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Criminological Research for Beginners

A Student's Guide

By Laura Caulfield, Jane Hill

To Be Published January 15th 2014 by Routledge – 256 pages

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    978-0-415-50961-9
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Description

It is common for criminology undergraduates to feel intimidated at the prospect of conducting their own research and typically struggle to see the relevance of research methods to their own study of criminology. This book speaks directly to the needs of such students in criminology, offering a comprehensive and engaging guide to criminological research methods.

Readers are invited to consider the importance of criminological research and the books brings methodology alive by placing it firmly in the context of students’ broader study of criminology. This is essential reading for all criminology students and covers:

  • An examination of the theoretical, political, and ethical debates in criminological research,

  • A complete guide to planning any criminological research, assisting student researchers in identifying their research questions, choosing their research methods, and critiquing the literature,

  • A thorough guide to the practicalities and processes of collecting data,

  • A discussion of the process of analysing data and writing-up research.

This book is also supplemented with a companion website with further examples, exercises, podcasts and videos to meet the student’s needs. This book is essential reading for undergraduate courses on criminological research methods and a useful guide for novice researchers.

Contents

Part One: The Importance of Criminological Research, 1. Context: power, knowledge, and politics, 2. Significance: the importance of criminological research, 3. Ethics in criminological research, Part Two, Getting Going with Criminological Research, 4. Planning: Where do research ideas come from?, 5. Critiquing the literature: What do we know already?, 6. The relationship between theories and methods, 7. Preparing for the practical challenges of real-world crime research, Part Three, Doing Criminological Research: Data Collection, 8. Conducting interviews and focus groups, 9. Ethnography, case studies, and life-history approaches, 10. Questionnaires and surveys, 11. Using secondary data sources, Part Four, Doing Criminological Research: Analysis and writing-up, 12. Analysing the data: Quantitative analysis, 13. Analysing the data: Qualitative analysis, 14. Analysing the data: Documents, images, and other data, 15. Writing-up criminological research

Author Bio

Laura Caulfield is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Psychology at Birmingham City University.

Jane Hill is a Senior Academic at Birmingham City University and nProgramme Director for BA in Criminology.

Name: Criminological Research for Beginners: A Student's Guide (Paperback) – Routledge 
Description: By Laura Caulfield, Jane Hill. It is common for criminology undergraduates to feel intimidated at the prospect of conducting their own research and typically struggle to see the relevance of research methods to their own study of criminology. This book speaks directly to the needs of...
Categories: Criminology and Criminal Justice, Research Methods - Soc. Policy, General Reference