Description
The purpose of this textbook is to cement the relationship between crimino- logical study and research practice. The intended audience for the book includes students pursuing research methods courses on criminology and related social science programmes, and practitioners and policy-makers who are carrying out criminological research themselves or evaluating research undertaken by others. As part of any degree programme, students will engage in research of a primary or secondary nature. They may undertake research for an essay or examination, or as part of a structured piece of independent learning including a dissertation or thesis. Similarly, doing research is central to the day to day activities of many criminal justice and related professionals, as provision under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 has highlighted.
In order to carry out research both groups will consult a range of research methods textbooks together with criminological research studies or com- mentaries. However, while there are many general research methods textbooks that describe the core features of types of research design, often they do not contextualize discussions and analysis within actual studies of crime and criminal justice. Similarly, while there are many accounts of criminological research, the processes involved in its planning and doing are often neglected or confined to a short preface or appendix, while critical reflection upon the experience of doing it is nowhere to be found. It is as a response to this that this textbook has been compiled. Doing Criminological Research aims to bring together issues regarding the practices, strategies and principles of criminological research within the context of a range of research studies.
ISBN:9780761965091
