Criminal Justice Research Guide

LexisNexis Academic

A comprehensive database providing access to over 6,000 news, business, and legal publications, LexisNexis Academic includes Shepard's Citations for all federal and state court cases back to 1789 and Company Dossier, a service that provides detailed company information, financial data, and tools for comparing companies using a variety of criteria.  Sources include newspapers, magazines, journals, polls, blogs, television and radio broadcast transcripts, SEC filings and reports, federal and state codes, and more.  Click How Do I? and View Tutorials for more information on searching the database.

Coverage: varies | Format: full-text; abstracts | Search Tips

Legal Collection

The Legal Collection database contains the full text of 250 scholarly law journals.  Subject coverage includes:  international and federal law, organized crime, ethics, criminal justice, medical, labor, and human resource law.

Coverage: 1965 - present  | Format: full-text; abstracts; citations | Search Tips

PsycINFO

From the American Psychological Association (APA), PsycINFO contains 2.4 million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, books, dissertations, and book chapters covering psychology and related disciplines.  Subject coverage includes:  medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law. 

Coverage: 1887 - present  | Format: citations; abstracts; limited full text | Search Tips

SocINDEX with Full Text

A comprehensive sociology research database, SocINDEX with Full Text provides access to nearly 600 full text journals, 735 books and monographs, and 6800 conference papers.  Encompasses all sub-disciplines including abortion, criminology, criminal justice, demography, ethnic and racial studies, gender studies, marriage and family, political sociology, religion, rural and urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, substance abuse and other addictions, violence, and sociological history, research, and theory. 

Coverage: 1895 - present  | Format: full-text; citations; abstracts | Search Tips

TOPICsearch

A current events database, TOPICsearch allows researchers to explore popular topics, controversial issues and viewpoints pertaining to social, political, and economic issues, and scientific discoveries.  Sources include newspapers, periodicals, biographies, public opinion polls, book reviews, pamphlets, and government information.  TOPICsearch provides access to 1550 full text publications.  Indexing and abstracts are provided for more than 1650 journals.  Topics include:  aging, AIDS, crime, drugs, education, ethics, health, religion, sports, national debate and more. 

Coverage: varies  | Format: full-text; citations; abstracts | Search Tips

Need additional resources? Try the General Research Guide. This guide lists multidisciplinary resources, which cover a variety of subject content areas.

Print Journals:

All print journals, to which the library subscribes, are listed in the online library catalog. To look for a specific journal, search by TITLE. If you are unsure of the exact title, search by KEYWORD to find the title you want.

Electronic Journals:

All electronic journals in the library's collection are listed in the Magazine, Newspaper, and Journal Finder. You can search for a specific title by keyword or browse an A-to-Z list by title or subject. 

Books:

Use the online library catalog to find books. Books may be searched by keyword, title, author, or subject.

To find a specific book, search by TITLE. If your search is unsuccessful or if you are unsure of the exact title, try a KEYWORD search. To find books written by a specific person, search by AUTHOR. To find a book about a specific person or topic, search by SUBJECT. Subject searching requires the use of Library of Congress Subject Headings. If your subject search is unsuccessful, try a KEYWORD search or consult a librarian at daviska@uamont.edu.

Library of Congress Call Number Ranges for Criminal Justice:

HV------Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology

The library's collection of books is organized by subject. Once you locate a call number on the shelves, you can browse other books in the area, as they will contain the same subject.

Borrow Items From Other Libraries:

If the library does not own a publication that you need, we can borrow books and obtain copies of journal article from other libraries.  Submit an interlibrary loan request form online.  Materials may be supplied for free or a fee.  You will generally receive the item within two weeks.  

Selected Reference Resources:

Statistical Abstract of the United States
REF HA 202

Crime and punishment in America. Biographies
REF HV 6785 H34

Crime and punishment in America. Primary sources
REF HV 6779 H35

Crime and punishment in America. Reference library
REF HV 6779 C73

Crime in the United States 2004
REF HV 6787 A3 2004

Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime
REF HV 6515 E5323 2003

Encyclopedia of Terrorism
REF HV 6431 K883 2003

Selected Internet Resources:

Crime in the United States
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

Crime in the United States (CIUS) is an annual publication in which the FBI compiles volume and rate of crime offences for the nation, the states, and individual agencies. This report also includes arrest, clearance, and law enforcement employee data. Accessed Jan. 17, 2008.

Hate Crime Statistics
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

Each year's edition of Hate Crime Statistics presents data regarding incidents, offenses, victims, and offenders in reported crimes that were motivated in whole or in part by a bias against the victim's perceived race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. - Accessed Jan. 17, 2008.

Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

The FBI annually compiles data concerning the felonious and accidental line-of-duty deaths and assaults of law enforcement officers and presents these statistics in Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA). Tabular presentations include weapons used, use of body armor, and circumstances surrounding murders and assaults of offices. - Accessed Jan. 17, 2008.

Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics Online
http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook

The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics brings together data from more than 100 sources about many aspects of criminal justice in the United States. The Sourcebook is supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. - Accessed Jan. 17, 2008.

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Need help? Contact

Mary Heady,
Criminal Justice Librarian

870-460-1581
heady@uamont.edu