Science, society, and criminological research -- Reasoning about the social world -- Questions and answers -- Everyday errors in reasoning -- Overgeneralization -- Selective or inaccurate observation -- Illogical reasoning -- Resistance to change -- The social science approach -- Motives for criminological research -- Social criminological research in practice -- Description: what is the magnitude of youth violence? -- Exploration: how do schools respond to gun violence? -- Explanation: what factors are related to youth delinquency and violence? -- Evaluation: do violence prevention programs in schools work? -- Strengths and limitations of social research -- Types of research methods -- Quantitative and qualitative methods -- Social research philosophies -- Validity: the goal of social research -- Conclusion -- Key terms -- Highlights -- Exercises -- Developing a research proposal -- Web exercises -- SPSS exercises -- The process and problems of criminological research -- Criminological research questions -- Identifying criminological research questions -- Refining criminological research questions -- Evaluating criminological research questions -- Feasibility -- Social importance -- Scientific relevance -- The role of criminological theory -- Social research strategies -- The research circle -- Deductive research -- Inductive research -- A qualitative exploration of the response to domestic violence -- Descriptive research -- Domestic violence and the research circle -- Phase 1: Deductive research -- Phase 2: Deductive research -- Phase 3: Inductive research -- Phase 4: Deductive research -- Guidelines for criminologists -- Scientific guidelines -- Ethical guidelines -- Honesty and openness -- The uses of science -- Research on people -- Conclusion -- Key terms -- Highlights -- Exercises -- Developing a research proposal -- Web exercises -- SPSS exercises -- Conceptualization and measurement -- Concepts -- Conceptualization in practice -- Defining substance abuse -- Defining poverty -- Defining strain -- Concepts and variables -- Measurement operations -- Evaluation of measures -- Measurement validity -- Face validity -- Content validity -- Criterion validity -- Construct validity -- Reliability -- Test-retest reliability -- Interitem reliability (internal consistency) -- Alternate-forms reliability -- Interobserver reliability -- Ways to improve reliability and validity -- Levels of measurement -- Nominal level of measurement -- Ordinal level of measurement -- Interval level of measurement -- Ratio level of measurement -- The case of dichotomies -- Comparison of levels of measurement -- Conclusion -- Key terms -- Highlights -- Exercises -- Developing a research proposal -- Web exercises -- SPSS exercises -- Sampling -- Sample planning -- Define sample components and the population -- Evaluate generalizability -- Assess population diversity -- Consider a census -- Sampling methods -- Probability sampling methods -- Simple random sampling -- Systematic random sampling -- Stratified random sampling -- Cluster sampling -- Nonprobability sampling methods -- Availability sampling -- Quota sampling -- Purposive or judgment sampling -- Snowball sampling -- Lessons about sample quality -- Sampling distributions -- Estimating sampling errors.