Fundamentals of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice: Edition 4

Ronet D. Bachman · Russell K. Schutt

Dec 2016 · SAGE Publications

About this ebook

Fundamentals of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Fourth Edition introduces students to the multifaceted subject of research methods and shows them why research is important in the field of criminology and criminal justice. This brief version of Ronet Bachman and Russell K. Schutt’s successful textbook (The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice) simplifies complex concepts with real-world research examples found in everyday experiences in the criminology and criminal justice professions.

The thoroughly updated Fourth Edition of this bestseller reflects the most recent developments in research methods, including the use of big data, increased coverage of crime mapping, evidence-based and web-based research, along with the most current research examples impacting the field. This is an excellent introductory text for undergraduate research courses, and is ideal for students who want to understand how and why criminal justice research is done to become critical consumers of research.

About the author

Ronet Bachman, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. She is coauthor of Statistical Methods for Crime and Criminal Justice, coauthor of The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice, co-editor of Explaining Crime and Criminology: Essays in Contemporary Criminal Theory. In addition, she is author of Death and Violence on the Reservation; coauthor of Stress, Culture, and Aggression in the United States; and coauthor of Murder American Style as well as numerous articles and papers that examine the epidemiology and etiology of violence, with a particular emphasis on women, the elderly, and minority populations. Her most recent federally funded research examines the desistance trajectories of drug-involved offenders 10 years after release from prison using a mixed-method design.

Russell K. Schutt, PhD, is a professor and the chair of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a lecturer on sociology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School (Massachusetts Mental Health Center). He completed his BA, MA, and PhD (1977) at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (1977–1979). His other books include Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and Fundamentals of Social Work Research (with Ray Engel), Making Sense of the Social World (with Dan Chambliss), and Research Methods in Psychology (with Paul G. Nestor)—all with SAGE Publications, as well as Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (Harvard University Press) and Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited with Larry J. Seidman and Matcheri S. Keshavan, also Harvard University Press). Most of his peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters focus on the effect of social context on cognition, satisfaction, functioning, and recidivism, the orientations of service recipients and of service and criminal justice personnel, and the organization of health and social services. He is currently a coinvestigator for a randomized trial of peer support for homeless dually diagnosed veterans, funded by the Veterans Administration.