Basics of Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology

by Maxfield, Michael G.; Babbie, Earl R.

• ISBN13: 9780495503859
• ISBN10: 0495503851
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-01
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

This brief introduction to research methods combines accessibility and a conversational writing style with Michael G. Maxfield's expertise in criminology and criminal justice. In fewer than 400 pages, the text introduces you to the basics of criminal justice research utilizing real data and featuring coverage of such key issues as ethics, causation, validity, field research, and research design.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
An Introduction to Criminal Justice Inquiry	p. 1
Criminal Justice and Scientific Inquiry	p. 2
Introduction	p. 3
Home Detention	p. 4
What Is This Book About?	p. 4
Two Realities	p. 4
The Role of Science	p. 6
Personal Human Inquiry	p. 6
Tradition	p. 7
Authority	p. 7
Arrest and Domestic Violence	p. 8
Errors in Personal Human Inquiry	p. 8
Inaccurate Observation	p. 8
Overgeneralization	p. 8
Selective Observation	p. 9
Illogical Reasoning	p. 10
Ideology and Politics	p. 10
To Err Is Human	p. 10
Foundations of Social Science	p. 11
Theory, Not Philosophy or Belief	p. 11
Regularities	p. 13
What about Exceptions?	p. 13
Aggregates, Not Individuals	p. 13
A Variable Language	p. 14
Variables and Attributes	p. 15
Variables and Relationships	p. 18
Purposes of Research	p. 18
Exploration	p. 18
Description	p. 19
Explanation	p. 19
Application	p. 20
Differing Avenues for Inquiry	p. 20
Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanations	p. 21
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning	p. 22
Quantitative and Qualitative Data	p. 23
Knowing through Experience: Summing Up and Looking Ahead	p. 24
Main Points	p. 24
Ethics and Criminal Justice Research	p. 26
Introduction	p. 27
Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice Research	p. 27
No Harm to Participants	p. 27
Ethics and Extreme Field Research	p. 28
Voluntary Participation	p. 31
Anonymity and Confidentiality	p. 32
Deceiving Subjects	p. 33
Analysis and Reporting	p. 33
Legal Liability	p. 34
Special Problems	p. 35
Promoting Compliance with Ethical Principles	p. 37
Codes of Professional Ethics	p. 37
Institutional Review Boards	p. 38
Institutional Review Board Requirements and Researcher Rights	p. 41
Ethics and Juvenile Gang Members	p. 42
Ethical Controversies	p. 42
The Stanford Prison Experiment	p. 42
Discussion Examples	p. 45
Main Points	p. 46
Structuring Criminal Justice Inquiry	p. 49
General Issues in Research Design	p. 50
Introduction	p. 51
Causation in the Social Sciences	p. 51
Criteria for Causality	p. 52
Necessary and Sufficient Causes	p. 53
Validity and Causal Inference	p. 53
Statistical Conclusion Validity	p. 53
Internal Validity	p. 55
External Validity	p. 55
Construct Validity	p. 55
Validity and Causal Inference Summarized	p. 57
Does Drug Use Cause Crime?	p. 57
Causation and Declining Crime in New York City	p. 58
Introducing Scientific Realism	p. 60
Units of Analysis	p. 61
Individuals	p. 61
Groups	p. 61
Organizations	p. 62
Social Artifacts	p. 62
The Ecological Fallacy	p. 63
Units of Analysis in Review	p. 63
Units of Analysis in the National Youth Gang Survey	p. 64
The Time Dimension	p. 65
Cross-Sectional Studies	p. 66
Longitudinal Studies	p. 66
Approximating Longitudinal Studies	p. 67
The Time Dimension Summarized	p. 70
How to Design a Research Project	p. 70
The Research Process	p. 71
Getting Started	p. 73
Conceptualization	p. 73
Choice of Research Method	p. 74
Operationalization	p. 74
Population and Sampling	p. 74
Observations	p. 75
Analysis	p. 75
Application	p. 75
Research Design in Review	p. 75
The Research Proposal	p. 76
Elements of a Research Proposal	p. 76
Answers to the Units-of-Analysis Exercise	p. 78
Main Points	p. 78
Concepts, Operationalization, and Measurement	p. 80
Introduction	p. 81
Conceptions and Concepts	p. 81
Conceptualization	p. 83
Indicators and Dimensions	p. 83
What Is Recidivism?	p. 84
Creating Conceptual Order	p. 84
Operationalization Choices	p. 86
Measurement as Scoring	p. 87
Jail Stay	p. 88
Exhaustive and Exclusive Measurement	p. 88
Levels of Measurement	p. 89
Implications of Levels of Measurement	p. 91
Criteria for Measurement Quality	p. 92
Reliability	p. 93
Validity	p. 94
Measuring Crime	p. 97
General Issues in Measuring Crime	p. 97
Units of Analysis and Measuring Crime	p. 98
Measures Based on Crimes Known to Police	p. 98
Victim Surveys	p. 102
Surveys of Offending	p. 103
Measuring Crime Summary	p. 104
Composite Measures	p. 105
Typologies	p. 106
An Index of Disorder	p. 107
Measurement Summary	p. 109
Main Points	p. 109
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs	p. 112
Introduction	p. 113
The Classical Experiment	p. 113
Independent and Dependent Variables	p. 114
Pretesting and Posttesting	p. 114
Experimental and Control Groups	p. 115
Double-Blind Experiments	p. 116
Selecting Subjects	p. 116
Randomization	p. 117
Experiments and Causal Inference	p. 117
Experiments and Threats to Validity	p. 118
Threats to Internal Validity	p. 118
Ruling Out Threats to Internal Validity	p. 120
Generalizability and Threats to Validity	p. 121
Variations in the Classical Experimental Design	p. 123
Quasi-Experimental Designs	p. 124
Nonequivalent-Groups Designs	p. 125
Cohort Designs	p. 128
Time-Series Designs	p. 128
Variations in Time-Series Designs	p. 132
Variable-Oriented Research and Scientific Realism	p. 133
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs Summarized	p. 135
Main Points	p. 136
Modes of Observation	p. 139
Sampling	p. 140
Introduction	p. 141
The Logic of Probability Sampling	p. 141
Conscious and Unconscious Sampling Bias	p. 143
Representativeness and Probability of Selection	p. 144
Probability Theory and Sampling Distribution	p. 145
The Sampling Distribution of 10 Cases	p. 145
From Sampling Distribution to Parameter Estimate	p. 149
Estimating Sampling Error	p. 150
Confidence Levels and Confidence Intervals	p. 151
Probability Theory and Sampling Distribution Summed Up	p. 152
Populations and Sampling Frames	p. 153
Types of Sampling Designs	p. 154
Simple Random Sampling	p. 154
Systematic Sampling	p. 154
Stratified Sampling	p. 155
Disproportionate Stratified Sampling	p. 156
Multistage Cluster Sampling	p. 157
Multistage Cluster Sampling with Stratification	p. 158
Illustration: Two National Crime Surveys	p. 160
The National Crime Victimization Survey	p. 160
The British Crime Survey	p. 161
Probability Sampling in Review	p. 162
Nonprobability Sampling	p. 162
Purposive Sampling	p. 162
Quota Sampling	p. 163
Reliance on Available Subjects	p. 164
Snowball Sampling	p. 165
Nonprobability Sampling in Review	p. 166
Main Points	p. 166
Survey Research and Other Ways of Asking Questions	p. 169
Introduction	p. 170
Topics Appropriate to Survey Research	p. 171
Counting Crime	p. 171
Self-Reports	p. 171
Perception and Attitudes	p. 172
Targeted Victim Surveys	p. 172
Other Evaluation Uses	p. 172
Guidelines for Asking Questions	p. 173
Open-Ended and Closed-Ended Questions	p. 173
Questions and Statements	p. 174
Make Items Clear	p. 174
Short Items Are Best	p. 174
Avoid Negative Items	p. 174
Biased Items and Terms	p. 175
Designing Self-Report Items	p. 175
Questionnaire Construction	p. 177
General Questionnaire Format	p. 177
Contingency Questions	p. 177
Matrix Questions	p. 178
Ordering Items in a Questionnaire	p. 180
Don't Start from Scratch!	p. 181
Self-Administered Questionnaires	p. 181
Mail Distribution and Return	p. 182
Warning Mailings and Cover Letters	p. 182
Follow-Up Mailings	p. 183
Acceptable Response Rates	p. 183
Computer-Based Self-Administration	p. 184
In-Person Interview Surveys	p. 185
The Role of the Interviewer	p. 185
Coordination and Control	p. 186
Computer-Assisted In-Person Interviews	p. 187
Telephone Surveys	p. 189
Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing	p. 190
Comparison of the Three Methods	p. 191
Strengths and Weaknesses of Survey Research	p. 192
Other Ways of Asking Questions	p. 194
Specialized Interviewing	p. 194
Focus Groups	p. 195
Should You Do It Yourself?	p. 196
Main Points	p. 198
Field Research	p. 200
Introduction	p. 201
Topics Appropriate to Field Research	p. 202
The Various Roles of the Observer	p. 203
Asking Questions	p. 205
Gaining Access to Subjects	p. 207
Gaining Access to Formal Organizations	p. 207
Gaining Access to Subcultures	p. 210
Selecting Cases for Observation	p. 210
Purposive Sampling in Field Research	p. 212
Recording Observations	p. 214
Cameras and Voice Recorders	p. 214
Field Notes	p. 215
Structured Observations	p. 216
Linking Field Observations and Other Data	p. 217
Illustrations of Field Research	p. 219
Field Research on Speeding and Traffic Enforcement	p. 219
Conducting a Safety Audit	p. 220
Bars and Violence	p. 222
Strengths and Weaknesses of Field Research	p. 224
Validity	p. 224
Reliability	p. 225
Generalizability	p. 226
Main Points	p. 227
Agency Records, Content Analysis, and Secondary Data	p. 229
Introduction	p. 230
Topics Appropriate for Agency Records and Content Analysis	p. 230
Types of Agency Records	p. 232
Published Statistics	p. 232
Nonpublic Agency Records	p. 234
New Data Collected by Agency Staff	p. 236
Improving Police Records of Domestic Violence	p. 238
Reliability and Validity	p. 239
Sources of Reliability and Validity Problems	p. 240
How Many Parole Violators Were There Last Month?	p. 242
Content Analysis	p. 244
Coding in Content Analysis	p. 244
Illustrations of Content Analysis	p. 246
Secondary Analysis	p. 247
Sources of Secondary Data	p. 248
Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Data	p. 249
Main Points	p. 250
Application and Analysis	p. 253
Evaluation Research and Problem Analysis	p. 254
Introduction	p. 255
Topics Appropriate for Evaluation Research and Problem Analysis	p. 255
The Policy Process	p. 256
Linking the Process to Evaluation	p. 257
Getting Started	p. 260
Evaluability Assessment	p. 260
Problem Formulation	p. 261
Measurement	p. 263
Designs for Program Evaluation	p. 266
Randomized Evaluation Designs	p. 266
Home Detention: Two Randomized Studies	p. 269
Quasi-Experimental Designs	p. 271
Other Types of Evaluation Studies	p. 273
Problem Analysis and Scientific Realism	p. 273
Problem-Oriented Policing	p. 274
Auto Theft in Chula Vista	p. 275
Other Applications of Problem Analysis	p. 276
Space- and Time-Based Analysis	p. 276
Scientific Realism and Applied Research	p. 280
The Political Context of Applied Research	p. 282
Evaluation and Stakeholders	p. 282
When Politics Accommodates Facts	p. 283
Politics and Objectivity	p. 284
Main Points	p. 285
Interpreting Data	p. 287
Introduction	p. 288
Univariate Description	p. 288
Distributions	p. 288
Measures of Central Tendency	p. 289
Measures of Dispersion	p. 291
Comparing Measures of Dispersion and Central Tendency	p. 293
Computing Rates	p. 295
Describing Two or More Variables	p. 296
Bivariate Analysis	p. 296
Murder on the Job	p. 298
Multivariate Analysis	p. 301
Inferential Statistics	p. 303
Univariate Inferences	p. 304
Tests of Statistical Significance	p. 305
Visualizing Statistical Significance	p. 306
Chi Square	p. 307
Cautions in Interpreting Statistical Significance	p. 309
Main Points	p. 311
Glossary	p. 313
References	p. 321
Name Index	p. 332
Subject Index	p. 334
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