understanding the Social World, as well as coauthored versions for the fields of social work, criminal justice, psychology, and education, his other books include Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (2011), Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited, 2015), and Organization in a Changing Environment (1986). He has authored and coauthored more than 65 peer reviewed journal articles, as well as book chapters and research reports on homelessness, mental health, organizations, law, and teaching research methods. His currently a Dual Principal Investigator (with Matcheri Keshavan, MD) in randomized comparative effectiveness trial of two socially-oriented interventions to improve community functioning among persons diagnosed with serious mental illness, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). His other recently concluded research includes co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded study of the social impact of the pandemic in Boston, and co-investigator on a Veterans Health Administration-funded study of peer support.  His earlier research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, the Veterans Health Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Fetzer Institute, and state agencies. Details are available at https://blogs.umb.edu/russellkschutt/.