Open Educational Resources (OER)

Introduction to Criminology provides a foundation for understanding the origins, evolution, and current status of criminological theories. This textbook explains the field of criminology and influential theories in context, with real-life examples and activities.

Contained in this textbook are the historical background and traditional framework that has led to the current criminal legal system as we know it. The book further explains the police and community relations social dynamic, and provides various examples of mission, philosophy and objectives of the criminal justice system for the reader’s consideration.

This OER textbook is designed for an “introduction to criminal justice” class or a similar course. It is designed to provide a survey of the field, including police, courts, and corrections, to students with no background in criminal justice.

This text provides edited and abridged cases that are intended to be easy to read and provide lower-division students with a gentle introduction to key legal concepts that define the workings of our criminal justice system.

This text is for an introductory course and can further be useful as a supplementary resource as student continues to pursue their criminal justice/criminology education.

This is a teaching text describing and segmenting criminal investigations into its component parts to illustrate the craft of criminal investigation. Delineating criminal investigation within the components of task-skills and thinking-skills, this book describes task-skills such as incident response, evidence management, and forensic analysis as essential foundations for the creation of effective investigative plans.

This book will also familiarize you with the basic history, principles, and theories of ethics. These concepts will then be applied to the major components of the criminal justice system: policing, the courts, and corrections. Discussion will focus on personal values, individual responsibility, decision making, discretion, and the structure of accountability.

This book will examine the key principles of communication personnel in law enforcement require. Areas covered include listening skills, communicating tactics, interviewing skills, note-taking, report writing and testifying in court. Also covered is a section on PTSD and its interaction with law enforcement.

This is an introductory textbook exploring the management and treatment of people with mental disorders throughout the criminal justice system.

A Career in Sociology was written for introductory undergraduate courses on sociological practice. The book was designed for faculty and students searching for an open educational resource (OER) that provides sociological terms, concepts, and theories in the study of sociological practice.

Introduction to Sociology 2e adheres to the scope and sequence of a typical, one-semester introductory sociology course. It offers comprehensive coverage of core concepts, foundational scholars, and emerging theories. The textbook presents section reviews with rich questions, discussions that help students apply their knowledge, and features that draw learners into the discipline in meaningful ways. The second edition has been updated significantly to reflect the latest research and current, relevant examples.

One part of a two-part introduction to the discipline of sociology, the study of society. It examines how we come to understand and experience ourselves and the world around us and how we create culture. Students will be introduced to the study of culture, socialization, social interaction, identity formation and self-fashioning, the social construction of class, gender and race, age, deviance, and other social phenomena.

Sociology of Gender is an introductory textbook suitable for students of sociology and women, gender, and sexuality.

Inequality and Interdependence: Social Problems and Social Justice examines the persistent social problems of our world, asking both who suffers and who benefits. We explore inequality in issues that challenge communities today, such as education, mental health, death and dying, and disaster recovery, among others.

This textbook provides a broad overview of research methods utilized in sociology. It will be of particular value for students who are new to research methods.

As an introductory textbook for social work students studying research methods, this book guides students through the process of creating a research project.

Our textbook guides students, step-by-step through the process of conducting a student research project--conducting a literature review, conceptualizing a research question, designing a research project, collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, as well as disseminating results to academic and lay audiences.

This short guidebook provides information about selecting a research topic and research questions, searching for literature, reading and understanding scholarly writing, and writing a literature review to synthesize what is known and what remains to be learned about a social problem.