NOTIONS OF UNIFORMITY, CAUSALITY, POSSIBILITY OF CORRECT OBSERVATION, AND THE VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE UNDERLY THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH. METHODS, OBSERVATIONS, GENERALIZATIONS, HYPOTHESES, AND THEORIES ARE THE ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF THE APPROACH. MAJOR TECHNIQUES USED BY SOCIAL SCIENTISTS INCLUDE THE WRITTEN DOCUMENT, THE QUESTIONNAIRE, THE INTERVIEW, FIELD OBSERVATION, THE EXPERIMENT, THE CASE STUDY, AND CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS IS USED IN THE DERIVATION OF GENERALIZATIONS FROM OBSERVATIONS. GENERALIZATIONS FORM THE MATERIAL FROM WHICH THEORIES ARE CONSTRUCTED. EACH RESEARCH TECHNIQUE IS DESCRIBED, WITH REFERENCES TO EXAMPLES OF ITS APPLICATION IN THE FIELD OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE. PARTICULAR ATTENTION IS DEVOTED TO METHODS OF OBSERVATION, INCLUDING BOTH STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED (E.G., PARTICIPANT) OBSERVATION. A LIST OF REFERENCES AND A CHAPTER TEST ARE INCLUDED.