Research for Effective Social Work Practice

Very often research texts for social work students are dry, boring, and hard for students to relate to. Not this book. Nor do authors Judy L. Krysik and Jerry Finn shy away from teaching research skills that are actually interesting and useful to students interested in real-life social work practice. See Chapter 13 on writing in this book, for example, as well as Chapter 6 on qualitative research methods. Go to www.routledgesw.com/research to learn more. Five unique cases on the web teach students how to apply research issues and skills to a variety of different levels of social work intervention, and clients. See especially the new case RAINN based on the evaluation of a national hotline for rape and sexual abuse: This case focuses on research and ethical issues related to program evaluation.

Dr. Judy Krysik is currently an Associate Professor in Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix. She teaches research methods, evaluation, program planning, and practice with children and families. Her current research is on the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect and the coproduction of knowledge. She is a Board Member of Prevent Child Abuse Arizona. She is involved in CSWE as co-chair of the Values and Ethics track and she serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Social Work Education, Social Work Research, and the Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics.

Dr. Jerry Finn is currently an Emeritus Professor in Social Work, University of Washington, Tacoma. Dr. Finn has 32 years of teaching experience in social work that includes courses in human behavior, research, practice, and information technology and human services at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, and he has served on doctoral committees. In addition, he has published numerous scholarly articles and two edited books, primarily in areas related to the impact of information technology on human services. Dr. Finn has served as treasurer of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) with the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD) as treasurer and registrar. He is currently consulting with human service agencies in the areas of program evaluation and information technology.