Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
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Associate Editor at the Journal of Criminal Justice and Law
Richard J. Stringer, Ph.D.
Three Sections
1. Data
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2. Measures
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3. Data Analysis
The methods section should be organized into three basic sections. These are Data, Measures, and Data Analysis. If you are writing a Master's Thesis, I strongly recommend the use of secondary data over collecting your own data. I have provided some links below to good sources of secondary data that you may find useful.
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Data
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Where is your data coming from?
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Will you collect your own? If so, how? What are the sampling methods?
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Is it secondary data?
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If so what is this survey?
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How is it collected?
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Who collects it and why?
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Provide any other pertinent information that you think is necessary.
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Measures/Variables in the Study
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What is your dependent variable?
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What is your independent variable?
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What are your control variables?
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How are they operationalized/coded?
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Is there is any missing data (If so, how much)?
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Data Analysis
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What statistical program are you using? (e.g. SPSS)
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What statistical analysis are you using and why? (Correlation Matrix or Cross-Tabulations, Linear or Logistic Regression, etc.)
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Methods and Statistics Resources
SAGE Research Methods Resources
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Data Sources
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)
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Statistical Resources
UCLA Statistical Methods and Data Analytics
Paul Allison - Statistical Horizons