Conducting research into crime and criminal justice carries unique challenges. This Handbook focuses on the application of 'methods' to address the core substantive questions that currently motivate contemporary criminological research. It maps a canon of methods that are more elaborated than in most other fields of social science, and the intellectual terrain of research problems with which criminologists are routinely confronted.

Drawing on exemplary studies, chapters in each section illustrate the techniques (qualitative and quantitative) that are commonly applied in empirical studies, as well as the logic of criminological enquiry. Organized into five sections, each prefaced by an editorial introduction, the Handbook covers:

. Crime and Criminals

. Contextualizing Crimes in Space and Time: Networks, Communities and Culture

. Perceptual Dimensions of Crime

. Criminal Justice Systems: Organizations and Institutions

. Preventing Crime and Improving Justice

Edited by leaders in the field of criminological research, and with contributions from internationally renowned experts, The SAGE Handbook of Criminological Research Methods is set to become the definitive resource for postgraduates, researchers and academics in criminology, criminal justice, policing, law, and sociology.

David Gadd is Professor of Criminology at Manchester University School of Law where he is also Director of the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Susanne Karstedt has a Chair in Criminology and Criminological Justice at the University of Leeds.

Steven F. Messner is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology, University at Albany, State University of New York.

Editorial Introduction - David Gadd, Susanne Karstedt, Steven F. Messner
PART ONE: CRIME AND CRIMINALS
Life Histories and Autobiographies as Ethnographic Data - Neal Shover
Self-Report Surveys within Longitudinal Panel Designs - Marvin D Krohn, Terence P Thornberry, Kristin A Bell, Alan J Lizotte, Matthew D Phillips
In-depth Interviewing and Psychosocial Case Study Analysis - David Gadd
Grounding the Analysis of Gender and Crime: Accomplishing and Interpreting Qualitative Interview Research - Jody Miller
Neurocriminological Approaches - Yu Gao, Andrea L Glenn, Melissa Peskin, Anna Rudo-Hutt, Robert A Schug, Yaling Yang, Adrian Raine
Gun Prevalence, Homicide Rates and Causality: A GMM Approach to Endogeneity Bias - Tomislav Kovandzic, Mark E Schaffer, Gary Kleck
PART TWO: CONTEXTUALIZING CRIME IN SPACE AND TIME: NETWORKS, COMMUNITIES AND CULTURE
Multi-level Modeling and Criminological Inquiry - Eric P Baumer amd Ashley N Arnio
Examining the Role of the Environment in Crime Causation: Small Area Community Surveys and Space-Time Budgets - Per-Olof H Wikström, Kyle Treiber, Beth Hardie
Social Networks and the Ecology of Crime: Using Social Network Data to Understand the Spatial Distribution of Crime - George E Tita and Adam Michael Boessen
Using Census Data and Surveys to Study Labor Markets and Crime - Robert D Crutchfield and Suzanna R Ramirez
Historical and Archival Research Methods - Barry Godfrey
PART THREE: PERCEPTUAL DIMENSIONS OF CRIME
Ethnographic Photography in Criminological Research - Cécile Van de Voorde
Autoethnography - Jeff Ferrell
Interviewing Victims of State Violence - Elizabeth Stanley
Questioning Homicide and the Media: Analysis of Content or Content Analysis? - Moira Peelo and Keith Soothill
Assessing Crime through International Victimization Surveys - Pat Mayhew and Jan Van Dijk
In Search of the Fear of Crime: Using Interdisciplinary Insights to Improve the Conceptualisation and Measurement of Everyday Insecurities - Emily Gray, Jonathan Jackson and Stephen Farrall
Measuring Public Attitudes to Criminal Justice - Julian Roberts, Matrina Feilzer, Mike Hough
PART FOUR: CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS: ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
Researching Police Culture: A Longitudinal Mixed Method Approach - Janet Chan
Quasi-experimental Research on Community Policing - Wesley G Skogan
Order in the Court: Using Ethnomethodology to Explore Juvenile Justice Settings - Aaron Kupchik, Joseph De Angelis and Nicole L Bracy
Evaluation Research and Probation: How to Distinguish High Performance from Low Performance Programmes - Karin Tusinski Miofsky and James M Byrne
Conceptualising and Measuring the Quality of Prison Life - Alison Liebling, Susie Hulley and Ben Crewe
Comparing Justice and Crime across Cultures - Susanne Karstedt
PART FIVE: PREVENTING CRIME AND IMPROVING JUSTICE
Experimental Criminology and Restorative Justice: Principles of Developing and Testing Innovations in Crime Policy - Heather Strang and Lawrence W Sherman
Large-Scale Criminological Field Experiments - Manuel Eisner, Tina Malti, Denis Ribeaud
Meta-Analysis as a Method of Systematic Reviews - Martin Schmucker and Friedrich Lösel
Crime Concentration and Police Work - Ken Pease
Assessing the costs of Fraud - Michael Levi
The Other Cultural Criminology: The Role of Action Research in Justice Work and Development - Cyndi Banks
Feminist Approaches to Criminological Research - Gail Mason and Julie Stubbs
Research Ethics in Criminology - Mark Israel and Iain Hay