Course Description:
CRIMLJUS 7130 Criminal Justice Research and Statistical Methods
| Course Number: | CRIMLJUS 7130 |
| Course Name: | Criminal Justice Research and Statistical Methods |
| Course Description: | An analysis of the various criminal justice research methods and statistical procedures, with emphasis on research design, questionnaire construction, the construction and use of surveys, uses of available data, methods of collecting and analyzing data, the testing of hypotheses, the drawing of inferences, and the writing of the research report. |
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Level: | Graduate |
| Credits: | 3 |
| Format: | Online |
| Semesters Offered: |
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| Registration Instructions |
Additional Information
Learning Outcomes
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Better understand the current state of knowledge relative to criminal justice research.
- Better understand the basic research and statistical concepts and operations in criminal justice research.
- Identify the varied methodologies and statistical techniques available for research in criminal justice.
- Understand and interpret research findings published in journal articles in criminal justice and other social science research.
- Better understand the role of survey analysis and evaluation research in shaping policy and programs in the criminal justice system.
- Demonstrate strong writing and analytical skills.
- Demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively utilize research and statistical techniques in criminal justice agencies and in advanced graduate level courses.
Unit Descriptions
Unit 1
Lesson 1: Crime, Criminal Justice, and Scientific Inquiry
Lesson 2: The Research Process
Lesson 3: Theory, Research, and Practice in Criminal Justice
Lesson 4: Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement
Lesson 5: Ethics in Criminal Justice
Unit 2
Lesson 6: Survey Research: Data Collection and Sampling
Lesson 7: Survey Research: Questionnaire Design
Lesson 8: Field Research
Lesson 9: Agency Records, Content Analysis, and Secondary Research and
Lesson 10: Evaluation Research
Unit 3
Lesson 11: SPSS Univariate Analysis: Loading the Data Set and Describing the Data
Lesson 12: SPSS Bivariate Analysis: Frequencies and Crosstabs
Lesson 13: SPSS Bivariate Analysis: Exploring the Association Between Variables
Lesson 14: SPSS Bivariate Analysis: Measures of Association and Tests of Significance
Lesson 15: SPSS Multivariate Analysis: Multiple Causation
Number of Exams
There are 2 exams for this course.
Number of Assignments
There are 10 assignments, 7 discussions, and 4 lab exercises for this course.
Number of Projects
There are no group projects for this course.
Grading Information
Activities /Points
Assignments (Lessons 1-10): 170 points
4 SPSS Lab Exercises (Lessons 11-15)[Final Printout must be saved and submitted via dropbox]: 267 points
Discussion (Lesson 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9): 35 points
Final Assessments
Exam 1: 100 points
Exam 2: 100 points
TOTAL POINTS: 672
Grading Scale
90 - 100% = A; 604-672 points
80 - 89% = B; 537-603 points
70 - 79% = C; 470-536 points
60 - 69% = D; 403-469 points
< 60% = F; below 402 points