secondary research methods criminology

• Open access
• Published: 12 August 2014

Innovative data collection methods in criminological research: editorial introduction

• Jean-Louis van Gelder 1 &
• Stijn Van Daele 2  

Crime Science volume  3 , Article number:  6 ( 2014 ) Cite this article

23k Accesses

11 Citations

3 Altmetric

Metrics details

Novel technologies, such as GPS, the Internet and virtual environments are not only rapidly becoming an increasingly influential part of our daily lives, they also have tremendous potential for improving our understanding of where, when and why crime occurs. In addition to these technologies, several innovative research methods, such as neuropsychological measurements and time-space budgets, have emerged in recent years. While often highly accessible and relevant for crime research, these technologies and methods are currently underutilized by criminologists who still tend to rely on traditional data-collection methods, such as systematic observation and surveys.

The contributions in this special issue of Crime Science explore the potential of several innovative research methods and novel technologies for crime research to acquaint criminologists with these methods so that they can apply them in their own research. Each contribution deals with a specific technology or method, gives an overview and reviews the relevant literature. In addition, each article provides useful suggestions about new ways in which the technology or method can be applied in future research. The technologies describe software and hardware that is widely available to the consumer (e.g. GPS technology) and that sometimes can even be used free of charge (e.g., Google Street View). We hope this special issue, which has its origins in a recent initiative of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) called CRIME Lab, and a collaborative workshop together with the Research consortium Crime, Criminology and Criminal Policy of Ghent University, will inspire researchers to start using innovative methods and novel technologies in their own research.

Issues and challenges facing crime researchers

Applied methods of scientific research depend on a variety of factors that play out at least in part beyond researcher control. One such factor regards the nature and availability of data, which largely determines the research questions that can be addressed: Data that cannot be collected cannot serve to answer a research question. Although this may seem like stating the obvious, it has had and continues to have far-reaching implications for criminological research. Because crime tends to be a covert activity and offenders have every interest in keeping it that way, crime in action can rarely be observed, let alone in such a way as to allow for systematic empirical study. Consequently, our knowledge of the actual offending process is still limited and relies in large part on indirect evidence. The same applies to offender motivations and the offending process; these cannot be measured directly in ways similar to how we can observe say the development of a chemical process or the workings of gravity. This has placed significant restrictions on the way crime research has been performed over the years, and most likely has coloured our view of crime and criminality by directing our gaze towards certain more visible elements such as offender backgrounds, demographics and criminal careers.

Another factor operating outside of researcher control regards the fact that the success of scientific analyses hinges on the technical possibilities to perform them. Even if researchers have access to particular data, this does not guarantee that the technology to perform the analysis in the best possible way is available to them. The complexity of the social sciences and the interconnectivity of various social phenomena, together with the lack of a controlled environment or laboratory, require substantial computational power to test highly complicated models. For instance, the use of space-time budgets, social network analysis or agent-based modelling can be quite resource-intensive. Adding the complexity of social reality to the resulting datasets (e.g. background variables related to social structure, GIS to incorporate actual road networks, etc.) puts high pressure on the available computational power of regular contemporary desktop computers. Addressing these challenges has practical and financial consequences, which brings us to the third issue, which although more mundane in nature is by no means limited to the applied sciences: a researcher requires the financial and non-financial resources to be able to perform his research.

All three factors have a bearing on the contents and goals of the present special issue. More specifically, the methods that are discussed and explained in different articles in this special issue each address one or more of these factors and have, we believe, the potential to radically change the way we think about crime and go about doing crime research. The methods and technologies are available, feasible and affordable. They are, so to speak, there for the taking.

Notes on criminological research methods

The above factors have contributed to a general tendency within criminology to stick to particular research traditions, both in terms of method and analysis. Although these traditions are well-developed and have undergone substantial improvement over the decades, most changes in the way research is performed in the discipline have been of the ’more of the same‘ variety, and most involve gradual improvements, rather than embodying ‘scientific revolutions’ and ‘paradigm shifts’ that have radically changed how criminologists go about doing research and thinking about crime.

With respect to methodology, since the field's genesis in the early 20th century, research in criminology has largely spawned studies using similar methods. In a meta-analysis of articles that have appeared in seven leading criminology and criminal justice journals in 2001-2002, Kleck et al. ([ 2006 ]) demonstrate that survey research is still the dominant method of collecting information (45.1%), followed by the use of archival data (31.8%), and official statistics (25.6%). Other methods, such as interviews, ethnographies and systematic observation, each account for less than 10% (as methods are sometimes combined the percentages add up to more than 100%). Furthermore, the Kleck et al. meta-analysis shows that as far as data analysis is concerned, nearly three quarters (72.5%) of the articles published uses some type of multivariate statistics. As such, it appears that criminology has developed a research tradition that started to dominate the field, though not to everybody's enthusiasm. Berk ([ 2010 ]), for example, states that regression analysis, in its broad conception, has become so dominant that researchers give it more credit than they sometimes should and take some of its possibilities for granted. Whereas certain research traditions may have a strong added value, they run the risk of being used more out of habit than for being the most appropriate method to answer a particular research question. As innovation influences our daily lives and how we perform our daily activities, there is no reason why it should not influence our way of performing science as well.

Innovation and technology in daily life and their application in criminological research

Novel technologies, such as GPS, the Internet, and virtual environments are rapidly establishing themselves as ingrained elements of our daily lives. Think, for example, of smart phones. While unknown to most of us as recently as ten years ago, today few people would leave their home without carrying one with them. Through their ability to, for example, transmit visual and written communication, use social media, locate ourselves and others through apps and GPS, smart phone technology has radically changed the way we go about our daily routines. The research potential of smart phone technology for improving our understanding of social phenomena is enormous and includes a better understanding of where, when and why crime occurs through automated data collection, interactive tests and surveys (Miller [ 2012 ]). Yet, so far surprisingly few crime researchers have picked up on the possibilities this technology has to offer.

A similar point can be made with respect to the Internet. While most researchers have made the transition from paper-and-pencil questionnaires to online surveys and online research panels may have become the norm for collecting community sample data, much of the potential of the Internet for crime research remains untapped. Think, for example, of the possibility of using Google Maps and Google Street View for studying spatial aspects of crime and the ease with which we can virtually travel down most of the roads and streets to examine street corners, buildings and neighbourhoods. The launch of Google Street View in Belgium stirred up controversy because it was perceived by police officers as a catalogue for burglars and was expected to lead to an increase in the number of burglaries. While it is not clear whether this has actually happened, crime studies reporting these tools in their method sections are few and far between.

In addition to novel technologies, several innovative research methods, such as social network analysis, time-space budgets, and neuropsychological measures that can tap into people's physiological and mental state, have emerged in recent years and have become common elements of the tool-set used in some of criminology's sister disciplines, such as sociology, psychology and neuroscience. Again, while often highly accessible and relevant for crime research, these methods are currently underutilized by crime researchers. The promising and emerging field of neurocriminology is an important exception in this respect (see e.g., Glenn & Raine [ 2014 ]).

To revert back to the three issues that have restricted the gaze of criminology mentioned at the outset of this article: accessibility of data, type of data analysis, and availability of resources, the new methods and technologies seem to check all the boxes. Much more data have become accessible for analysis through novel technologies, new methods for data-analysis and data-collection have been developed, and most of it is available at the consumer level. In other words, this allows for collecting and examining data in ways that go far beyond what we are used to in crime research. For example, methods combining neurobiological measurements with virtual environments can tell us a lot about an individual's mental and physical states and how they go about making criminal decisions, which were until recently largely black boxes. Finally, novel technologies are often available on the consumer market, such as smart phones, tablets, and digital cameras, and require only very modest research budgets. In some cases, such as the automated analysis of footage made by security cameras, simulations, or the use of honeypots that lure cyber criminals into hacking them, they even allow for systematically examining crime in action.

Goals of this special issue of Crime Science

The principal aim of the present special issue is to acquaint crime researchers and criminology students with some of these technologies and methods and explain how they can be used in crime research. While widely diverging, what these technologies and methods have in common is their accessibility and potential for furthering our understanding of crime and criminal behavior. The idea, in other words, is to explore the potential of innovative research methods of data-collection and novel technologies for crime research and to acquaint readers with these methods so that they can apply them in their own research.

Each article deals with a specific technology or method and is set-up in such a way as to give readers an overview of the specific technology/method at hand, i.e., what it is about, why to use it and how to do so, and a discussion of relevant literature on the topic. Furthermore, when relevant, articles contain technical information regarding the tools that are currently available and how they can be obtained. Case studies also feature in each article, giving readers a clearer picture of what is at stake. Finally, we have encouraged all contributors to give their views on possible future developments with the specific technology or method they describe and to make a prediction regarding the direction their field could or should develop. We sincerely hope this will inspire readers to apply these methods in their own work.

While not intended as a manual, after reading an article, readers should not only have a clear view of what the method/technology entails but also of how to use it, possibly in combination with one or more of the references that are provided in the annotated bibliography provided at the end of each article. The contributions may also be useful for researchers already working with a specific method or students interested in research methodology.

Article overview

Hoeben, Bernasco and Pauwels discuss the space-time budget method. This method aims at retrospectively recording on an hour-by-hour basis the whereabouts and activities of respondents, including crime and victimization. The method offers a number of advantages over existing methods for data-collection on crime and victimization such as the possibility of studying situational causes of crime or victimization, possibly in combination with individual lifestyles, routine activities and similar theoretical concepts. Furthermore, the space-time budget method offers the possibility of collecting information on spatial location, which enables the study of a respondent's whereabouts, going beyond the traditional focus of ecological criminological studies on residential neighborhoods. Finally, the collected spatial information on the location of individuals can be combined with data on neighborhood characteristics from other sources, which enables the empirical testing of a variety of ecological criminological theories.

The contribution of Gerritsen focuses on the possibilities offered by agent-based modeling, a technique borrowed from the domain of Artificial Intelligence. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a computational method that enables a researcher to create, analyse and experiment with models composed of agents that interact within a computational environment. Gerritsen explains how modeling and simulation techniques may help gain more insight into (informal) criminological theories without having to experiment with these phenomena in the real world. For example, to study the effect of bystander presence on norm violation, an ‘artificial neighborhood’ can be developed that is inhabited by 'virtual aggressors and victims’, and by manipulating the agents’ parameters different hypothetical scenarios may be explored. This enables criminologists to investigate complex processes in a relatively fast and cheap manner.

Since the pioneering early studies of the 1990s hinted at its promise as a method for social scientific research, Virtual Reality (VR) technology is increasingly used as a research tool by social scientists from various disciplines such as psychology and sociology. Given recent developments that have greatly enhanced the realism, reduced costs, and increased possibilities for application, it seems well on its way to become an established method in the social sciences. In their contribution Van Gelder, Luciano and Otte explore the potential of VR as a tool for research in criminology. Their article offers a description of how virtual reality has been used in social scientific research before discussing the potential it holds for criminology. By way of illustration, the authors describe a recent case study that has used immersive virtual reality for theory testing, which gives an idea of the unique possibilities of VR for studying crime.

Cornet also draws from criminology's sister disciplines in her article on neurobiological measurements observing that while the literature on the relationship between neurobiological factors and antisocial behavior has accumulated in recent years, the use of neurobiological measurements does not yet play a central role in criminological research. One of the underlying reasons Cornet identifies is the idea among criminologists that it is complicated to use these techniques compared to sociological, psychological and behavioral instruments. This article aims to provide an overview of the most commonly used neurobiological measurements, their added value and, importantly, how they can be relatively easily implemented in criminological research.

Vandeviver explains the possibilities and merits of online mapping applications such as Google Maps and Google Street View. While these technologies have evoked concern from law enforcement agencies that offenders could exploit them, Vandeviver notes that for criminologists they also open up several new perspectives to conduct research. Elaborating on results from prior studies in related fields and personal research experience, three potential uses of Google Maps and Google Street View in criminological research are explored and discussed. In particular, this article deals with how these online mapping applications can generate new research questions, how they allow revisiting and re-assessing established theories in criminology and common research practices, and how they should be considered an essential part of the methodological toolkit of criminologists.

Lemieux, also taking a spatial approach, describes how digital cameras with integrated GPS units can be used to collect useful data for criminological purposes observing that while visual observations have traditionally been an important method of criminological research, when combined with spatial data, such observations become a particularly useful way to describe how crime and disorder are distributed. Lemieux describes the utility and ease of using geo-tagged photographs and GPS tracks for monitoring illegal activity in urban and rural settings presenting case studies from Uganda and Amsterdam.

Vander Laenen discusses a method of qualitative criminological research, the Nominal Group Technique (NGT), which is not necessarily innovative by and of itself, but which has hardly been applied in criminology. The NGT is a highly structured technique with characteristics of an individual survey and a focus group. However its structure limits the influence of the researcher and of group dynamics and guarantees equal participation to all group members and equal influence of (conflicting) values and ideas. The NGT forms an ideal technique for gathering and prioritizing ideas and for innovative solution planning. Furthermore, despite the structure of the procedure, the technique can be modified and easily be applied in a mixed-methods research design. By means of an example, Vande Laenen reports on the use of the NGT in a study on the needs assessment of drug (prevention) policy.

In the final contribution to this special issue on innovative methods of data collection in criminology, De Bondt suggests solutions for doing cross-border criminal policy research and the confusion in wording and interpretation that emerge when comparing different legal systems. Correctly interpreting foreign information and using it as a valid source to substantiate analyses on where, when and why crime occurs and/or how to improve the fight against crime, often requires the expertise of people that are very familiar with a certain legal system. Based on a literature review and a number of successful experiences with the method in past research projects, the strengths and weaknesses of working with (predominantly) multiple choice based questionnaires sent to a single point of contact in each of the EU member states is elaborated upon.

Authors' contributions

Both Jean-Louis van Gelder and Stijn van Daele contributed to all aspects of the paper. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Berk R: What you can and can't properly do with regression. J Quant Criminol 2010, 26(4):481–487. doi:10.1007/s10940–010–9116–4 doi:10.1007/s10940-010-9116-4 10.1007/s10940-010-9116-4

Article   Google Scholar  

Glenn AL, Raine A: Neurocriminology: implications for the punishment, prediction and prevention of criminal behaviour. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2014, 15(1):54–63. doi:10.1038/Nrn3640 doi:10.1038/Nrn3640 10.1038/nrn3640

Kleck G, Tark J, Bellows J: What methods are most frequently used in research in criminology and criminal justice? [Article]. J Crim Justice 2006, 34(2):147–152. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.01.007 doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.01.007 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.01.007

Miller G: The smartphone psychology manifesto. Perspect Psychol Sci 2012, 7(3):221–237. doi:10.1177/1745691612441215 doi:10.1177/1745691612441215 10.1177/1745691612441215

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam, 1081, HV, The Netherlands

Jean-Louis van Gelder

Ghent University, Universiteitstraat 4, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

Stijn Van Daele

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean-Louis van Gelder .

Additional information

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 ), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

van Gelder, JL., Van Daele, S. Innovative data collection methods in criminological research: editorial introduction. Crime Sci 3 , 6 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-014-0006-1

Download citation

Received : 17 April 2014

Accepted : 30 April 2014

Published : 12 August 2014

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-014-0006-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Crime Science

ISSN: 2193-7680

• General enquiries: [email protected]

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Criminal Justice

IResearchNet

Academic Writing Services

Criminology research methods.

This section provides an overview of various research methods used in criminology and criminal justice. It covers a range of approaches from quantitative research methods such as crime classification systems, crime reports and statistics, citation and content analysis, crime mapping, and experimental criminology, to qualitative methods such as edge ethnography and fieldwork in criminology. Additionally, we explore two particular programs for monitoring drug abuse among arrestees, namely, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM). Finally, the article highlights the importance of criminal justice program evaluation in shaping policy decisions. Overall, this overview demonstrates the significance of a multidisciplinary approach to criminology research, and the need to combine both qualitative and quantitative research methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of crime and its causes.

I. Introduction

• Brief overview of criminology research methods • Importance of understanding different research methods in criminology

II. Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM)

• Definition and purpose of DAWN and ADAM • Methodology and data collection process • Significance of DAWN and ADAM data in criminology research

III. Crime Classification Systems: NCVS, NIBRS, and UCR

• Overview and purpose of each system • Differences between the systems • Advantages and limitations of each system

IV. Crime Reports and Statistics

• Sources of crime data and statistics • Limitations of crime data and statistics • Use of crime data and statistics in criminology research

V. Citation and Content Analysis

• Definition and purpose of citation and content analysis • Methodology and data collection process • Applications of citation and content analysis in criminology research

VI. Crime Mapping

• Definition and purpose of crime mapping • Methodology and data collection process • Applications of crime mapping in criminology research

VII. Edge Ethnography

• Definition and purpose of edge ethnography • Methodology and data collection process • Applications of edge ethnography in criminology research

VIII. Experimental Criminology

• Definition and purpose of experimental criminology • Methodology and data collection process • Applications of experimental criminology in criminology research

IX. Fieldwork in Criminology

• Definition and purpose of fieldwork in criminology • Methodology and data collection process • Applications of fieldwork in criminology research

X. Criminal Justice Program Evaluation

• Definition and purpose of criminal justice program evaluation • Methodology and data collection process • Applications of criminal justice program evaluation in criminology research

XI. Quantitative Criminology

• Definition and purpose of quantitative criminology • Methodology and data collection process • Applications of quantitative criminology in criminology research

XII. Conclusion

• Importance of understanding different research methods in criminology • Future directions for criminology research methods

Criminology research methods are crucial for understanding the causes and patterns of crime, as well as developing effective strategies for prevention and intervention. There are various methods used in criminological research, each with its own strengths and limitations. Understanding the different research methods is essential for conducting high-quality research that can inform policies and practices aimed at reducing crime and promoting public safety. This overview provides an overview of some of the most commonly used criminology research methods, including the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM), crime classification systems such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), crime reports and statistics, citation and content analysis, crime mapping, edge ethnography, experimental criminology, fieldwork in criminology, and quantitative criminology. The survey highlights the importance of understanding these methods and their applications in criminology research.

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) are two important research methods used in criminology to collect data on drug use and abuse among the population.

DAWN is a national public health surveillance system that tracks drug-related emergency department visits and deaths in the United States. The system collects data on drug-related medical emergencies and deaths from a variety of sources, including hospitals, medical examiners, and coroners. The purpose of DAWN is to provide information on drug use trends and the impact of drug use on public health and safety.

ADAM, on the other hand, is a research program that collects data on drug use and drug-related criminal activity among individuals who have been arrested and booked into jail. The program is designed to provide information on the prevalence of drug use and abuse among individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

Both DAWN and ADAM use similar methodology and data collection processes. Data is collected through interviews with individuals who have been involved in drug-related incidents, and through the analysis of drug-related data collected from medical and criminal justice records.

The significance of DAWN and ADAM data in criminology research is twofold. First, the data provides valuable information on drug use trends and patterns, which can inform the development of drug prevention and treatment programs. Second, the data can be used to understand the relationship between drug use and criminal behavior, and to inform criminal justice policies related to drug offenses.

Overall, the use of DAWN and ADAM in criminology research has contributed significantly to our understanding of drug use and abuse among the population, and has helped inform public health and criminal justice policies related to drug offenses.

The classification of crimes is an essential component of criminology research. The three main crime classification systems used in the United States are the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

The NCVS is a victimization survey that collects data on the frequency and nature of crimes that are not reported to law enforcement. The survey is conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and includes a sample of households and individuals. The NCVS provides valuable insights into crime victimization patterns and trends.

The NIBRS, on the other hand, is a more detailed crime reporting system that provides a comprehensive view of crime incidents. It captures more data than the UCR, including information on the victim, offender, and the circumstances surrounding the crime. The NIBRS is being adopted by law enforcement agencies across the country and is expected to replace the UCR as the primary crime reporting system.

The UCR is the longest-running and most widely used crime reporting system in the United States. It collects data on seven index crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. The UCR provides an overview of crime trends and patterns at the national, state, and local levels.

Each system has its advantages and limitations. For example, the NCVS provides valuable information on crime victimization that is not captured by the UCR or NIBRS. The NIBRS provides more detailed information on crimes than the UCR but requires more resources to implement. The UCR is widely used and provides long-term trends but does not capture detailed information on each crime incident.

Understanding the differences and similarities between these classification systems is important for criminology research and policy development.

Crime reports and statistics are essential sources of data for criminology research. Law enforcement agencies, criminal justice systems, and government agencies collect and analyze crime data to develop policies and strategies to reduce crime rates. However, crime data and statistics have several limitations that researchers should consider when interpreting and using them in research.

One limitation of crime data and statistics is that they rely on the accuracy and completeness of reported crimes. Not all crimes are reported to law enforcement, and those that are reported may not be accurately recorded. Additionally, the police may have biases in their reporting practices, which can affect the accuracy of the data.

Another limitation of crime data and statistics is that they do not always provide a complete picture of crime. For example, crime data may not capture crimes that occur in private places or are committed by people who are not typically considered criminals, such as white-collar criminals.

Despite these limitations, crime data and statistics are still valuable sources of information for criminology research. They can help researchers identify patterns and trends in crime rates and understand the factors that contribute to criminal behavior. Crime data can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of criminal justice policies and programs.

Researchers should be cautious when using crime data and statistics in their research and acknowledge the limitations of these sources. They should also consider using multiple sources of data to triangulate their findings and develop a more comprehensive understanding of crime trends and patterns.

Citation and content analysis are research methods that are increasingly used in criminology. Citation analysis involves the systematic examination of citations in published works to determine patterns of authorship, influence, and intellectual relationships within a given field. Content analysis, on the other hand, involves the systematic examination of written or visual material to identify patterns or themes in the content.

In criminology research, citation and content analysis can be used to study a wide range of topics, including the evolution of criminological theories, the impact of specific research studies, and the representation of crime and justice issues in the media. These methods can also be used to identify gaps in the literature and to develop new research questions.

The methodology for citation analysis involves gathering data on citations from published works, including books, articles, and other sources. This data is then analyzed to determine patterns in the citations, such as which works are cited most frequently and by whom. Content analysis involves the systematic examination of written or visual material, such as news articles or social media posts, to identify patterns or themes in the content. This process may involve coding the content based on specific categories or themes, or using machine learning algorithms to identify patterns in the data.

Citation and content analysis are important tools in criminology research because they provide a way to examine the influence of research and ideas over time, as well as the representation of crime and justice issues in the media. However, these methods also have limitations, such as the potential for bias in the selection of sources or the coding of content.

Overall, citation and content analysis are valuable research methods in criminology that can provide insights into the evolution of criminological theories, the impact of specific research studies, and the representation of crime and justice issues in the media.

Crime mapping is a criminology research method that visualizes the spatial distribution of crime incidents. Crime mapping involves the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other digital mapping tools to display crime data. The purpose of crime mapping is to provide researchers and law enforcement agencies with a better understanding of the spatial patterns of criminal activity in a given area.

Methodology and data collection process for crime mapping involve the collection of crime data and the use of GIS software to display the data in a visual format. Crime data can be collected from a variety of sources, such as police reports, victim surveys, and self-report surveys. Once the data is collected, it is geocoded, or assigned a geographic location, using a global positioning system (GPS) or address information.

The applications of crime mapping in criminology research are numerous. Crime mapping can be used to identify crime hotspots, or areas with a high concentration of criminal activity, which can help law enforcement agencies allocate resources more effectively. Crime mapping can also be used to identify crime patterns and trends over time, which can help researchers and law enforcement agencies develop strategies to prevent crime. Additionally, crime mapping can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of crime prevention and intervention strategies.

In conclusion, crime mapping is a valuable criminology research method that can provide researchers and law enforcement agencies with important insights into the spatial patterns of criminal activity. By using GIS and other digital mapping tools, crime mapping can help researchers and law enforcement agencies develop effective crime prevention and intervention strategies.

Edge ethnography is a criminology research method that focuses on studying the behaviors and social interactions of people on the fringes of society. It is often used to explore deviant or criminal behaviors in subcultures and marginalized groups. Edge ethnography involves immersive fieldwork, where the researcher actively participates in the activities of the group being studied to gain a deeper understanding of their values, beliefs, and practices.

The data collection process in edge ethnography involves participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. The researcher spends a considerable amount of time in the field to gain the trust and respect of the group members and to observe their behaviors and social interactions in a naturalistic setting. The researcher may also collect artifacts, such as photos and videos, to provide additional insights into the group’s activities.

Edge ethnography has many applications in criminology research. It can be used to explore the social and cultural contexts of criminal behaviors, as well as the experiences of marginalized groups in the criminal justice system. It can also be used to identify emerging trends and subcultures that may be associated with criminal activities.

However, edge ethnography also has limitations. It can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, requiring the researcher to spend a considerable amount of time in the field. It may also raise ethical concerns, particularly if the researcher is studying criminal activities or subcultures that engage in illegal behaviors. Therefore, it is important for researchers to carefully consider the ethical implications of their research and to take steps to protect the privacy and safety of their subjects.

Experimental criminology refers to the use of scientific experimentation to test theories related to crime and deviance. The goal is to isolate the effects of specific factors on criminal behavior by manipulating one variable while holding others constant. Experimental criminology can involve lab experiments, field experiments, and quasi-experiments.

The methodology involves randomly assigning participants to different groups, manipulating the independent variable, and measuring the dependent variable. The data collected can be both quantitative and qualitative.

Experimental criminology has been used to test a variety of theories related to crime, including deterrence theory, social learning theory, and strain theory. It has also been used to evaluate the effectiveness of criminal justice interventions, such as drug treatment programs and community policing initiatives.

Despite the potential benefits of experimental criminology, there are limitations to its use. For example, it can be difficult to generalize the findings of a lab experiment to real-world situations, and ethical concerns may arise when manipulating variables related to criminal behavior. However, experimental criminology remains a valuable tool in the criminology research arsenal.

Fieldwork is an integral part of criminology research that involves researchers immersing themselves in the settings they are studying to gather firsthand information about the social and cultural dynamics of the phenomenon being studied. Fieldwork in criminology can be conducted through various methods such as participant observation, ethnography, case studies, and interviews.

The purpose of fieldwork in criminology is to gain a deeper understanding of the social and cultural factors that contribute to criminal behavior, victimization, and the criminal justice system. Fieldwork also provides insights into the lived experiences of those involved in the criminal justice system and how they perceive and experience law enforcement, punishment, and rehabilitation.

The methodology and data collection process in fieldwork in criminology involve a range of activities, including developing research questions, selecting research sites, building relationships with research participants, conducting observations and interviews, collecting data, and analyzing data. Researchers may also use various tools such as field notes, audio and video recordings, photographs, and maps to document their observations and experiences.

Fieldwork in criminology has various applications, including exploring the social and cultural dynamics of crime and criminal justice, evaluating criminal justice programs and policies, and understanding the experiences of victims, offenders, and criminal justice professionals. Fieldwork is particularly useful in gaining insights into the perspectives and experiences of marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as those living in poverty, incarcerated individuals, and communities that experience high rates of crime.

Overall, fieldwork in criminology is a valuable research method that provides rich and detailed information about the social and cultural dynamics of crime, victimization, and the criminal justice system. It allows researchers to gain insights into the experiences and perspectives of those involved in the criminal justice system and provides opportunities to evaluate and improve criminal justice policies and programs.

Criminal justice program evaluation refers to the systematic assessment of programs and policies implemented within the criminal justice system to determine their effectiveness in achieving their intended goals. The evaluation process involves collecting and analyzing data to assess the program’s impact, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. Program evaluation is an essential tool for policymakers and practitioners to make informed decisions about criminal justice policies and programs.

The methodology used in program evaluation varies depending on the program or policy being evaluated. However, the process typically involves identifying the program’s goals and objectives, determining the program’s theory of change, identifying the target population, developing measures to evaluate the program, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting the findings.

Criminal justice program evaluation can be used to assess a wide range of programs, including correctional programs, law enforcement initiatives, and community-based programs. Evaluation findings can be used to determine the effectiveness of the program in reducing recidivism, improving public safety, or achieving other goals.

In recent years, criminal justice program evaluation has gained increasing attention as policymakers and practitioners seek evidence-based solutions to address the challenges facing the criminal justice system. The use of program evaluation has been instrumental in identifying effective interventions and programs, as well as those that are ineffective or even counterproductive.

Overall, criminal justice program evaluation is a critical tool for improving the effectiveness of criminal justice policies and programs. By providing policymakers and practitioners with evidence-based information, program evaluation can help to ensure that resources are used efficiently and effectively to promote public safety and reduce crime.

Quantitative criminology is a research method that involves the use of statistical data and techniques to analyze and understand crime patterns and behavior. It focuses on measuring and analyzing crime trends and patterns, identifying risk factors, and evaluating the effectiveness of crime prevention and intervention programs.

Quantitative criminology involves the use of numerical data to understand crime and its correlates. The purpose of this research method is to test theories and hypotheses about the causes and consequences of crime, identify patterns and trends, and evaluate the effectiveness of criminal justice policies and programs.

Quantitative criminology uses a variety of research methods and data collection techniques, including surveys, experiments, observations, and secondary data analysis. Researchers use statistical analysis to identify patterns, trends, and relationships among variables, such as crime rates, demographic characteristics, and socioeconomic factors.

Quantitative criminology has been used to study a wide range of topics, including the relationship between crime and social inequality, the effectiveness of community policing programs, and the impact of incarceration on recidivism. It has also been used to develop and test theories of crime, such as social disorganization theory and strain theory.

Quantitative criminology has contributed significantly to our understanding of crime and criminal behavior. It has provided valuable insights into the causes and consequences of crime and helped to inform the development of effective crime prevention and intervention programs.

The study of criminology is a complex field that requires a variety of research methods to understand and analyze the causes and patterns of crime. This article has provided an overview of several important criminology research methods, including the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM), crime classification systems such as NCVS, NIBRS, and UCR, crime reports and statistics, citation and content analysis, crime mapping, edge ethnography, experimental criminology, fieldwork, and criminal justice program evaluation. Each research method has its unique strengths and limitations, making it important for criminologists to choose the appropriate method for their research question.

As the field of criminology continues to evolve, it is important for researchers to consider new and innovative research methods. Future directions in criminology research may include advances in technology, such as the use of big data analytics and machine learning algorithms, as well as an increased emphasis on interdisciplinary collaborations between criminologists and experts in fields such as psychology, sociology, and public health.

Overall, the study of criminology requires a diverse range of research methods to fully understand the complex nature of crime and its causes. By utilizing these methods and continuing to explore new avenues for research, criminologists can make important contributions to our understanding of crime and help inform policies and interventions aimed at reducing crime and promoting public safety.

References:

• Aebi, M. F., Tiago, M. M., & Burkhardt, C. (2018). The future of crime and crime control between tradition and innovation. Cham: Springer.
• Brantingham, P. L., & Brantingham, P. J. (2013). Environmental criminology. In The Oxford handbook of criminology (pp. 387-408). Oxford University Press.
• Clarke, R. V. (2017). Situational crime prevention. In The Routledge handbook of critical criminology (pp. 124-136). Routledge.
• Cohen, L. E., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American sociological review, 44(4), 588-608.
• Cullen, F. T., & Jonson, C. L. (2017). Criminal justice research methods: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• Dantzker, M. L., & Hunter, R. D. (2017). Research methods in criminal justice and criminology (10th ed.). Routledge.
• Eck, J. E. (2017). Problem-oriented policing. In The Routledge handbook of critical criminology (pp. 137-150). Routledge.
• Eck, J. E., & Weisburd, D. (2015). What is problem-oriented policing?. Crime and justice, 44(1), 1-54.
• Felson, M. (2017). Routine activity theory. In The Routledge handbook of critical criminology (pp. 79-92). Routledge.
• Fox, J. A. (2015). Trends in drug use and related criminal behavior. In Drugs and crime (pp. 19-47). Springer.
• Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford University Press.
• Hagan, F. E., & Foster, H. (2017). Crime and inequality. In The Routledge handbook of critical criminology (pp. 47-62). Routledge.
• Jackson, J., & Bradford, B. (2009). Crime, policing and social order: On the expressive nature of public confidence in policing. British Journal of Sociology, 60(3), 493-521.
• Kelling, G. L., & Coles, C. M. (1996). Fixing broken windows: Restoring order and reducing crime in our communities. Simon and Schuster.
• Maguire, M., & Snider, L. (2017). Understanding criminal justice. Routledge.
• Mazerolle, L., & Rombouts, S. (2017). Experimental criminology. In The Routledge handbook of critical criminology (pp. 93-107). Routledge.
• Mazerolle, L., & Roehl, J. (2008). Policing, crime, and hot spots policing. Crime and justice, 37(1), 315-363.
• National Institute of Justice. (n.d.). Crime mapping research center. Retrieved from https://www.nij.gov/topics/technology/maps/Pages/welcome.aspx
• Reisig, M. D., Holtfreter, K., & Morash, M. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford handbook of criminological theory. Oxford University Press.
• Weisburd, D., Hinkle, J. C., & Eck, J. E. (2019). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.

• Find My Rep

You are here

The SAGE Handbook of Criminological Research Methods

• David Gadd - Manchester University, UK, University of Manchester, UK
• Susanne Karstedt - Griffith University, Australia
• Steven F Messner - University at Albany, State University of New York, USA
• Description

Drawing on exemplary studies, chapters in each section illustrate the techniques (qualitative and quantitative) that are commonly applied in empirical studies, as well as the logic of criminological enquiry. Organized into five sections, each prefaced by an editorial introduction, the Handbook covers:

• Crime and Criminals

• Contextualizing Crimes in Space and Time: Networks, Communities and Culture

• Perceptual Dimensions of Crime

• Criminal Justice Systems: Organizations and Institutions

• Preventing Crime and Improving Justice

Edited by leaders in the field of criminological research, and with contributions from internationally renowned experts, The SAGE Handbook of Criminological Research Methods is set to become the definitive resource for postgraduates, researchers and academics in criminology, criminal justice, policing, law, and sociology.

David Gadd is Professor of Criminology at Manchester University School of Law where he is also Director of the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Susanne Karstedt has a Chair in Criminology and Criminological Justice at the University of Leeds.

This remarkable collection of essays is criminological methodology like it ought to be. Reflecting the rich, methodological and substantive diversity of the field and the complexity of the criminological subject matter, these essays reveal the stories behind the stories criminologists tell. Essential reading for students and researchers alike Professor Shadd Maruna Queens University, Belfast

The Sage Handbook of Criminological Research Methods by David Gadd, Susanne Karstedt and Steven Messner brings together a large group of experienced researchers from across the world to write about a wide range of innovative and important approaches to criminological enquiry. But the handbook is much more than a standard "research methods" book in two significant ways: first, it situates each research methods within its theoretical home. Second, the authors have succeeded in striking the right balance between presenting a necessary textbook approach to using a research method and providing an experienced researcher's perspective on the ins and outs of actually conducting research. The practical insights provided throughout the book, across a very broad range of criminological inquiry, make for an engaging read Professor Lorraine Mazerolle University of Queensland, Australia

Criminology is characterized by a bewildering array of research methods ranging from randomized control experiments to ethnographies. The editors boldly charge into this intellectual thicket and provide some much needed organization and clarity. The 33 substantive chapters, written by some of the most respected criminologists in the field, provide an excellent resource for researchers and will make a welcome addition for both undergraduate and graduate research methods courses Gary LaFree Director, START Center and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland

Preview this book

Select a purchasing option, order from:.

• VitalSource
• Amazon Kindle
• Google Play

7 Chapter 7: Unobtrusive Methods

Case study: crime reporting on cable news.

Research Exposure

An Examination of Crime Reporting on Cable News 1

Research Question

To what extent are scholars in the fields of criminal justice and criminology participating in crime reporting on major cable news television programs?

Methodology

For this study researchers utilized content analysis, an unobtrusive method of information collecting, to explore crime reporting across different television media outlets. They first selected the most highly rated news programs from three different 24-hour cable news networks. Included in the study were Anderson Cooper 360° (CNN), The O ’ Reilly Factor (FOX), and Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC). Researchers recorded these programs on Tuesdays and Thursdays from June to September, 2006. Episodes of each program were coded first for the inclusion of crime segments and later for discussion of crime causation and crime control, taking into consideration the guests appearing on the programs. Data from 64 episodes were included for final analysis. From these episodes, 180 crime segments were analyzed by the researchers. As there were two researchers, or raters, analyzing the media content, an interrater reliability analysis was conducted to determine coding consistency between the raters.

Results and Implications

Of the three programs analyzed, Anderson Cooper 360° devoted the most time to crime reporting (40%) and, across all three programs, crime reporting segments lasted approximately five minutes. As for type of crime discussed most often, the majority of time spent discussing crime (90%) was devoted to street crime, terrorism, and sexual offenses. More than one-third of segments focused on high-profile cases such as the yet unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Colorado.

During the crime segments analyzed, there were 347 guest appearances. Scholars and researchers represented 4% of guests while politicians and practitioners (e.g., law enforcement officials, attorneys) were called upon the most (37.5%). During the crime-related segments, the researchers revealed that little discussion was devoted to crime causation and/or crime control. Indeed, only 17% of guests incorporated crime causation into the interview and only 14% of guests mentioned crime control. These findings were similar for both academic and nonacademic guest appearances. When crime causation was discussed, it was found to involve the nonprofessional diagnosing of individual pathology, most frequently mental illness. For those incorporating crime control and policy into their discussions, the majority of guests were in favor of more severe penalties for offenders. Of all of the guest appearances, there were only nine in which guests supported less severe penalties such as rehabilitation or decriminalization. Finally, regarding what type of content the guest appearances provided, more guests were found to be sharing facts or their experience to develop the crime-related story, although 22.5% provided only speculation regarding the case in question. Researchers found that when speculation did not occur naturally, program hosts often encouraged such discussion through the questions they posed during the interview.

Ultimately the findings of this study lend support to past research in the area of crime reporting. Academic guest appearances remain as few and far between as they were two decades ago, and the conversations continue to lack insight regarding crime causation or appropriate preventative measures for and/or responses to criminal events. Of course, as the researchers note, perhaps cable news programs are not the place for such discourse. While one cannot deny that news audiences are aware of the “what,” it remains questionable as to whether they will understand the “why,” or the context of criminal events, from the information received from cable news media outlets.

In This Chapter You Will Learn

To explain the reasons for conducting unobtrusive research

To discuss reactivity and the Hawthorne Effect

To locate archives of existing data

To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using secondary data

To compare and contrast the various methods for conducting unobtrusive research

Introduction

Previous chapters in this text have examined the many types of data collection techniques most often used by social scientists to study crime. So far you have learned about the variations of the experimental design, data collection utilizing surveys and interviews, as well as participant observation data-gathering techniques. Which technique is chosen by a researcher may depend on any number of factors, including the time available to conduct the study, the monetary or personal costs the study may entail, and the specific research question being examined. The decision on what technique to use may also be influenced by the population of interest. For example, if a researcher wanted to examine gang affiliation among prison inmates, he would seemingly need access to a prison facility, but that is not necessarily the case. This chapter continues the discussion on data-gathering techniques by focusing on additional methodologies that are often described as “unobtrusive.”

Reactivity and the Need for Unobtrusive Research

There are many ways in which researchers can implement unobtrusive methodologies, or indirect methods, to answer their research questions. The most popular unobtrusive method in criminal justice research is the use of secondary data. Other techniques include content analysis (as discussed in the example at the beginning of this chapter), the use of archival records, the analyzing of physical traces, simulations, and, as was discussed in Chapter 6, the use of observation. This chapter explores each of these techniques in more depth, giving examples of how they have been used to advance the study of crime-related and other social science topics.

The Impact of Reactivity on Research Findings

Being unobtrusive, or nonreactive, implies that what or who is being studied is unaware of its/her role as research participant. Therefore, the information obtained will not be tainted by reactivity. As was discussed in Chapter 6, methodologies that are obtrusive, and therefore known to the study participants, can cause limitations to information gathering. For example, can you recall the Hawthorne Effect? The Hawthorne Effect represents a threat to the internal validity of a study by providing an alternative explanation for study findings. It describes how a research participant may change her behavior (i.e., act unnaturally) due to their role as a research participant. If such an unnatural change in behavior occurs, researchers are no longer measuring a true or natural reaction to what is being studied. Researchers therefore cannot contend that it was the study components alone that influenced the behavior of the study participants. Additionally, reactivity limits the generalizability of study findings as such findings can only be said to be true regarding subjects under the same conditions (i.e., those who are being observed at the time the behavior took place).

The Hawthorne Effect was coined from a research study on the relationship between worker productivity and work environment, which was conducted at the Western Electric–Hawthorne Works factory in the early 20 th century. At the time, researchers were interested in understanding whether slight changes to the workers’ environment, particularly the lighting in the environment, would alter the workers’ productivity. Study findings revealed that there were increases in productivity during the time of the experiments (even when fighting conditions deteriorated); however, these were later attributed not to the change in environment, but rather the perceived interest in and attention being received by the workers (to read more about the Hawthorne Effect, visit the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library Historical Collections website). The Hawthorne Effect, and the research on which it is based, continues to be discussed relative to research methods as well as management in the workplace. Interestingly, in 2009, a group of researchers at the University of Chicago reanalyzed the original Hawthorne Works factory data, finding that the original results may have been overstated and that factors other than reactivity may have influenced productivity among the workers being observed. 2 While these new findings have come to fight, reactivity continues to be recognized as a limitation to research involving human subjects.

As another example of how reactivity may affect researcher findings, let’s say a research team wants to examine a program for discipline-problem students. To resolve discipline problems at school, a special program was implemented in which discipline-problem children were taken from their normal classroom and put in an environment where there were fewer students, more one-on-one attention from the teacher, and a specialized learning program. While researchers may be interested specifically in changes in the children’s behavior based on the program curriculum, it could be that such behavioral changes were due instead to the extra attention the children were receiving from the teacher and/or from the researchers conducting the program evaluation. Therefore, reactivity may limit the researchers’ ability to say with certainty that changes in student performance and behavior were due solely to the program curriculum. Additionally, let’s say researchers want to examine how patients in a doctor’s office react to longer-than-usual wait times. Under normal circumstances, patients may get agitated and respond negatively to office staff. However, if the same patients knew they were being observed as part of a study, they may respond with more patience. There are numerous situations in which an individual’s behaviors may be influenced by the presence of observers or by the simple knowledge that he is part of a research study. Think about how you would respond in a particular situation, such as the example involving the doctor’s office, if you knew you were being observed and your actions were being documented.

Advantages of Measuring from Afar Although there are disadvantages to using unobtrusive measures, there are also advantages to using them in the research process. Perhaps the greatest advantage is the ability to diminish or eliminate reactivity, or the Hawthorne Effect. Utilizing unobtrusive methods, researchers are able to observe, measure, and study subjects without them being aware they are being studied.

In certain unobtrusive methods, such as archival records and secondary data, human subjects are not directly involved in the research, and this eliminates most concerns related to reactivity. The records and data to be analyzed are already in existence, and it is the researcher’s job to analyze the information only. This can save valuable resources including time and money and can also allow researchers to study populations that they may not be able to otherwise. For example, if a researcher wanted to explore what the writers of the U.S. Constitution were thinking at the time of the American Revolution, they could not ask Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin personally. They could, however, look back to letters, diaries, and other written documents to better understand what was being thought and felt at the time. As another example, if researchers wanted to conduct a study of sexual assault victims but did not have access to such a population, they may look to analyze data, originally collected for a different purpose by a secondary source. National Crime Victimization Survey data, for example, could be used for this purpose. The following sections will examine in more detail the many types of unobtrusive methods utilized by researchers.

Unobtrusive Methods

Secondary Data Analysis By far the most popular type of unobtrusive research method, secondary data analysis involves the reanalyzing of existing data. Secondary data analysis entails researchers obtaining and reanalyzing data that were originally collected for a different purpose. This is considered unobtrusive because researchers are utilizing data that already exists and therefore do not have to enter the lives of subjects to collect information needed for their study.

There exist numerous sources of data that can be useful for developing criminal justice studies. All criminal justice and other government agencies collect official data, of varying extent, for records purposes. The Census Bureau collects information regarding the characteristics of U.S. residents. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects and compiles crime data each year from local and state law enforcement agencies for its Uniform Crime Reports and National Incident Based Reporting System. State prison systems and county and city jail administrators collect data on their inmates. Beyond official data, the U.S. Department of Justice, through its Bureau of Justice Statistics, facilitates numerous surveys including the National Crime Victimization Survey and surveys of inmates in jails, state correctional facilities, and federal correctional facilities. Local program staff who perform evaluations of their work may choose to make data collected for evaluation purposes available to others as may individual researchers who have collected extensive data for research projects. If receiving federal funding to conduct research, it may be a stipulation of the funding agreement that the data be made available for public use after a certain period of time has passed. The National Institute of Justice was the first to have such a requirement, specifying that data collected through NIJ-funded research projects must be given to NIJ once the research had concluded. These data and numerous other datasets are available to researchers for secondary use.

Application processes to obtain original data vary greatly depending on the agency that holds the data, the type of data being requested, and other factors. Sometimes obtaining data requires a phone call only, or establishing a contact within an agency. Other times, especially with datasets that are restricted due to identifying information contained within, there are lengthy applications and in-person meetings with agency administrators required for consideration. Today, data archives exist that make obtaining data as easy as a click of a button. Data archives such as the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, which houses the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, provide access to a broad range of data that can be downloaded quickly by researchers. All that needs to be done is a keyword search to see if archives such as ICPSR have data that may be useful to a researcher beginning a new research project.

CLASSICS IN CJ RESEARCH

The Lost Letter Technique

The same Stanley Milgram responsible for the classic Obedience to Authority study discussed in Chapter 2 is also responsible for implementing what is now referred to as the lost letter technique. 3 In the 1960s, Milgram conducted studies in which letters preaddressed and stamped were dropped in pedestrian areas. These letters were preaddressed to organizations that were controversial in nature, such as the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups. The address, however, was the study site address and not the actual organization address. As a way of indirectly measuring attitudes toward these organizations, specifically acceptability, Milgram determined the rate at which these letters were returned. The letter being returned indicated that someone had taken the time to pick up the letter and send it on. The study revealed low rates of return, which Milgram believed pointed to a general lack of acceptability of these types of organizations.

In the 1990s, Stern and Faber 4 introduced Milgram’s lost letter technique to the electronic age. Using e-mails, the researchers conducted two separate experiments. In the first experiment, faculty at a small college were sent one of four prewritten “lost” e-mail messages differing in tone and urgency. Of the faculty who received the “lost” messages, 19% returned the message to the sender. No message was sent on to the person to whom the e-mail was originally addressed. There was also no difference found on rates of return based on the type of message received. In the second experiment, the researchers sought to measure attitudes regarding Ross Perot, a presidential candidate at the time. Using a selection of 200 e-mails obtained from the online “white pages,” the researchers sent a variation of e-mails that included a request for assistance with fundraising for Perot’s campaign. Of the messages sent, 29% were returned. Based on a content analysis of returned messages, it was found that respondents showed either a negative or neutral attitude toward the Perot campaign. While ethical considerations and limits to generalizability abound when conducting a study using such a technique, it seems that with the aid of technology, this data-gathering tool is not yet lost to the history books.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Data The main reason secondary data analysis is employed so often by criminal justice researchers is that it can save valuable time and resources. It may allow the analyzing of data from a place that is normally restricted to researchers such as correctional environments. For research projects that are unfunded, secondary data analysis provides a means for answering research questions that is much less costly than collecting original data. That is not to say that all data is free to researchers. There are datasets that may be difficult to obtain due to fees that must be paid for their use or due to the cost in time and effort that must be put forth to obtain the dataset. Another limitation with the use of official and other existing data is that researchers have no control over the original data collection. There may be issues with the methodology of the original data collection or problems with agency recordkeeping leading to questions of accuracy. Certain variables may not have been included in the original data collection, limiting the questions that can be answered by analyzing the existing data. There may also have been certain biases impacting the original data collection. For example, if an agency or program wanted the original study to show favorable results, it could be that data was “fudged” in such a way that findings were as wanted, instead of as actually existed. While the advantages to the use of secondary data are many, these limitations should be taken into serious consideration prior to beginning a study reliant on secondary data.

WHAT RESEARCH SHOWS: IMPACTING CRIMINAL JUSTICE OPERATIONS

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Research utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) technology involves the use of mapping hardware, software, and data to examine structural, social, and other area characteristics and how these relate to criminal activity, program delivery, and other criminal justice topics. GIS technology can be used to map where things are, to map quantities, to map densities, to find what is inside or nearby an area, and/or to map change. 5 In the 1950s and 1960s, multiple disciplines contributed to the development of GIS; however, today most academic GIS programs are housed in geography departments on university campuses.

Digital mapping was first adopted by the federal government in the 1960s through its use by the U.S. Census Bureau. 6 In the 1970s and 1980s, private vendors began to offer smaller systems, making GIS analysis affordable for state and city use and eventually for use by community and other smaller organizations. With its increased use for criminal justice applications, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) developed a Crime Mapping Research Center, which supports research using computerized crime mapping. One NIJ funded research project examined computerized crime mapping use among law enforcement agencies. Surveying over 2,000 law enforcement agencies, Mamalian and LaVigne (1999) 7 found that the majority of agencies sampled used some form of analysis, whether to fulfill reporting requirements to the Uniform Crime Reports (73%) or to calculate agency statistical reports (52%). Very few agencies, however, used computerized crime mapping (13%). When used, the vast majority (91%) reported using computerized crime mapping to conduct geocoding and mapping offense data. As would be expected due to resource allocation, larger departments (36%), those with more than 100 officers, were more likely than smaller departments (3%) to use computerized crime mapping.

GIS has also made its way into the criminal justice academic literature base. Manhein, Listi, and Leitner (2006) 8 used GIS and spatial analysis to examine dumped and scattered human remains in the state of Louisiana. Medina, Siebeneck, and Hepner (2011) 9 used GIS to explore patterns of terrorist incidents occurring in Iraq between 2004 and 2009. Davidson, Scholar, and Howe (2011) 10 utilized GIS-based methods to determine where needle exchange programs were most needed in San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a final example, Caplan, Kennedy, and Miller (2011) 11 relied upon GIS modeling to determine whether risk terrain modeling was more effective than hot spot mapping in the forecasting of shootings, finding that risk terrain modeling was significantly more accurate. As these examples show, GIS, as an unobtrusive method, can be very helpful in answering a wide variation of questions related to the investigation of crime and other behaviors. With more resources allocated to this type of analysis, the future is wide open for GIS to take root in criminal justice research.

Historical Research

The saying that “history repeats itself’ may apply to the interest some researchers have in studying the past. Historical research is a form of secondary data analysis that involves obtaining information from historical documents and archival records to answer a research question. An abundance of information exists in libraries and other places where archives are kept such as city, county, or state agencies where researchers can examine past events, trends over time, and the like. With the advent of the Internet, retrieving such records has become much less cumbersome.

Archival Records are not only used for examining criminal justice-related questions. Outside of our discipline, historical records have been explored by those interested in weather patterns and also by those interested in environmental change. Simonton 12 chronicled the use of historical data in psychological research and concluded that the use of such applications should and will continue. He contends that “methodological advances [including the use of advanced statistical techniques]…render the historical record a far more useful source of scientific data” than may have been previously realized. One recent study 13 utilizing archival records examined the combat histories of veterans seeking treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. For this study, researchers explored archival records detailing Vietnam combat from the U.S. National Military Personnel Records Center, finding that Vietnam-era veterans seeking treatment for PTSD may misrepresent their combat involvement, at least according to their documented military record. As relates to criminal justice, archives holding arrest records, prison records, and death row records may be analyzed. Theoretically, Durkheim’s influential work on suicide from which his theory of anomie was developed was based on archived records. Additionally, there are numerous examples of the use of historical data to examine criminal offenders from Albini’s (1971) 14 study tracing the origins of the Mafia to Sicily to Clarke’s (1982) 15 study of assassins and their motivations.

While archival data has been and continues to be utilized for scientific inquiry, it is important to understand the limitations of such data. First, historical data are only available through archives that must be “mined” for their information. In some cases, this may be easy to do, especially if the archive is online and able to be easily searched. In other cases, accessing such data may involve traveling far distances to visit libraries or records offices to gather the information needed. Questions of reliability and validity also confound the use of archival data. Gidley, 16 citing Scott (1990), notes that such data should be judged based on four criteria, its authenticity or genuine nature, its credibility or whether the record is free from distortion, its representativeness as compared to other records of its kind, and its meaning or clarity of the evidence in question. Researchers should also take into consideration the original methods used to collect the data as well as the intentions of the original data collectors when using archival data. As mentioned previously, if the data were biased in some way when originally collected, they will continue to be so in their current use.

Diaries, Letters, and Autobiographies Aside from archival records, historical research may also involve the analysis of personal documents, including diaries and letters, or other accounts of life events as told by the person under study. Diaries of those who have gone before us have been examined to better understand the time or event in question and to gain insight into what that person was like or what they were thinking at the time. Often exhibitions of historical diaries and letters travel from library to library. The Library of Congress allows online access to a number of such diaries, including those from George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt; however, research involving this type of data does not have to be historical. Current research endeavors may also involve diaries through what is known as the diary method. In this method, subjects are asked to keep a record of their behaviors as they relate to the study being conducted. For example, a study on substance abuse may ask a user to chronicle his or her daily use during the time the research is being conducted. A study on unemployment may ask a study subject to keep a diary of the challenges faced as he or she searches for a job.

Autobiographies have also been used to chronicle histories, many of which focus on a life of crime. Although its validity is now questioned, Tufts’ autobiographical account of his life as a career criminal was the first to be published in 1930. 17 Since that time, many accounts have been published, especially by former organized crime members. 18 While there is much interest in the telling of these stories, readers should be aware that not everything told has been backed up by evidence and therefore, as with Tufts’ autobiography, the validity of the accounts is somewhat unknown.

Content Analysis

The opening case study of this chapter described a research study in which media content was analyzed to answer a research question, namely to what extent criminal justice and criminology scholars were contributing to popular cable news programs. This method is referred to as content analysis, and such analysis may be conducted using any form of mass communication, including television, newspapers, magazines, and the like. In the past, such methods have relied on written material, but today, television and films and any other source of mass media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter posts) may also be utilized for purposes of content analysis. The procedural elements of content analysis as described by Berelson 19 (1952) include subject selection, the development of inclusion criteria, classification, and analysis of results. The establishment and reporting of the inclusion criteria and classification schemes are important elements of content analysis because they allow a path to be followed for other raters within the project or future researchers attempting to replicate the study findings.

Recent examples of research involving content analysis include the examination of criminal justice pioneer importance as measured by existing biography length, 20 crime drama portrayals of “prime time justice,” 21 last words of Death Row inmates and news coverage of executions in Texas, 22 portrayals of gay and lesbian police officer depictions in the “core cop film genre,” 23 and constructions of crime and justice as portrayed in American comic books. 24 While such research can be found in mainstream criminal justice and criminology journals, journals devoted to media topics, such as the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, and Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, have been established to focus primarily on such issues and research methodologies.

A recent contribution to the content analysis process is the development of computer software programs that can be used to aide researchers with counts and classification particularly when it is written content being measured. Whereas content analysis was, in the past, primarily done by hand, now content can be copied into such programs and the software will conduct the counts. This allows larger amounts of content to be analyzed in a much shorter amount of time.

Issues most discussed regarding content analysis are those of reliability and validity. That is, ratings, counts, or classifications may be considered subjective and therefore differ from person to person. There are ways to increase the reliability and validity of such research findings. For example, it is important to have clearly established inclusion criteria and classification schemes for others to follow. This lends to a more objective system of classification. Additionally, many research projects involve multiple raters. Once each rater has completed their ratings, a ratio is established to determine agreement among the raters. This ratio is measuring interrater reliability. Such an analysis is generally included in study findings for research involving content analysis by more than one rater.

Meta-analysis is a type of content analysis in which researchers review, organize, integrate, and summarize the existing research literature on a certain topic. Researchers conducting meta-analyses will gather existing quantitative information on studies that have been conducted in the past in order to compare their methodology and findings. In the 1970s, Glass 25 was the first to coin this term and to describe the quantitative process, which utilizes statistical methodologies to code, analyze, and interpret the similarities and differences found among the literature relating to a certain research question. Most commonly, this method has been used to assess the effectiveness of certain interventions, such as correctional boot camp programs, drug treatment programs, and the like. 26 Although most of such research has developed out of the field of psychology, there has been an increase in the use of meta-analysis as a method for researching criminal justice topics. Two recent academic journal articles 27 have addressed this increase, the methods best suited, and the usefulness of meta-analysis for the field, finding that, while such analyses are time consuming and labor intensive, they are, as Pratt (2010) states, “a welcome addition to the criminologists’ toolbox” (pg. 165).

Physical Trace Analysis “Crime Scene Investigation,” need we say more? Of course we do, although you are probably most familiar with this type of unobtrusive method from courses involving crime scene investigation or the many television shows that devote time to such information-gathering techniques. For example, if a law enforcement officer were examining a crime scene in which a sexual assault was alleged to have taken place, what would she look for? The officer would most likely be examining the scene for semen, blood, contraceptive materials, and/or other substances that may have been left behind from such an incident. Physical trace analysis is similar and refers to the examination of physical substances that have been created and left by individuals as they come in contact with their environment. As with other unobtrusive methods, physical trace analysis represents an indirect method of measuring certain phenomena.

Examples of the use of physical trace analysis for social science research include the study of museum exhibit popularity by examining wear on the floor attributed to heavy foot traffic 28 and the determination of crowd size as estimated by trash accumulation after a social event has taken place. 29 As another example using garbage, researchers may attempt to measure how popular certain establishments are by examining how much trash is accumulated on a given night or how many homeless persons stay under a certain highway bridge by examining garbage or other waste left behind. It would be assumed that a bar with more trash was more heavily frequented the night before than a bar with less trash, and a highway bridge under which there was more trash, is a more popular stopping-over point for transient populations than one with little trash or waste accumulated. Such an examination could also be conducted using public restrooms. If a university administrator was interested in adding restrooms to campus and he needed to know where these additional restrooms would be most utilized, how could this be measured? Once again, looking at trash accumulation or “wear and tear” on doors, floors, and toilets would be indirect ways to answer such a question. If you were interested in exploring where most students sit in a given classroom, what kinds of things would you look for as you examined the classroom after the class had ended? Perhaps you would look at the disarray of the seats or tables. You might also look at where trash has accumulated in the classroom or if there is writing on tables where it had not been before. These would also be indirect ways to measure which sections of classroom seating are most used, and such observations could be made once or multiple times after the class has ended. Furthermore, with the rise of technology, particularly the use of the Internet, also come avenues for unobtrusive research. For example, visits to a webpage could indicate popularity of that website. Celebrity popularity is often measured by the number of times that person’s name is entered into an online search engine.

Researchers have also been able to apply analysis of physical traces to the study of crime and deviance. For example, studies of vandalism in certain neighborhoods and graffiti in public areas have been conducted to indicate the presence of lawbreakers and/or subcultures or gang activity. 30 Additionally, the sale of burglar alarms or other home protection devices has been used as a proxy measure for fear of crime. 31 That is, if there is an increase in the installation of burglar alarms, it is assumed that fear of crime in that area is on the rise. With the use of the Internet, popularity of pornography sites, particularly those that are unlawful due to posting pornographic content involving children, can be measured. Additionally, for purposes of investigation, electronic physical traces (i.e., IP addresses) can be tracked as a means to find out who is viewing or from which computer these websites are being viewed.

One important thing to remember about physical trace analysis is that the resulting evidence is not direct; these are indirect measures of phenomena. Just because a law enforcement officer finds semen and blood at a crime scene, it does not automatically prove that a crime has occurred. Also, just because the sale of burglar alarms increases, it does not necessarily indicate that fear of crime is also on the rise. Alarm companies could have dropped their fees, leading to an increase in sales. Therefore, while interesting, such measures are generally seen as being inferentially weak. When using such methods, it is always important to triangulate, or attempt to validate your findings through the use of other measures when possible. The more evidence you have, the more secure you can be that your findings are indeed measuring what you propose they are measuring. A final issue with the collection of physical trace data is an individual’s right to privacy; however, if information is public, the collection of that information would not involve a violation of that right.

Observation

In Chapter 6, you learned about the many variations of participant-observation research. On the spectrum of intrusiveness, complete observation is the least intrusive. In conducting research as a complete observer, a researcher only observes the individuals and behaviors under study. The researcher makes no advances or attempts to be involved with the individual(s) or to change the natural chain of events. He or she is only there to witness what occurs. As an example of complete observation, you may be wondering how often store patrons park in a handicap parking spot without the proper tags on their vehicle. To answer this question, you may sit near the parking spot in question and observe how many vehicles park there illegally. You are not interacting with the store patrons, nor are you interfering with their decision to park in the handicap parking spot. You are merely observing their behavior. Acting as a complete observer is quite similar to being on a stake-out. A limitation is that you could be sitting for some time waiting for events to occur as you have no control over when or how things may happen. For example, if you were observing the handicap parking spot, you may sit there for hours or even days without anyone actually parking there.

In disguised observation, the researcher may actually take part in the behavior or group under study. As a disguised observer, the researcher’s identity and purpose for being there is hidden from the group, making the gathering of information unobtrusive. Because the subjects do not know they are being studied, the researcher is able to observe individuals in their natural environment. As was discussed in Chapter 6, there are numerous examples of disguised observation in criminal justice research. If you remember the case study from Chapter 2, Humphreys acted as a disguised observer when researching the phenomenon of anonymous sex in public places.

While these examples exist, disguised observation is not without its critics. While being able to observe individuals in their natural environment without the researcher’s presence being known is what makes this data collection method so valuable, some disagree with its use due to privacy concerns. As the subject is not asked for his or her permission before being observed for research purposes, an invasion of their privacy has occurred. Another issue, as mentioned previously, is the waiting that an observer, even a disguised observer, must do during their observations. To circumvent this, actors, referred to as confederates, have been implemented to speed up the events of interest. As is done for the ABC Primetime television show, “What Would You Do,” actors play out a scenario in the hopes of eliciting a response from those around them. John Quinones, the host of the show, watches the scene from afar as do hidden cameras. After the event takes place, he moves forward to interview those who either did or did not react to the event that took place in front of them. Scenes of domestic violence, drunk driving, and racism have all been set up by the television show with varied responses by individuals present. Researchers have also examined such topics through the use of confederates. For example, Formby and Smykla (1984) studied pedestrians’ reactions to a student actor’s attempt to drive under the influence. To set the scene, the actor, smelling of alcohol, stumbled to his car and pretended to have difficulty opening the car door. Amazingly, out of the pedestrians who passed, over 60% assisted the “drunk” driver open his car door. While the use of confederates is helpful to researchers, there are instances where public reaction to the event being observed can be dangerous to the research team, particularly the confederates. For example, in the case of a staged domestic violence altercation, a passerby may respond physically to the person acting as the abuser. Researchers never truly know how people will respond, which makes this type of research exciting, albeit risky.

RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

Mock Jury Decides Scott Peterson Case

On Christmas Eve in 2002 the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a young pregnant woman in Modesto, California, sparked a media frenzy. 32 Laci, who was nearing eight months into her pregnancy, was married to Scott Peterson, a man whom she had met in college and married in 1997. The night before she disappeared, Laci was seen by her mother and sister. The following morning there was no sign of her. Her car was left parked in the driveway and her purse, keys, and cell phone were found on the kitchen table inside the home she shared with Scott. The day Laci disappeared, her husband was fishing and did not return until that evening, which was when he called Laci’s family to see if she was with them. That evening the search began and did not conclude until early April 2003 when a male fetus and badly decomposed body of a recently pregnant woman were discovered days apart on the San Francisco Bay shore, north of Berkeley. Investigation into their marriage revealed Scott’s multiple extramarital affairs and other unseemly behavior. He was arrested on April 18, 2003, in southern California. With an altered appearance and carrying thousands of dollars in cash, he looked as if he were planning to leave the country. His trial began in June 2004.

In October 2004, prior to the end of Peterson’s trial, CBS aired an episode of 48 Hours Mystery entitled, “On the Verge of a Verdict,” for which a jury consultant team was asked to put together a mock jury similar to the jury hearing the Scott Peterson case. 33 Using the mock jury, a study was conducted to see how individuals resembling the actual jurors in the case might decide the outcome. The mock jurors were shown the same evidence presented by the prosecution and defense at trial, which included the infamous conversations recorded between Scott Peterson and Amber Frey, the woman involved with Scott at the time of Laci’s disappearance. After hearing and discussing the evidence, as an actual jury would, the mock jury deadlocked, with all but two of the mock jurors deciding Scott Peterson was guilty of murdering his wife and unborn son. Following this outcome, the mock jury shared that they thought the actual jury would also end in a deadlock. This was not the case, however. On November 12, 2004, the actual jury convicted Scott Peterson following only eight hours of deliberation. He was later sentenced to death and is currently awaiting execution in California’s San Quentin State Prison.

The use of simulation in criminal justice research has, for the most part, involved studies of jury behavior. Because it is difficult, if not impossible, to study juror behavior in real time, mock juries have been instituted using mostly community and college student samples. This type of research began with the Chicago Jury Project of the 1950s. 34 Since that time, mock juries and mock trials have become commonplace and, beyond research, are often used as educational tools for criminal justice students. Simulations can be defined as artificial research settings that have been carefully created so that their features mimic reality as much as possible. The two most prominent research projects involving simulation were discussed in Chapter 2, Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgram’s study on Obedience to Authority. Zimbardo recreated the prison environment for his study of inmate and correctional officer behavior, and Milgram set up an artificial “learning” experiment where the “teacher,” or person under study, was directed to give shocks at increasingly high levels when wrong answers were given. While these two studies are remembered most for the psychological toll exerted on their participants, the subjects’ nonartificial response was due in large part to the realistic nature of the simulation.

With the advent of new technologies, it is possible that simulations will be utilized more often for research. Advanced simulation setups are already utilized for criminal justice training, and their use could be extended for research purposes. For example, the Incident Command Simulation Training (InCoSiT) Program 35 is facilitated at the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute at Sam Houston State University. This program mimics a command center during a crisis event, and those being trained use the simulation to practice what they would do during such an event. While this program is currently used for training, there are research applications that could also make use of such a simulated scenario. For example, if a researcher wanted to examine gender differences in crisis command response, InCoSiT would provide a platform for that study to be conducted.

“Lost and Found” in the Archives

There exist numerous sources of archival records in the United States and abroad. These are available for researchers and other interested parties to search, and interesting and surprising finds often result. To increase awareness of archives and archival records research, the Society of American Archivists 36 holds a national “I Found It in the Archives!” competition where archive users are able to submit their experiences for review. Archie Rison, the 2011 winner of the competition, relied on archives at the Stephen F. Austin University East Texas Research Center to conduct extensive genealogy research on his family. Recent news stories have also related interesting archival finds. One story revealed how heroin was found in a United Kingdom National Archives file. 37 The heroin, which was part of a 1928 court case, was found by a citizen who had requested the file to review. When the substance was found, it was sent off for analysis, which confirmed the presence of heroin. After being handed over to the Metropolitan Police, the package containing the heroin was replaced with a picture in the archive folder. Jeff James, the UK National Archives Director of Operations noted that, while extremely rare, finds like that are sometimes unexpectedly discovered in their collection of 11 million records. With archives such as these existing across the globe, it is only a matter of time before another fascinating discovery is made.

Chapter Summary

As this chapter has shown, there are many ways to avoid reactivity in gathering data for a research project. Whether you obtain data from an online archive, use GIS mapping, or observe others from a distance, by being unobtrusive you can generally ensure that reactivity is not a limitation to your research findings. While these methods have numerous advantages including the savings in time and cost and access to restricted populations, they are not without their shortcomings. The biggest limitation of using unobtrusive methods is that measurements are often indirect and therefore should be substantiated by other measures of the same phenomenon. Additional shortcomings include the lack of control over original data collection in the use of secondary data and the chance that obtaining data may not in fact be quick or without cost. In a nutshell, unobtrusive methods offer another way of data gathering. In some situations, they may be the only available option for a researcher besides doing nothing. Whether such methods are the best choice must be determined by individual researchers based on the needs of their research projects.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. What is reactivity, and how do unobtrusive methods serve to decrease this?

2. Why is secondary data analysis a popular option for criminal justice researchers?

3. What is physical trace analysis, and how has it been used for criminal justice research?

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages to being a disguised observer?

5. Explain how technology has advanced unobtrusive data-gathering techniques. Give at least three examples.

archives: A place, either physical or electronic, where records and other data are stored

content analysis: A method requiring the analyzing of content contained in mass communication outlets such as newspapers, television, magazines, and the like

diary method: A data-gathering technique that asks research subjects to keep a diary, or written record, of their time participating in the research study

disguised observation: A researcher joins the group under study to observe their behavior but does not reveal his or her identity as a researcher or purpose for being there

interrater reliability: A ratio established to determine agreement in a content analysis with multiple raters

meta-analysis: A type of content analysis in which researchers quantitatively review, organize, integrate, and summarize the existing research literature on a certain topic

physical trace analysis: The examination of physical substances that have been created and left by individuals as they come in contact with their environment

secondary data analysis: Occurs when researchers obtain and reanalyze data that were originally collected for a different purpose

simulations: Artificial research settings that have been carefully created so that their features mimic reality as much as possible

unobtrusive: A method that is nonreactive; indicates that what or who is being studied is unaware of its/their role as research participant

1 Frost, N. A., & N. D. Phillips. (2011). Talking heads: Crime reporting on cable news. Justice Quarterly, 28 (1), 87–112.

2 The Economist. (June 4, 2009). Questioning the Hawthorne Effect—Light work: Being watched may not affect behaviour, after all. Retrieved online, http://www.economist .com/node/13788427.

3 Milgram, S. (1977). The individual in a social world. New York: McGraw-Hill.

4 Stem, S. E., & J. E. Faber. (1997). “The lost e-mail method: Milgram’s lost-letter technique in the age of the Internet.” Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 29 (2), 260–263.

5 See ESRI website, http://www.gis.com/

6 Coppock, J. T., & D. W. Rhind. (1991). “The history of GIS.” In Maguire, D. J., M. F. Goodchild, & D. W. Rhind (eds.) Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Applications (Volume 1, pgs. 21–43). Harlow, Essex, England: Longman Scientific & Technical.

7 Mamalian, C. A., & N. G. LaVigne. (1999). The use of computerized crime mapping by law enforcement: Survey results. U.S. Department of Justice—National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from http://www.nij.gov/pubs-sum/ fs000237.htm.

8 Manhein, M. H., G. A. Listi, & M. Leitner. (2006). “The application of geographic information systems and spatial analysis to assess dumped and subsequently scattered human remains.” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 51(3), 469–474.

9 Medina, R. M., L. K. Siebeneck, & G. F. Hepner. (2011). “A geographic information systems (GIS) analysis of spatiotemporal patterns of terrorist incidents in Iraq 2004–2009.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 34(11), 862–882.

10 Davidson, P. J., S. Scholar, & M. Howe. (2011). “A GIS-based methodology for improving needle exchange service delivery.” International Journal of Drug Policy, 22(2), 140–144.

11 Caplan, J. M., L. W. Kennedy, & J. Miller. (2011). “Risk terrain modeling: Brokering criminological theory and GIS methods for crime forecasting.” Justice Quarterly, 28(2), 360–381.

12 Simonton, D. K. (2003). “Qualitative and quantitative analyses of historical data.” Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 617–640.

13 Frueh, B. C., J. D. Elhai, A. L. Grubaugh, J. Monnier, T. B. Kashdan, J. A. Sauvageot, M. B. Hamner, B. G. Burkett, & G. W. Arana. (2005). “Documented combat exposure of U.S. veterans seeking treatment for combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder.” The British Journal of Psychiatry, 186, 467–472.

14 Albini, J. (1971). The American mafia: Genesis of a legend. New York: Appleton.

15 Clarke, J. W. (1982). American assassins: The darker side of politics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

16 Gidley, B. (2004). “Doing historical and archival research.” In C. Seale (ed.), Researching Society and Culture (249–264). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

17 Tufts, H. (1930). The autobiography of a criminal. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

18 See for example, Maas, P. (1968). The Valachi Papers. New York: Bantam Books; Teresa, V., with T. C. Renner. (1973). My life in the Mafia. Greenwich, CN: Fawcett; Pileggi, N. (1985). Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia family. New York: Simon and Schuster.

19 Berelson, B. (1952). Content analysis in communication research. New York: Free Press.

20 Ross, L. E. (2008). “Criminal justice pioneers: A content analysis of biographical data.” Journal of Criminal Justice, 36(2), 182–189.

21 Eschholz, S., M. Mallard, & S. Flynn. (2004). “Images of prime time justice: A content analysis of ‘NYPD Blue’ and ‘Law & Order.’” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10(3), 161–180.

22 Malone, D. F. (2006). Dead men talking: Content analysis of prisoners ’ last words, innocence claims and news coverage from Texas ’ death row. A Master ’ s thesis completed for the Department of Journalism at the University of North Texas.

23 Wilson, F. T., D. R. Longmire, & W. Swymeler. (2009). “The absence of gay and lesbian police officer depictions in the first three decades of the core cop film genre: Moving towards a cultivation theory perspective.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 16(1), 27–39.

24 Phillips, N. D., & S. Strobl. (2006). “Cultural criminology and kryptonite: Apocalyptic and retributive constructions of crime and justice in comic books.” Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 2(3), 304–331.

25 Glass, G. V. (1976). “Primary, secondary, and meta-analysis of research.” Educational Researcher, 5(10), 3–8.

26 Smith, P., P. Gendreau, & K. Swartz. (2009). “Validating the principles of effective intervention: A systematic review of the contributions of meta-analysis in the field of corrections.” Victims & Offenders, 4(2), 148–169.

27 Pratt, T. C. (2010). “Meta-analysis in criminal justice and criminology: What it is, when it’s useful, and what to watch out for.” Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 21(2), 152–168; Wells, E. (2009). “Uses of meta-analysis in criminal justice research: A quantitative review.” Justice Quarterly, 26(2), 26 8–2 94.

28 Webb, E. J. (1966). Unobtrusive measures: Nonreactive research in the social sciences. Chicago: Rand McNally.

29 Webb, E. J., D. T. Campbell, R. D. Schwartz, L. Sechrest, & J. B. Grove. (1981). Nonreactive measures in the social sciences (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

30 Klofas, J., & C. Cutshall. (1985). “Unobtrusive research methods in criminal justice: Using graffiti in the reconstruction of institutional cultures.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 22(4), 355–373; Sechrest, L., & A. K. Olson. (1971). “Graffiti in four types of institutions of higher education.” Journal of Sex Research, 7, 62–71.

31 Clinard, M. B., & R. Quinney. (1973). Criminal behavior systems: A typology (2nd ed.). New York: Holt.

32 The Modesto Bee. The Peterson Case. See website, http:// www.modbee.com/peterson .

33 Klug, R. (October 30, 2004). On the verge of a verdict. In S. Zirinsky, 48 Hours Mystery [Season 18, Episode 7]. Los Angeles, CA; CBS.

34 Bornstein, B. H. (1999). “The ecological validity of jury simulations: Is the jury still out?” Law and Human Behavior, 23(1), 75–91.

35 See InCoSiT website, http://www.incosit.org/

36 See the Society of American Archivists website, http://www2.archivists.org/initiatives/i-found-it-in-the-archives/i-found-it-in-the-archives-2011-national-competition

37 BBC News. (December 19, 2011). “Heroin found in national archives file.” Retrieved from http://www2 .archivists.org/.

Applied Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology by University of North Texas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

(Stanford users can avoid this Captcha by logging in.)

• Send to text email RefWorks EndNote printer

Research strategies for secondary data : a perspective for criminology and criminal justice

Available online.

• EBSCO Academic Comprehensive Collection

More options

• Find it at other libraries via WorldCat
• Contributors

Description

Creators/contributors, contents/summary.

• Secondary Data in Criminology and Criminal Justice Sources of Secondary Data Doing Research with Secondary Data Accessing and Using Official Records Methodological Issues Legal Dimensions of Secondary Data The Future of Secondary Data.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Bibliographic information

• Stanford Home
• Maps & Directions
• Search Stanford
• Emergency Info
• Terms of Use
• Non-Discrimination
• Accessibility

© Stanford University , Stanford , California 94305 .

Library electronic resources outage May 29th and 30th

Between 9:00 PM EST on Saturday, May 29th and 9:00 PM EST on Sunday, May 30th users will not be able to access resources through the Law Library’s Catalog, the Law Library’s Database List, the Law Library’s Frequently Used Databases List, or the Law Library’s Research Guides. Users can still access databases that require an individual user account (ex. Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Bloomberg Law), or databases listed on the Main Library’s A-Z Database List.

• Georgetown Law Library

Criminal Law and Justice Research Guide

• Secondary Sources
• Introduction
• Statutes, Codes, & Legislation
• Recommended Web Sites

On This Page

Texts & treatises, secondary sources for finding case law, journals & newsletters.

• News & Looseleaf Services

Government & Research Institute Reports

• CRS Reports

Key to Icons

• Georgetown only
• On Bloomberg
• More Info (hover)
• Preeminent Treatise

Getting Started

Secondary sources such as treatises or legal encyclopedias are often the best places to begin a research project.  This page will help get you started with researching criminal law secondary sources such as texts, treatises, journals, news sources, and others.

If you are not familiar with what secondary sources are, or if you need to begin with a secondary source that can provide you with a a basic, introductory overview of your legal topic (such as a  legal encyclopedia ) you may want to begin with our  Secondary Sources Research Guide  or our  Secondary Sources Tutorial .

It is often helpful to begin research with a treatise that provides an overview of a particular area of law. Many of these treatises are also excellent sources of case law and statute references. Also see our  Criminal Law Treatise Finder .

• Wharton's Criminal Evidence (Westlaw) A comprehensive treatise covering the Federal Rules of Evidence as they apply to criminal proceedings and related federal and state statutes, rules, and case law. (Our print copy is no longer kept up to date.)
• Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment (5th ed., 2020) by Wayne R. LaFave A 6-volume set reporting "in a systematic and orderly fashion the current state of 4th Amendment law and also to present a critical assessment of how the Supreme Court and the lower courts have found in their ongoing and challenging enterprise of giving context and meaning to the 4th Amendment."
• An Introduction to the Model Penal Code (2nd ed., 2015) by Markus D. Dubber An introduction to the Model Penal Code proposed by the American Law Institute (ALI). It illustrates "how the Model Penal Code fits together, both as a code of criminal law and as the most systematic account of American criminal law."
• The Fourth Amendment, Searches and Seizures: Its Constitutional History and the Contemporary Debate (2011) edited by Cynthia Lee An anthology providing "an overview of the most important aspects of Fourth Amendment doctrine and the major criticisms of the Supreme Court's decisions relating to it."
• Constitutional Rights of the Accused (3rd ed., 1996) by Joseph G. Cook A 4-volume looseleaf treatise that is also available electronically on Westlaw .
• Orfield's Criminal Procedure Under the Federal Rules (Westlaw) Provides extensive examination of a wide range of procedural areas, including the history of federal criminal procedure since 1789, the scope of the rules, preliminary proceedings, indictment and information, arraignment and preparation for trial, appeal, and special proceedings. In-depth discussion of each rule includes practical applications of the law in federal courts and related criminal proceedings and provides thousands of court decisions with insight into the interpretations of the rules. (Our print copy is no longer kept up to date.)
• Modern Federal Jury Instructions - Criminal Provides guidance on jury instructions for federal criminal cases. Offers instructions for all aspects of a federal criminal jury trial. Includes general instructions (scienter, burden of proof, evidence, inferences), substantive instructions for specific federal offenses, and citations to specific case authority and/or statutory authority to cut your research time.

If you're looking for case law, consider starting on the  Case Law page of this guide, which lists four methods for finding case law. One method is to use secondary sources, including any of the types on the Secondary Sources page , to identify useful case law.  Other specific secondary sources that can be useful for locating criminal law cases include:

• Annual Review of Criminal Procedure (2003-present) Provides an annual update of cases as well as criminal law provisions, with copious references to cases, laws and rules. Available in print, previously published as part of the Georgetown Law Journal. Also available on Lexis Advance .
• Federal Rules Decisions: Cases (F.R.D.) (1940 - ) A hybrid source that publishes both primary and secondary materials. Includes U.S. District Court decisions that construe the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as well as the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Also includes relevant court rules & amendments and other content like articles, speeches, and the proceedings of judicial conferences.

Lexis and Westlaw's law journal databases are the most popular places to search for relevant law journal articles. Searching Lexis and Westlaw's databases, however, is not necessarily the most efficient way of finding relevant journal articles, nor is it comprehensive. The Articles for Legal and Non-Legal Research  research guide explains the differences between searching journal indexes and searching full-text databases. It also suggests legal and non-legal indexes and full-text databases.

• All Criminal Law & Procedure Reviews and Journals (Lexis)
• Criminal Law Reviews & Journals (Westlaw)
• Criminal Law Legal Newspapers & Newsletters (Westlaw)

Various government offices produce nonpartisan reports on topics of criminal law and procedure.

• The Web site is "a federally funded resource offering justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide." The Web site provides access to, among other things, many reports of studies funded by the federal government, by topic.  
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the investigative arm of Congress. "Its mission is to support Congress in meeting its Constitutional responsibilities (e.g. oversight, policy, and funding decision) and to help improve the performance and accountability of the Federal Government for the American People." Most GAO reports are done at the request of members of Congress.

Policy think tanks and research institutes also produce and publish many policy reports. To search for these, try searching the following databases:

• PAIS International  (1972-)  Indexes public policy and public affairs literature.  
• Policy File Index Policy File Index is a unique resource for U.S. public policy research. Users are able to access timely, updated information from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities.

News & Current Awareness Sources

• Criminal Law Reporter (BNA) This newsletter, including news, commentary, and analysis on criminal law, as well as coverage of U.S. Supreme Court cases and reports from meetings and conferences of criminal law professional organizations, was discontinued in 2018; coverage continued in White Collar & Criminal Law News .
• Criminal Practice Manual (Westlaw) Reports on developments and trends in criminal law and practice strategies. Contains topical chapters on criminal defense issues as well as jury instructions, checklists, forms and trial transcripts.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS), the research arm of the Library of Congress, provides authoritative, objective, and nonpartisan research and analysis to committees and members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, regardless of party and affiliation. CRS produces new research as issues develop or are anticipated, and their reports are designed specifically to meet the needs of Congress. CRS research, while on a variety of topics, falls under five divisions: American Law; Domestic Social Policy; Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade; Government and Finance; and Resources, Science, and Industry.

• ProQuest Congressional ProQuest Congressional provides CRS reports from 1916 to the present. It is one of the best, most comprehensive single sources for locating and searching through CRS Reports. (Use the Advanced Search page and uncheck everything except CRS Reports under Content Types on the left.)
• CRS Reports on Congress.gov Congress.gov provides public access to reports and other products created by Congressional Research Service. CRS routinely updates reports on their site, designed to reflect new developments and the needs of Congress. This is the official site for CRS Reports.
• HeinOnline HeinOnline provides scanned versions of older CRS Reports from 1999 to the present. CRS reports are listed alphabetically.
• EveryCRSReport.com EveryCRSReport.com provides free access to its collection of CRS reports and also includes archived reports from University of North Texas's CRS Report collection. You can Browse by Topic using the option below the search bar.
• Lexis Provides CRS reports as they are delivered from 2005 to the present. All reports link to the PDF version provided by CRS.
• << Previous: Introduction
• Next: Statutes, Codes, & Legislation >>
• © Georgetown University Law Library. These guides may be used for educational purposes, as long as proper credit is given. These guides may not be sold. Any comments, suggestions, or requests to republish or adapt a guide should be submitted using the Research Guides Comments form . Proper credit includes the statement: Written by, or adapted from, Georgetown Law Library (current as of .....).
• Last Updated: May 21, 2024 9:22 AM
• URL: https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/crim_justice

Research Methods for Criminal Justice Students

(3 reviews)

Monica Williams, Weber State University

Copyright Year: 2022

Publisher: Monica Williams

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Kelly Arney, Dean of Behavioral Sciences, Associate Professor, Grace College on 12/15/23

This textbook covers topics needed for criminal justice students to understand as they are going to be doing continual research in their field. Most of the examples cover criminal justice-specific real work examples with an emphasis on law... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook covers topics needed for criminal justice students to understand as they are going to be doing continual research in their field. Most of the examples cover criminal justice-specific real work examples with an emphasis on law enforcement. Interestingly, this could be utilized for a larger behavioral science class as it encompasses the foundations of research that can be applied to most degrees in behavioral sciences. It places a large emphasis on the scientific method, how to design research, and data collection. It differs from other textbooks by not exploring the specifics of experimental designs, nonexperimental designs, quasi-experimental strategies, and factorial designs. The integration of real-world examples throughout each chapter will likely help students to grow in their willingness to engage in research that is necessary to the profession. Emphasis is placed on finding, understanding, and utilizing research.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content was accurate and error-free. No biases material or examples were identified.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content was relevant and recent. The foundational terminology spans the last two decades. This book was originally based on Bhattachergee's 2012 Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practice and Blackstone's 2012 Principles of Sociological Inquiry: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. This material was built on and this textbook is accurate with more recent examples. It has devoted a chapter to ethics in research which I found particularly relevant. It not only covers ethical standards such as the Belmont Report but also dives deep into ethics surrounding the specifics of those requirements. It has a section for research on humans, the Stanford Prison Experiment, Institutional Review Boards, informed consent, vulnerable populations, and the professional code of ethics. This textbook explores these areas in depth. Compared to other textbooks, this has devoted a substantial area to these topics that seem especially relevant recently and particularly important to emphasize for the criminal justice student.

Clarity rating: 5

This textbook seems to make research a little easier. The author has bolded the terminology words for students and created a nice and simple way of organizing the areas of study. The author has multiple categories inside each chapter that give meaning to the section. It is clear what each chapter is about, then each section inside that chapter. Research Methods can be a world of confusing terminology, but this author has simplified this and taken it to a level that students can easily follow. The Key Terms and Discussion Questions at the end of each chapter are also a nice guide for students to clarify what they read in each chapter.

Consistency rating: 4

Consistency is a difficult task in research methods because terms are interchangeable. Some of the terminology was inconsistent, but it described the same things and did not seem confusing. This textbook was the easiest to read when compared to the other textbooks on Research Methods. The sentences were simple and to the point. The book was not overrun with examples or mathematical equations that tend to confuse students. The instructor of the class may need to work to create the standard terminology they want to be used in class. This textbook explores the different terminology, so that can be a learning experience for students in and of itself. People use different terms in real life. It is an easy read as far as research goes. The clarity in the sentences and larger categories is apparent.

Modularity rating: 5

This is one of the largest strengths of this textbook. The text is easy to follow. The author did an excellent job of dividing the chapters into categories that divide the content into smaller readable sections. This makes smaller assignments much easier to assign to instructors. The sections have nice bolded titles and clear spacing between them with bolded words inside the sections. This makes pulling out specific areas and the relevant terminology much easier than in a traditional textbook. It is clear the author put time into organizing this textbook in a student-friendly way.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics are organized well. The chapters flow in a way that seems relevant to how it should be taught in the classroom. It is logical in that flow. The chapters are encompassed into larger sections: Think like a researcher, Research design, Qualitative data collection and analysis techniques, A qualitative and quantitative data collection technique, and finally Quantitative data collection and analysis techiniques. Inside each of these larger 5 sections are the chapters that expand on that idea. It is wellorganized.

Interface rating: 5

The digital pdf and the online versions of the textbook did not have any navigational problems. This textbook has some illustrations that worked well. No issues were noted with the interface.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The writing in this textbook was straightforward and clear. I did not find any typos or grammatical errors. This was an easy-to-read textbook.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This textbook was culturally inclusive. I did not find any of the materials in this book to be insensitive or offensive. The examples in this textbook were general examples and did not associate with a cultural component. The only area I think that encompassed this was the vulnerable population section. That was very generalized and mostly suggested students consider who would fall into the vulnerable population category given what they want to research. The chapter on Research Questions (CH 4) did dive into the idea that students are social scientists and use their bias for their research projects. This was more about observing the world around them and then asking questions. It did not dive into cultural sensitivity any further.

I would recommend this book for research in behavioral science college-level classes. This book can be applied to students well beyond the criminal justice major. Many of the examples can be used for psychology, sociology, law, political science, and social work students. Don't let the criminal justice part of the title limit you. This is an easy-to-read and well-organized research textbook with helpful review guides included at the end of each chapter.

Reviewed by Mari Sakiyama, Associate Professor, Western Oregon University on 12/14/23

Each chapter of the textbook included the objectives, summary, key terms, and a few discussion questions. The key terms used in the book were in bold and were easy to identify. The chapters covered in the textbook are appropriate, and they are... read more

Each chapter of the textbook included the objectives, summary, key terms, and a few discussion questions. The key terms used in the book were in bold and were easy to identify. The chapters covered in the textbook are appropriate, and they are grouped in sections. Given that the provided examples throughout the textbook are CJ related, the major specific students can relate themselves to the course materials and it is easier for them to apply their conceptual CJ research ideas to research questions or a proposal. Glossary with definitions at the end of the book was not listed.

Content Accuracy rating: 2

I thought the content was accurate, and the author put the book together in an error-free manner. However, I thought that the textbook was slightly qualitative research heavy as opposed to quantitative research. Also, in the sampling section, I probably would not label non-probability and probability sampling for inductive qualitative and deductive quantitative research, respectively.

Given that research methods is generally required at all 4-year CJ programs and the majority of the concept of the course does not get outdated, the textbook definitely meets both relevancy and longevity.

Despite research methods tend to be full of jargon and technical terminologies, the material was written and introduced in a very reader-friendly and lucid manner. Perhaps, this book might had been the easiest read amongst all the research methods books I have read.

Both terminology and framework were internally consistent throughout the textbook. Although research methods consist with many interchangeable terms that describe the same thing, the author did a great job maintaining its consistency. In addition, the format for each chapter was also consistent and was easy to follow.

Modularity rating: 4

The textbook contains 15 chapters and are grouped in 5 different sections. Each chapter or even within those chapters can be divisible into smaller segment to fit instructors’ existing course structure. However, as mentioned earlier, the textbook was more qualitative research oriented and I thought some of the sections could be combined (i.e., III & IV). In addition, I think sampling could be its own section. Nonetheless, with the divisibility as well as the author’s permission to reuse and modify with attribution, the issues could be easily resolved.

The textbook was well-organized and -structured. I generally do not cover different designs until after midterm but I personally like the flow of this textbook.

Interface rating: 3

The textbook did not have any navigation problems, since each chapter’s organization is consistent. Some of the tables that provided key summaries of strategies/designs or its comparison of strengths/weakness are very helpful to learners. The author did a great job creating charts and diagrams, bur there could be more of them. Also, the number of illustrations/photos were limited but that could be easily adjusted when incorporating the textbook.

The style of writing was appropriate and straightforward. I did not find any typos or grammatical errors. I believe that the textbook would be an easy read compared to other publishers’ research methods textbooks.

I did not find any of the materials in the textbook that were culturally insensitive nor offensive. Examples throughout the textbook were general examples that did not necessarily associate with cultural component.

While there have been OER research methods books for Sociology and Psychology, I think this is the first OER book for CJ research methods, at least that I know of (and kudos to the author)! It would be an excellent material for undergraduate CJ students. I definitely consider using this book for my class.

Reviewed by Youngki Woo, Assistant professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 12/16/22

The textbook covers most areas of research methods in the field of criminology and criminal justice. Like other textbooks, each chapter identifies the learning objectives and showed it in the beginning. At the end of each chapter, there are... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The textbook covers most areas of research methods in the field of criminology and criminal justice. Like other textbooks, each chapter identifies the learning objectives and showed it in the beginning. At the end of each chapter, there are several discussion questions for students. Each chapter is comfortable to follow and addresses all the learning objectives to provide a straightforward response to the discussion questions. In addition, each chapter covers ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index, key terms, and glossary.

Content is accurate and it is easy to read and follow.

Each chapter addresses fundamental concepts and techniques that students should know about research methods in social sciences. The book is published in 2022, indicating that content is up-to-date.

The text is simple and well-written, and content is informative and straight-forward.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework. The author did a great job in providing summary at the end of the chapter that tied along with the learning objectives that are provided at the beginning of the chapter.

There are five parts in the textbook and each part is easily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course (please see the Table of Contents). Personally, chapter 4 and 5 covers relevant information, but they could have gone more in depth when describing the different techniques along with a variety of research examples.

The topics in the text are presented in a logical and clear fashion. The logical organization carries students through the sequence of the research process. As an instructor, I like the organization that is flexible and helps students better understand the fundamental research skills in criminal justice.

Personally, I would suggest the author to add more photos/images/charts to give examples of what each objective talk about on each chapter. It would help the reader to figure out some methodological techniques with a visual representation. Nonetheless, the text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader.

There are no typos or technical/grammatical errors that I am aware of in the textbook.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The text is not culturally insensitive and offensive as the text discuss mainly about research methods. Some examples in the textbooks are children and family.

Overall, this book contains information that could help students understand the knowledge about methodological terms and skills. This book would be suitable for undergraduate methods courses in most social sciences.

Table of Contents

• 1. Scientific Research
• 2. Paradigms, Theories, and Research
• 3. Ethics in Research
• 4. Research questions
• 5. Research approaches and goals
• 6. Research methodologies
• 7. Measurement
• 8. Sampling
• 9. Focus groups
• 10. Field research
• 11. Qualitative data analysis
• 12. Interviews
• 13. Surveys
• 14. Experiments
• 15. Quantitative data analysis

Ancillary Material

About the book.

This book is based on two open-access textbooks: Bhattacherjee’s (2012) Social science research: Principles, methods, and practices and Blackstone’s (2012) Principles of sociological inquiry: Qualitative and quantitative methods. I first used Bhattacherjee’s book in a graduate-level criminal justice research methods course. I chose the book because it was an open educational resource that covered the major topics of my course. While I found the book adequate for my purposes, the business school perspective did not always fit with my criminal justice focus. I decided to rewrite the textbook for undergraduate and graduate students in my criminal justice research methods courses. As I researched other open- educational resources for teaching social science research methods, I found Blackstone’s book, which covered more of the social science and qualitative methods perspectives that I wanted to incorporate into my book.

As a result, this open-access textbook includes some content from both previous works along with my own additions based on my extensive experience and expertise in conducting qualitative and quantitative research in social science settings and in mentoring students through the research process. My Ph.D. is in Sociology, and I currently teach undergraduates and graduate students in a criminal justice program at Weber State University. Throughout my career, I have conducted and published the results of research projects using a variety of methods, including surveys, case studies, in-depth interviews, participant observation, content analysis, and secondary analysis of quantitative data. I have also mentored undergraduates in conducting community-based research projects using many of these same methods with the addition of focus groups and program evaluations.

About the Contributors

Monica Williams, Ph.D ., Associate Professor, Weber State University

Contribute to this Page

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

NCJRS Virtual Library

Research methods for criminal justice and criminology, second edition, additional details.

20 Davis Drive , Belmont , CA 94002 , United States

No download available

Availability, related topics.