CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH: SOC/CJ 212
Fall 2000

Dr. Loreen Wolfer
Office: 314 Elm Park
Phone: (570) 941-7450
E-mail: "wolferl2@epix.net (That's WOLFERL2)
Office Hours: Tuesday / Thursday 9:00-10:00 am; 11:15-12:20
Or by appointment

This course is designed to provide the student with knowledge concerning how to collect meaningful, statistically sound data for criminological research. Students will be taught the entire research design process beginning with the conceptualization of an issue / interest of study to the presentation of findings. Along the way students will learn various techniques for collecting data as well as issues to keep in mind when designing research. The course will also touch upon basic issues in data analysis.

TEXTS:

Maxfield, M.G and E. Babbie. 1998. Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology, 2nd Ed. Albany: West / Wadsworth Publishing.

Pyrczak, F. 1999. Evaluating Reseach in Academic Journals: A Practical Guide to Realistic Evaluation. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing.

Tontodonato, P. and F. Hagan. 1998. The Languate of Research in Criminal Justice: A Reader. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE:

The course will primarily consist of lectures addressing various aspects of research design, data collection and basic data analysis. There will also be class exercises to provide students with practice in dealing with design and data issues. As a result, only 2 cuts from class are allowed (Attendance will be taken; any additional cuts will affect your participation grade.) and class participation is essential!

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

• Exams.........................45% (15% each)
• Research Project.........35%
• Homework.................10%
• Class Participation......10%

• To enable students to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• To help students become familiar with various methods of research design such as experiments, surveys, observational research and secondary analysis.
• To teach students how to design research and collect data in a way that will provide interpretable results.
• To teach students how to evaluate the quality of research design and data collection that appear in professional and academic journals.
• To provide students with a base understanding of statistical procedures.

The readings in your Language of Research in Criminal Justice book serve to provide you with examples of how these research issues and designs are used. Your Evaluating Research in Academic Journals readings will help you learn how to evaluate the research you read. Your homework is to apply the evaluative questions presented in the Evaluating Research book to the readings assigned in the Language of Research book. The homework sheet provides each assignment and its due date. CLASS POLICY:

As stated previously, attendance and participation in class discussion are both reflected in the participation grade. Exams can ONLY be missed in the event of illness or death. In the event of illness, the student must provide a doctor's note to be excused from the exam and in the case of death, a funeral notice or obituary card must be provided. Failure to do so will result in an automatic zero for that exam. This does NOT apply to the final paper; absolutely NO final papers will be accepted after the due date.

RESEARCH PROJECT:

Your research project will be a group effort and specific information regarding it will follow soon.

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SYLLABUS: (Tentative -- This may be adapted and reserved readings may be added as needed. M= the Maxfield text; P=Pyrczak text.)

Week.......................Topic ...........................................................................Reading

I. Introduction and Research Issues:

1. Introduction, Theory, Qualitative and Quantitative Research ................M: Chapter 1; Chapter 2 (pp. 34-42), P: Chapter 1
2. Causation and Validity.........................................................................M: Chapter 3; P: Chapters 2, 3
3. Overview, Conceptualization, Measurement.........................................M: Chapters 5, 6; P: Chapters 4, 5
4. Ethics in Criminological Research.........................................................M: Chapter 8
   Sampling.............................................................................................M: Chapter 9; P: Chapters 6, 7
5. con.
6. con.
   EXAM 1 Tuesday Oct. 5 (Chapters 1-8, excluding 4 and 7) II. Research Designs
   
7. The Experimental Model and Its Variations..........................................M: Chapter 7; P: Chapters 8, 9
   NO CLASS TUESDAY, OCT. 10 -- FALL BREAK
8. con.
   Survey Research.................................................................................M: Chapter 10; P: Chapters 10, 11
9. con.
   Field Research....................................................................................M: Chapter 11; P: Chapter 12
10. con.
    Unobtrusive Measures, Secondary Analysis.........................................M: Chapter 12
11. con.
    EXAM 2 Thursday, November 9 (Chapters 7-12, excluding 8)
12. Program Evaluation and Policy Analysis...............................................M: Chapter 13
    III. Data Manipulation, Analysis and Interpretation
    
13. Coding, Tabulation and Data Management ............................................No reading
    NO CLASS THURSDAY, NOV. 23 -- THANKSGIVING BREAK
14. Scaling and Index Construction...............................................................Reserve Reading
    FINAL PAPER DUE: Thursday, Nov. 30
15. Basic Statistical Procedures.................................................................M: Chapter 14

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

Due Date.................................................................................Assignment

1. 8 / 31............................................................................No assignment due
2. 9 / 7..............................................................................Apply the points for the title and abstract to Readings 2 and 22
3. 9 / 14............................................................................Apply the points for the title, abstract ,
   .....................................................................................Introduction and Literature Review to Reading 8
4. 9 / 21............................................................................No assignment due, but reading should be done
5. 9 / 28.............................................................................Evaluate the Title to the Sampling techniques (do all the sections
   ...................................................................................in between that we have already covered) for Reading 19
6. 10 / 5............................................................................Exam. No assignment due
7. 10 / 12..........................................................................No assignment due
8. 10 / 19..........................................................................Evaluate all sections (the entire article) for Reading 9
9. 10/26............................................................................Evaluate all sections, except title and abstract, for Reading 22
   ..................................................................................... (you already did title and abstract)
   *** From here on in, you must do 2 of the 3 assignments,
   but all of them require evaluation of all aspets of the article ***
   
10. 11 / 2.............................................................................Reading 24
11. 11 / 9.............................................................................Exam: No assignment
12. 11 / 16..........................................................................Reading 12
13. 11 / 23..........................................................................Break: No assignment
14. 11/30.............................................................................Reading 30
15. 12 / 7.............................................................................Last day of class: No assignment

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