Criminal Justice

Guides to Criminal Justice Research

Benamati, Dennis C. Criminal Justice Information: How to Find It, How to Use It. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1998. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV7419.5 .C75 1998): Excellent easy-to-read guide to criminal justice resources. Handbook includes chapters on statistical sources, legal research, and world wide web sites.

Nelson, Bonnie R. Criminal Justice Research in Libraries and Internet. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV7419 .N45x 1997): This handbook contains basic criminal justice research information. Several chapters on "special problems" including research in forensic science and primary sources.

O'Block, Robert L. Criminal Justice Research Sources. Cincinnati: Anderson Pub. Co., 1992. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV7419 .O25x 1992): "Comprehensive handbook of criminal justice sources." Handbook includes sections on collecting original data, historical research sources, and sources for international data.

DELCAT

Use DELCAT, the catalog of the University of Delaware Library, to locate books on your subject. Note: prior to June 1994, only selected federal government publications were included in DELCAT. Also, DELCAT lists the titles of the library subscriptions to serials: magazines, journals, and newspapers.

Current Sources

Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (CQ Weekly). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1962- . Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref JK1 .C668) Latest ed. Location: Morris Library (JK1 .C668) Earlier eds. Location: Library Databases: An objective view of Congressional proceedings, highlighting important debates and bills. Helpful for locating current issues and policy making. Later compiled into annual volumes: CQ Almanac Ref JK1 .C66.

CQ Researcher Plus Archive. Location: Library Databases: This databases explores a single "hot" issue in the news in depth each week. Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology. There are 44 reports produced each year including four expanded reports. PDF files are available for full issues dating back to January 1996.

Facts on File. New York: Facts on File, 1970- . Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref D410 .F33) Latest ed. Location: Morris Library (D410 .F33) Earlier eds.: A weekly news service.

LexisNexis Academic. Location: Library Databases: Provides full-text information from newspapers, the legal literature, and other sources on a variety of topics. These subfiles may be searched: Top News, General News Topics, Company News, Industry & Market News, Government & Political News, Company Financial Information, Country Profiles, State Profiles, Biographical Information, Reference & Directories, General Medical & Health Topics, Medical Abstracts, Accounting & Auditing, Legal News & Analysis, Federal Case Law, U.S. Code, Constitution, & Court Rules, and State Legal Research.

LexisNexis Congressional. Location: Library Databases: Provides comprehensive access to United States legislative information. Includes "Inside Washington": searchable access to the National Journal and CongressDaily. Has extensive links to other legislative and political Web sites.

LexisNexis State Capital. Location: Library Databases: Comprehensive access to state government information. LexisNexis State Capital contains information on bills, statutes, regulations, and legislators from the fifty states, as well as information from State Capitol Journal and other news sources, and links to other Web sites with useful information about the states.

Periodical Indexes and Abstracts

Criminal Justice Abstracts. Location: Morris Library - Library Databases: An index with abstracts covering books, reports, dissertations, professional papers, and journals in the field of criminal justice.

Ethnic NewsWatch. Location: Library Databases: A comprehensive, full text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native American press. It provides a rich collection of articles, editorials, and reviews with a broad diversity of perspectives often at variance with the mainstream media.

Expanded Academic ASAP Plus. Foster City: Information Access Company, 1980-. Location: Library Databases: Provides bibliographic references, abstracts or full text for articles from more than 1,550 scholarly and general-interest publications and the most current 6 months of the New York Times. It has full text or full image coverage of more than 500 titles. Covered subject areas include the humanities, social sciences, non-technical general sciences and current events. Covers 1980 to present; articles older than 3 years are in the Backfile which is searched separately.

Index to Legal Periodicals. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1952- . Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref KF8 .I54): A subject and author index to legal periodicals published in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

MarciveWeb DOCS. Location: Library Databases: Equivalent to the Catalog of United States Government Publications: MOCAT, this is a catalog of government publications cataloged by the Government Printing Office. Covers 1976 to present.

PAIS International. Location: Library Databases: Indexes books, periodicals, and government documents on issues concerning public policy.

PsycINFO. Location: Library Databases: Indexes journals in psychology and related social science disciplines. Recent years include chapters and articles in books. Also available in a print version, titled Psychological Abstracts (Ref BF1B .P65)

Sociological Abstracts. Location: Library Databases: Indexes journals in sociology, criminal justice, social work, and related social sciences disciplines.

Statistical Sources

City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America. Lawrence, KS: Morgan Quitno Corp., c1998. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6787 .C583 1998)

Correctional Populations in the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Location: Morris Library - U.S. Documents (U.S. Doc J 29.17/(yr): )

Crime in America's Top Rated Cities. Boca Raton: Universal Reference Publications Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6787 .C745)

Criminal Victimization. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Location: Morris Library - U.S. Documents (U.S. Doc J 29.11/10: )

LexisNexis Statistical. Location: Library Databases: Indexes and abstracts statistical publications issued by the federal government (ASI), state governments and private publishers (SRI), and international intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations (IIS). The Library has two microfiche full text subscriptions, one covering all documents not included in the federal depository library system (non-depository ASI) and another covering the state and privately published publications in SRI. These microfiche sets are located in the Morris Library Reference Room. LexisNexis Statistical includes hypertext links to agency web sites.

National Crime Survey Reports. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Location: Morris Library - U.S. Documents (U.S. Doc J 29.9:)

Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV7243 .N37b) Location: Morris Library - U.S. Documents (U.S. Doc J 29.9/6:) Earlier eds. Location: Internet (http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/): An important compendium of statistics in criminal justice. The book has six sections: (1) Characteristics of the Criminal Justice System; (2) Public Attitudes Toward Crime and Criminal Justice-Related Topics; (3) Nature and Distribution of Known Offenses; (4) Characteristics and Distribution of Persons Arrested; (5) Judicial Processing of Defendants; and (6) Persons Under Correctional Supervision.

Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington: Bureau of the Census. Annual. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HA202 .A1) Latest ed. at Reference Desk Location: Morris Library - Reference (CD-ROM 215) Computer #36 Location: Morris Library - U.S. Documents (U.S. Doc Census Area, first row) Location: Internet (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/): Contains a wealth of statistics including crime statistics. This volume serves as a prime source for U.S. industrial, social, political, and economic statistics. There is a subject index to tables in the back.The original sources of each table's statistics is included in a footnote following the tables.

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR): Crime in the United States. Washington: Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Dept. of Justice. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6787 .A3) Location: Morris Library - U.S. Documents (U.S. Doc J 1.14/7:) Earlier eds. Location: Internet (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucreports.htm): Contains statistical documentation of criminal justice activity in the U.S. compiled by the FBI. Figures on law enforcement employment are also presented.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Williams, Vergil L. Dictionary of American Penology. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV9304 .W54 1996)

Encyclopedia of American Prisons. New York: Garland Pub., 1996. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV9471 .E425 1996)

Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. New York: Free Press, 1983. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6017 .E52): Articles relate the history and development of ideas and movements in all areas of criminal justice. Includes references to legal precedent and citations to statutes and cases, a guide to legal citations, a glossary, a subject index to legal documents, bibliographies, and a subject index.

Lane, Brian and Gregg, Wilfred. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. London: Headline, 1992. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6515 .L36x 1992)

Encyclopedia of Women and Crime. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6046 .E56 2000)

Nash, Jay R. Encyclopedia of World Crime: Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Law Enforcement. Wilmette, IL: CrimeBooks, 1989-90. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6017 .N377 1989): This encyclopedia contains 50,000 entries, mostly biographical, on people and events in the history of crime from ancient times to 1988.

Champion, Dean J. Roxbury Dictionary of Criminal Justice: Key Terms and Major Court Cases. Los Angeles: Roxbury Pub. Co., 1997. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV7411 .C48 1997)

Handbooks, Fact Books and Directories

Torres, Donald A. Handbook of Federal Police and Investigative Agencies. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1985. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV8138 .T67 1985)

Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV6446 .H345 1994)

National Jail and Adult Detention Directory. College Park: American Correctional Association, 2000/2001. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref HV9463 .N37)

This page is maintained by Erin Daix, Reference Department.

Last modified: 03/24/09

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