Based on Russell Schutt's bestselling text Investigating the Social World, this Third Edition of The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice is the most comprehensive research methods text available to students in criminal justice and criminology. Specifically designed for criminal justice courses and programs, this innovative text uniquely helps to teach research design and techniques within the context of substantive criminology and criminal justice issues of interest to students and the field. With expanded coverage of topics like causation, ethics, and qualitative analysis, along with a comprehensive and one-of-a-kind ancillary package, the Third Edition is a text both students and instructors will appreciate.

New to the Third Edition

• Integrates substantive criminal justice issues throughout: New examples include observational studies on community police officers, violence in rave and hip-hop clubs, in-depth interviews with gang members, and more!
• Offers increased coverage of qualitative methods: A new chapter on qualitative data analysis provides sections that include the documentation, conceptualization, coding, and categorizing of qualitative data, examining relationships and displaying qualitative data, authenticating conclusions, and reflexivity.
• Provides a new chapter on causation: The original chapter on causation and experimental methods has been divided into two chapters with a new chapter devoted exclusively to issues of causation.
• Stresses the importance of combining methods: A new chapter called "Analyzing Content: Historical, Secondary, and Content Analysis and Crime Mapping" now includes a section on triangulating methods.
• Includes new techniques for searching and reviewing literature: A new Appendix A offers a detailed discussion of how to conduct a literature review using the deterrent effect of arrest on intimate partner violence as a case study.
• Expands coverage of research ethics: In addition to an introduction of ethical issues in the beginning chapters, all methods chapters contain sections on ethical considerations specific to each respective method or data collection technique.

Accompanied by High Quality Ancillaries!

• Companion Study Site at www.sagepub.com/prccj3: Updated and expanded, this site offers self-study quizzes, E-flashcards, new-learning from SAGE Research Articles, interactive exercises, Web exercises, GSS Datasets and Documentation, a HyperResearch demo, as well as appendices referred to in the book's table of contents but not included in the text.
• Instructors' Resources on CD: Resources include PowerPoint presentations, chapter overviews and lecture outlines, test questions with answers, and student project ideas-for every chapter! It also contains articles on teaching Criminal Justice Research Methods, film and software resources, as well as Web resources.

Intended Audience
This is an essential text for undergraduate and graduate students taking a Research Methods course in criminology or criminal justice.