(50:920:301) Methods and Techniques of Social Research  
For the Course Schedule and Assignments Page Click Here               
Instructor:  Ted Goertzel   Office:  405 Cooper Street, Room 110.  Enter from the back of the building on Lawrence Street.    Office phone: 856 225-2714   email: goertzel@camden.rutgers.edu.  To find my home page type "Ted Goertzel" in Google or another search engine. 

This is an introductory course in the methods and techniques of social research as used in criminal justice, sociology and related fields. This course is a prerequisite for Ethics and Policy in Criminal Justice and Theories of Crime and Delinquency.

It is helpful if students have had at least an introductory course in sociology or criminal justice before taking this course.  Prior work in statistics is not required.  Topics include research design, conceptualization and measurement, sampling, experiments, survey research, evaluation research, quantifying data, scale construction, making graphs and data analysis.  Particular emphasis is placed on survey research and on time series analysis of trend data. 

 Specific objectives of this course are:
1. To learn enough about social research to be able to read original research reports published in social science journals.
2. To learn how to design questionnaires, collect survey data, and analyze the data.
3. To learn how to analyze data from published statistical sources such as The Statistical Abstract of the United States.
4. To learn how to use statistical software packages and how to access statistical data on the World Wide Web.
5. To learn how to make graphs of statistical data.
6. To develop skills in the logical and empirical analysis of social problems.
7. To learn how computerized statistics data ("CompStat") can be used in lowering crime rates and managing other social problems

Considerable use is made of computers in this course.  No prior computer background or experience is assumed.  We will use the Excel spreadsheet program, which is available in the computer labs at Rutgers, and the MicroCase Data Analysis System, which is included with your textbook.

We will have two books:

The Basics of Social Research, Fourth Edition, by Earl Babbie and Experiencing Social Research:  An Introduction Using Microcase by David Ayers.  These two books are available at a package price in the bookstore.  Used copies are sometimes available from online sellers.  If you purchase the Third Edition of Babbie's Basics of Social Research, you will still find most of the material.  It is best not to purchase an older edition or a different version, such as the hardback Practice of Social Research.  The Ayers book comes with a CD-Rom and two floppy disks.  This software and the data sets are central to this course.  Since many computers today lack floppy disk drives, the publisher has made the software and data sets available for download on their WEB site.  If you have a good Internet connection, it is quicker and easier to install it from the WEB site for the textbook.   You need to click on "Companion Site" and then on "Student Microcase Download."

This course will use the SAKAI   course management system.  There will be a weekly SAKAI quiz on the readings and weekly exercises incorporating materials from the Ayers workbook and other material.  All grades will be posted on SAKAI and most if not all assignments will be submitted there.