Designed to assist criminal justice students and practitioners to conduct research on problems and issues facing the criminal justice system. It is based upon the authors' collective experience as researchers and instructors in criminal justice research and policy analysis. The definitions and examples provided in the book will help students and practitioners to both comprehend research articles and reports and to conduct their own research.

Intended for federal, state, and local policymakers in the area of criminal justice research and development, this report includes guidelines for improvement of the quality, relevance, and utilization of research results. In order to cover these issues, part two of this report focuses respectively on the needs of research and development policymakers who fund criminal justice research and development, researchers who conduct research and development, and practitioners who put research and development results into use. Guidelines and principles are proposed which should assist policymakers at all levels of government. However, some topics tend to be addressed more to the federal level, where major research and development decisions are often made. The first chapter of this part presents a detailed discussion of institutional support for criminal justice research and development. It describes the federal role in supporting this effort, focusing on who the agencies are, the extent of their involvement, and how the principal agencies are organized to manage their research and development programs. Recommendations regarding the research and development management activities of criminal justice funding agencies are included. Several important issues in the conduct of criminal justice research and development are examined in the second chapter. Among the topics discussed are constraints on research, ethical issues, research designs and methodologies, prerequisites for sound planning and project selection, ways of maintaining the confidentiality of data, and ways of making data more easily available for research and statistical purposes. The final chapter of this section discusses research and development utilization practices and the assumptions underlying current policies in this area. A criticism of these policies and recommendations for new strategies is presented. The final part of this report provides an analysis of the kinds of problems often encountered in research and development. Three general types of criminal justice research and development are discussed: technology (e.g., hardware) research, research on problems of criminal justice organizations (e.g., arrest, prosecution, sentencing, and parole), and research on new criminal justice problems. For each type of research and development, the relevant issues and recommendations are discussed. Most of these, however, still related to either the support or conduct of research and development. The report also attempts to provide concrete illustrative examples by raising the relevant issues in the context of crime prevention at commercial and residential sites (technology research), sentencing (research on problems of criminal justice organizations), and problems of the victim (research on new criminal justice problems).

The leading text in criminal justice research methods, it is based on Babbie's THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH. The stellar combination of Babbie, known for readability, and Maxfield, known for quality research, makes for a winning text. Criminal justice students benefit from learning the material that will help them as they progress in their education and career.

The report also attempts to provide concrete illustrative examples by raising the relevant issues in the context of crime prevention at commercial and residential sites (technology research), sentencing (research on problems of criminal justice organizations), and problems of the victim (research on new criminal justice problems).

The study of research methodologies can be daunting to many students due to complex terminology, mathematical formulas, and lack of practical examples. Now in its second edition, Criminal Justice Research Methods: Theory and Practice offers a straightforward, easy-to-understand text that clarifies this complex subject matter, keeping perplexing research language and associated complexities to a minimum and ensuring that students get a practical grasp of this essential topic.The authors discuss scientific inquiry, establishing a framework for thinking about and understanding the nature of research. They examine various types of research methods in the broad categories of quantitative, qualitative, and evaluation designs and provide coverage of analytical and experimental research designs. The book also examines survey methods, survey instruments, and questionnaires, including wording, organization, and pretesting. It describes the fundamental characteristics of the qualitative approach, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion of the participant observation and case study methods of research. Other topics include ethical standards of conduct, topic selection, literature review, and guidelines for writing a research report or grand proposal. The second edition features updated examples, reworked exercises, additional discussion points, and new research-in-action sections.Defining a clear approach to the study of research, the book enables student experiencing their initial exposure to this subject to be fundamentally prepared to be proficient researchers in criminal justice and criminology.

This book of original essays presents students with challenging looks at some of the most basic, and sometimes most difficult, decisions faced by criminal justice researchers. Each chapter presents an overview of a foundational question/issue in the conduct of research, and discussions of the options to resolve these controversies.