Suggested Reading List for Ph.D. Methods Comprehensive Exam
The following is a list of readings that I recommend for students preparing to take the Ph.D. methods exam. It has no official status and has not been approved by the College faculty or the Methods Comprehensive Exam Committee.
While it is not realistic to expect that all students will read all of the items, all are items that a criminological researcher should read and which would prove highly useful. If a student did read and understand all of these items, she/he would be prepared to answer any of the questions likely to appear on the exam, to perform dissertation research, and to begin professional-level research in criminology. Students may have already read some of these sources in their methods courses, in which case only review will be necessary. Likewise, they may have found other texts covering the same material, in which case the corresponding items listed below can be ignored.
Research Designs
Campbell, Donald T., and Julian C. Stanley. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research. Chicago: Rand McNally (1963).
Cook, Thomas D., and Donald T. Campbell. Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1979), Chapters 5 and 8.
Hirschi, Travis, and. Hanan Selvin. Principles of Survey Analysis. N.Y.: Free Press (1973). (Also known as Delinquency Research: An Appraisal of Analytic Methods). The very best book in this list!
Miller, Delbert. Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement. N.Y.: Longman (1983).
Data-Gathering Methods
Babbie, Earl R. The Practice of Social Research. 11th ed. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth (2007).
Denzin, Norman (ed.). Sociological Methods: A Sourcebook.. N.Y.: McGraw-Hill (1978). Chapters 7 and 21 (by Howard S. Becker).
Dillman, Don A. Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method. N.Y.: Wiley (1978).
Gove, Walter R., et al. “Are the Uniform Crime Reports a Valid Indicator of Index Crimes?” Criminology 23:451-501 (1985).
Lofland, John. Analyzing Social Settings. 2nd edition. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth (1984).
Sudman, Seymour. Applied Sampling. N.Y.: Academic Press (1976).
Statistics (Basic-to-Intermediate) and Data Interpretation
Read these in the following order:
Bachman, Ronnette, and Raymond Paternoster. Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice. 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill (2004).
Morrison, Denton, and Ramon Henkel (eds.). The Significance Test Controversy: A Reader. Preface, Ch. 9, 21, 31. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton (1970).
Carmines, E. G., and R. A. Zeller. Reliability and Validity Assessment. Beverly Hills: Sage (1979).
Lewis-Beck, Michael S. Applied Regression: An Introduction. Beverly Hills: Sage (1980).
Berry, William D., and Stanley Feldman. Multiple Regression in Practice. Beverly Hills: Sage (1985).
Some Optional Readings on Advanced Statistical Methods
The following books cover some of the more important advanced statistical methods used fairly frequently in criminology. You are not expected to know how to use them on the Methods exam, but you may be asked in what situations the methods would be needed or used. Therefore, you could read their introductory pages just to find this out for purposes of passing the exam, and then read the entire text at your leisure when and if you need to know how to use them. The books are all volumes in the Sage (Beverly Hills) series on quantitative methods, are less than 100 pages, and are as easy to read as books on such topics ever get. Each book’s series number has been listed. I recommend they be read in the following order:
Iverson, Gudmund R., and Helmut Norpoth. Analysis of Variance. No. 1 (1976).
Ostrom, Charles W., Jr. Time Series Analysis: Regression Techniques. No. 9 (1978).
McDowall, David, et al. Interrupted Time Series Analysis. No. 21 (1980). Read only after reading the Ostrom book.
Markus, Gregory B. Analyzing Panel Data. No. 18 (1979).
Aldrich, John H., and Forrest D. Nelson. Linear Probability, Logit, and Probit Models. No. 45 (1984).
Berry, William D. Nonrecursive Causal Models. No. 37 (1983).
Kim, Jae-On, and Charles W. Mueller. Introduction to Factor Analysis. No. 13 (1979).
Long, J. Scott. Confirmatory Factor Analysis. No. 33 (1983).
Long, J. Scott. Covariance Structure Models. No. 34 (1983). This and the previous book (no. 33) explain LISREL.
Written by Gary Kleck
