Research methods for criminal justice graduate students: Comparing textbook coverage and classroom instruction

Abstract

Research methods are perhaps the most difficult subject matter to teach in the graduate criminal justice curricula. This is in part due to the mix of practitioners and aspiring researchers in most criminal justice graduate departments, leading many instructors to question whether their own coverage is in line with the needs of their graduate students as well as the coverage of other instructors. Also complicating matters is that research methods textbooks are not geared specifically for the graduate level, and thus may neglect topics that are necessary for today's criminal justice graduate students. The present study addresses these concerns by providing an analysis of 11 current criminal justice research methods textbooks, as well as a survey of 36 instructors of graduate criminal justice and criminology research methods classes. Both the texts and instructors are found to place a strong focus on quantitative methods, while the textbooks tend to place a greater emphasis on qualitative methods than the instructors. Moreover, both the texts and instructors neglect topics crucial to today's criminal justice graduate student, including grant writing, article writing and critiquing, and standards for collaborative research efforts.