The ultimate thesis resource for students in Criminal Justice and Criminology, this handbook is a comprehensive guide to developing and writing graduate level research. It takes the student on a step-by-step journey through the entire thesis process from initial ideas to a completed product or even a published article. The book can be used by students either working independently or in close consultation with faculty and shows students how to maximize interactions with their thesis committee.

The authors draw on their combined fifty years of working with graduate students to:

* Guide students through topic and design decisions, anticipating their questions and providing examples of how to present and format their information

* Provide useful tips for organizing tasks and following a regular schedule of production that will make the thesis project logical and manageable

* Offer specific and helpful examples from actual theses to highlight the best ways to approach a wide variety of methodological hurdles

* Help students adapt to a clear and effective academic writing style

*Outline strategies for the successful defense of the prospectus as well as the final thesis

“Overall I find this to be one of the best books on thesis writing for the social sciences that I have ever come across.”

-         Melissa A. Logue

Saint Joseph’s University, PA

SECTION I: PREPARING FOR THE THESIS

1.      Choices and Products

2.      Getting Started

3.      Development of a Research Question

4.      The Institutional Review Board and Human Subjects Review Committee

5.      Suggestions for Citing and Writing

SECTION II: THE PROSPECTUS OR PROPOSAL

6.      Introduction and Problem Statement

7.      Literature Review

8.      Methodology

9.      The Prospectus and the Prospectus Defense

SECTION III: ANALYZING INFORMATION AND DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

10.  Analyzing and Presenting Your Data and Findings

11.  Conclusions, Implications and Limitations

SECTION IV: THE FINAL DEFENSE AND BEYOND

12.  The Thesis Defense

13.  Revising Your Thesis into Articles and Presentations