Full Description
This fresh and innovative hybrid text/online material for undergraduate CJ RESEARCH METHODS uniquely addresses the fundamental teaching issue for this course: how to communicate and successfully teach students that their future success as criminal justice practitioners is linked to their acquisition of research skills.? The author Brian Withrow, a former Texas State Trooper, widely published academic researcher, and teacher of the undergraduate methods course, consistently demonstrates how research skills aren't just essential to university academic researchers; they are essential to student success as criminal justice practitioners, and to all who want to succeed in an information economy. More than 80 short, sharply focused examples throughout the text rely on actual research that is conducted by, on behalf of, or relevant to criminal justice practitioners. The book engages students' interests like no other.The online materials provide a wide array of instructor support material, all written by the author, and also offer a unique feature, The Researcher's Notebook, which provides students (and their instructors) a series of structured exercises leading to the development and completion of a research question, conducting a literature review, and designing a research method that provides the data necessary to answer the research question - all with a minimal amount of instructor supervision.Cover images are courtesy of Lauren Withrow
Contents
PrefaceAcknowledgementsPrologue: What's the point of this course?Part One - Getting StartedChapter 1 - The Research PracticeChapter 2 - The Research ProcessChapter 3 - The Ethical Principles that Guide ResearchersPart Two - Learning Research Design BasicsChapter 4 - Classifying ResearchChapter 5 - CausalityChapter 6 - MeasurementChapter 7 - Variables and the Structure of ResearchChapter 8 - SamplingPart Three - Acquiring and Analyzing DataChapter 9 - Experimental Design Research MethodsChapter 10 - Survey/Interview Research MethodsChapter 11 -Non-Reactive Research MethodsChapter 12 - Qualitative Research MethodsChapter 13 - Evaluation Research MethodsChapter 14 - Data and Information AnalysisEpilogue - How do you know what you know?ReferencesGlossary / Index
