Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology

This book explains and illustrates criminal justice research topics, including ethics in research, research design, causation, operationalization of variables, sampling, methods of data collection (including surveys), reliance on existing data, validity, and reliability. For each approach, the book addresses the procedures and issues involved, the method's strengths and drawbacks, and examples of actual research using that method. Every section begins with a brief summary of the research method. Introductory essays set the stage for students regarding the who, what, when, where, and why of each research example, and relevant discussion questions and exercises direct students to focus on the important concepts. Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology: A Text and Reader features interesting and relevant articles from leading journals, which have been expertly edited to highlight research design issues. The text offers instructors a well-rounded and convenient collection that eliminates the need to sift through journals to find articles that illustrate important precepts. The author has included new material on ethical issues, researcher safety during field work, and tips on how to communicate what works in criminal justice to the public. Articles in the second edition address issues relevant to the field today, such as crime and policing during the COVID-19 pandemic, online extremism, sextortion, mass murder, problem-solving courts, the death penalty, saturation enforcement, drug use, victimization among the LGBT community, perceptions of immigration and crime, correctional interventions, measuring theft, perceptions of safety, bullying and hate crimes, correctional staff training and attitudes, social media exposure and opinions about law enforcement, and crisis intervention team training. Ensuring a rich array, additional articles are downloadable at the Support Material tab. Instructors can access password-protected PowerPoint slides, test banks, and exercises at the link under Instructor and Student Resources. The book encourages classroom discussion and critical thinking and is an essential tool for undergraduate and graduate research methods courses in criminal justice, criminology, and related fields.

Christine Tartaro is a Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at Stockton University. She is an expert in corrections, suicide in correctional facilities, jail design, police contact with people with mental illness, correctional treatment of individuals with mental illness, and criminal justice education. Dr. Tartaro has been teaching research methods for 20 years, including at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Prior to joining Stockton University, she worked at the New Jersey Department of Corrections, where she evaluated state residential community release programs. She is also the author of Suicide and Self-Harm in Prisons and Jails, 2nd edition (Lexington Books) and dozens of articles in several journals, including The Prison Journal, Criminal Justice Policy Review, Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research, and the Journal of Criminal Justice Education. Dr. Tartaro earned her BA in history from the College of New Jersey and MA and PhD in criminal justice from Rutgers University.

1. Introduction 2. Reading and Understanding Research 3. Ethics in Criminal Justice Research 3.1 Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines 4. Measurement, Validity, and Reliability Operationalization/Measurement 4.1 Do Immigrants Cause Higher Crime Rates? A Cumulative Cross-Sectional General Social Survey Data Analysis Mixed Methods 4.2 Extending a Letter-Writing Intervention Developed for Incarcerated Mothers to Incarcerated Fathers: A Mixed Methods Study 5. Measuring Crime: The UCR, NIBRS, and NCVS NIBRS 5.1 Stealing Tires or Copper Wires? How the National Incident-Based Reporting System Changed How the Arlington, Texas, Police Department Addresses Larceny-Thefts NCVS 5.2 An Exploratory Analysis Examining the Relationship Between Protective and Risk Factors of Bullying and Hate Crime Victimization Within Schools 6. Causation, Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs Quasi with PSM 6.2 An Examination of Prison-Based Programming and Recommitment to Prison Quasi with Statistical Matching 6.3 Does Depth of Information Matter? An Empirical Test of the Marshall Hypothesis 7. Pre-Experimental, Longitudinal, and Cross-Sectional Designs Prospective Cohort Study 7.2 Do Cannabis and Amphetamine Use in Adolescence Predict Adult Life Success: A Longitudinal Study Retrospective 7.3 A Comparison Between Two Retrospective Alcohol Consumption Measures and the Daily Drinking Diary Method with University Students 8. Sampling Potential Impact of Sampling on Results Units of Analysis 8.1 Attitudes About Rehabilitation Among Jail Correctional Officers Stratified Random Sampling 8.3 Police-Related Social Media Exposure and Adolescents' Interest in Becoming a Police Officer Multistage 8.4 Impaired Driving and Other Risky Drug Use and Sex Behaviors: A Cross-Sectional Examination of High-Risk Rural Women Incarcerated in Jail Purposive/Snowball Sampling 8.5 Legal Barriers and Re-Victimization for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence Navigating Courts in Utah, United States 9. Surveys and Interviews Using Existing Scales/Importance of How to Define Things 9.2 The Relationship Between Sextortion During COVID-19 and Pre-Pandemic Intimate Partner Violence: A Large Study of Victimization Among Diverse U.S. Men and Women Telephone Interviews 9.3 Pivoting from In-Person to Phone Survey Assessment of Alcohol and Substance Use: Effects on Representativeness in a United States Prospective Cohort of Women Living With and Without HIV Focus Groups 9.4 Community Policing During the Pandemic 10. Field Research 10.1 Evaluating Technologies to Identify Fentanyl and Adulterants in Street Drug Paraphernalia: Qualitative Perspectives of Service Providers and Their Clientele 10.2 Researcher Safety: Studying Social Deviance or Criminal Behavior 11. Less Obtrusive Methods Content Analysis 11.2 An Analysis of Motivating Factors in 1,725 Worldwide Cases of Mass Murder Between 1900-2019 Simulation 11.5 New Methods for Examining Expertise in Burglars in Natural and Simulated Environments: Preliminary Findings Meta-Analysis 11.6 Assessing the Effectiveness of Mental Health Courts in Reducing Recidivism: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis 12. Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation 12.2 Racial Differences in Drug Court Referral, Admission, and Graduation Rates: Findings from Two States and Eight Counties 12.3 Superficial Adherence to EBP: An Example of Low Fidelity to the RNR Model Using a Halfway House