Methodological orientations of articles appearing in criminal justice’s top journals: Who publishes what and where

Abstract

Research methods selection is perhaps the longest‐standing ongoing social science debate. While it is widely acknowledged that quantitative strategies dominate academic fields concerned with crime, this basic assumption has rarely been scrutinized. This paper examines all articles published in five leading criminal justice journals during a five‐year period to determine the frequency which various methods are employed, as well as methodological preferences across author gender, academic rank, and by author credit. Findings confirm a quantitative bias that is not necessarily categorically representative of the criminal justice sciences. Rather, methods selection varies according to individual journal and author characteristics. The related issue of methodological training bias and the implications for scholarship are considered.