Library Research Guides: * Criminal Justice/Criminology Resources: Find Sources

Finding Sources

Below you'll find a selection of resources you can use for your criminal justice/criminology research. Use the tabs to navigate to databases, streaming media, DVDs, trade publications, scholarly journals, books, and freely available Web resources.

Unsure how to begin your research? Follow the link below to access numerous tutorials to help you develop your search strategy for library resources.

Research Tips

Search Tips

Resources

Kaufman Library provides access to many databases that can help with your criminal justice/criminology research. In addition to those highlighted below, you can access our full list of databases using our Databases A-Z list (link below).

GGC Databases A-Z
Search by title and subject from over 175 databases.

Criminal Justice/Criminology Databases

Criminal Justice Database (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Criminal Justice Database is a comprehensive database supporting research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as litigation and crime trends.
Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive database of U.S.and international criminal justice journals. The database provides research support for students interested in careers in criminal justice, law enforcement, corrections administration, drug enforcement, rehabilitation, family law, and industrial security.
Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text of law-related resources such as American Jurisprudence 2d, American Law Reports, law reviews and journals, United States Codes Annotated, U.S. Supreme Court cases, federal and state cases, states statutes and regulations, Code of Federal Regulations, and the Federal Register for legal reference.
HeinOnline: Gun Regulation and Legislation in America This link opens in a new window
This collection brings together more than 500 titles dealing with this difficult and important topic. Included are periodicals, key compiled federal legislative histories, relevant congressional hearings, CRS Reports, Supreme Court briefs, and more. Links to nearly 500 scholarly articles, an extensive bibliography, and a balanced selection of external resources to further research this subject are also provided. Research the National Firearms Act, the United States v. Miller and District of Columbia v. Heller decisions, and other key aspects of this subject.
CQ Press Library This link opens in a new window
Search or browse resources on American government, current affairs, history, politics, public policy, and data analysis for the social sciences.

Multidisciplinary Databases

OmniFile Full Text Select This link opens in a new window
Full text research database that serves multiple disciplines.
GALE Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources including thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access to more than 10 million academic journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content.

Multidisciplinary Reference

Credo Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text online reference service.

Kaufman Library provides access to many trade publications and journals both individually and through our databases that can help with your criminal justice/criminology research. In addition to those highlighted below, you can access our full list of electronic journals using the link below.

Electronic journals

Criminal Justice/Criminology Trade Publications

Criminal Justice
An academic and professional journal focusing on practice and policy issues of the criminal justice system. Written for private and public defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, and law professors. This is an official publication of the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) and reports on the legislative, policy-making, and educational activities of the Section are included.
Police
The law officer's magazine.

Criminal Justice/Criminology Journals

Criminal Justice Policy Review: CJPR
Criminal Justice Policy Review (CJPR), published 9 times a year, is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal committed to the study of criminal justice policy through quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methodological approaches. CJPR serves as a bridge between academics, policymakers, and practitioners by publishing sound research that addresses important issues in crime and justice and examines the implementation and effectiveness of criminal justice policies, programs, and practices.
Criminology & Criminal Justice: CCJ
Criminology and Criminal Justice is a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the broad field of criminology and criminal justice policy and practice. The journal publishes scholarly articles on all areas of criminology, crime and criminal justice. It includes theoretical pieces, as well as empirically-based analyses of policy and practice in areas that range from policing to sentencing, community penalties and prisons; drug use to organized crime and terrorism; and from crime prevention to victims of crime.
American Journal of Criminal Justice
The American Journal of Criminal Justice is a peer reviewed publication offering research on a wide array of criminal justice topics and issues. Coverage addresses the criminal justice process, the formal and informal interplay between system components, problems and solutions experienced by various segments, innovative practices, policy development and implementation, evaluative research, the players engaged in these enterprises, and a wide assortment of other related interests. The Journal publishes original articles that utilize a broad range of methodologies and perspectives when examining crime, law, and criminal justice processing.
Journal of Criminal Justice Education: JCJE
The Journal of Criminal Justice Education (JCJE) is an official journal of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). JCJE provides a forum for the examination, discussion and debate of a broad range of issues concerning post-secondary education in criminal justice, criminology and related areas. The aim of JCJE is to enhance the quality of higher education in criminal justice and criminology. JCJE is an education-oriented journal for those undertaking educational and academic endeavors in the fields of criminal justice and criminology.
Criminal Justice Ethics
Articles focusing on ethical issues in criminal justice by philosophers, criminal justice professionals, lawyers and judges and the general public on topics relating to the police, courts, corrections and issues in legal philosophy.
Criminal Justice Review
Criminal Justice Review (CJR), peer-reviewed and published quarterly, is a scholarly journal dedicated to presenting a broad perspective on criminal justice issues within the domestic United States. CJR provides a forum for social scientists to report research findings for informed policy making with respect to crime and justice through innovative and advanced methodologies and can feature local, state, or national concerns.
Journal of Criminal Justice
The Journal of Criminal Justice is an international journal intended to fill the present need for the dissemination of new information, ideas and methods, to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area. The Journal is concerned with all aspects of the criminal justice system in terms of their relationships to each other. Although materials are presented relating to crime and the individual elements of the criminal justice system, the emphasis of the Journal is to tie together the functioning of these elements and to illustrate the effects of their interactions. Articles that reflect the application of new disciplines or analytical methodologies to the problems of criminal justice are of special interest.
Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society
The Journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society (CCJLS) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that builds on the mission of its predecessor, Western Criminology Review ( WCR ),by promoting understanding of the causes of crime; the methods used to prevent and control crime; the institutions, principles, and actors involved in the apprehension, prosecution, punishment, and reintegration of offenders; and the legal and political framework under which the justice system and its primary actors operate.
Criminal Justice and Behavior
Criminal Justice and Behavior (CJB), peer-reviewed and published monthly, promotes scholarly evaluations of assessment, classification, prevention, intervention, and treatment programs to help the correctional professional develop successful programs based on sound and informative theoretical and research foundations. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Kaufman Library provides access to many streaming media resources and DVDs that can help with your criminal justice/criminology projects and research.

Streaming Media

Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Access to more than 14,000 streaming videos: films, documentaries, and must-see movies.

Kanopy: Law & Criminal Justice Titles
A listing of over 400 law and criminal justice titles from Kanopy. Note: Viewer Discretion Advised.

Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Delivers more than 85,000 titles spanning the widest range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more.

AVON: 60 Minutes: 1997-2014
This collection of videos from AVON have criminal justice topics present.
AVON: Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video
Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video is a landmark collection that illustrates the strategies, techniques, and experiences of professionals serving on the front lines of justice and public safety. From law enforcement and corrections personnel, to first responders and victims’ advocates, this compilation of documentaries, training videos, and interviews visually depicts the theoretical principles and practical application of criminal justice and emergency response

Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Video titles in humanities, social sciences, world languages, business, economics, health, and science.

FOD: Criminal Justice & Law
A collection of almost 1500 videos about criminal justice and law. Note: Viewer Discretion Advised.

Books

Search the entire Kaufman Library collection using the link below. Once you've entered a search term, you can narrow your search by type/format of material (book, visual, etc.), creation date, location, language, and more.

Kaufman Library Catalog (GIL-Find)
Search Kaufman Library's entire collection of materials. Find books, e-Books, DVDs, streaming media, journals, databases, and more.

Library Catalog Searches of Books by Genre

The link below will take you directly to books focused on a variety of topics related to criminal justice/criminology in the Kaufman Library collection. You'll also be able to edit the search (limit by date, eBook vs. physical book, and more).

eBook Collections

You can also search our eBook collections directly instead of through the library catalog. Below are links to our eBook platforms.

EBSCOhost eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary eBook titles
Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
Ebook Central provides access to thousands of ebooks. New titles are added each year from leading publishers to help libraries build collections that meet the needs of their community of researchers.

Criminal Justice/Criminology Resources on the Web

The resources in this section are freely available on the Web.

Bureau of Justice Statistics
Part of the U.S. Department of Justice, the BJS provides publications, data collections, data analysis tools, & key facts at a glance. Includes the Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center.
CDC High School Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
Youth Online lets you analyze national, state, and local Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data from high school and middle school surveys conducted during 1991 – 2017 and Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) data from students aged 13-17 conducted during 2003 – 2015. YRBSS data can be filtered and sorted on the basis of race/ethnicity, sex, academic grade, and sexual orientation while GSHS data can be filtered and sorted on sex and age. Additionally you can filter and sort both surveys by location and year, create customized tables, maps, graphs, and perform statistical tests by location and health topic.
CrimeSolutions.gov
This Office of Justice Programs’ CrimeSolutions.gov site uses rigorous evidence-based research to determine what works in criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victim services.
Criminal Justice Information Services LINK
This is the FBI's 2019 Crime Statistics, derived from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program
Equal Justice Initiative
The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
FBI Crime Data Explorer
Maps FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program data by location. Includes API for bulk data downloads.
Indigenous Law Library
The Law Library collects and preserves legal materials for American law, foreign law, and sovereign Indigenous nations. Many governments, including Indigenous national, tribal and community governments, are transitioning from print to solely digital formats for publishing their laws. The Law Library is working to collect and preserve these materials. To further these collection and preservation aims, the Library has created the Indigenous Law Web Archive, a collection of constitutions, codes, executive orders, and court forms and information of sovereign Indigenous governments and courts of 578 federally recognized nations, communities, and tribes in the United States, as well as some Indigenous legal information from Canada, published online. The Library attempts to acquire the most comprehensive collection possible. Collected resources are embargoed for a year prior to release, and so the collection was launched this summer. It’s a useful starting point for comparative research, and we hope that this tool will assist practitioners and scholars of Indigenous law in their work.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
Sponsored by agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice, this archive provides data available for download and assistance in using the data & research and publications.
National Center for Juvenile Justice
Non-profit think tank that deals exclusively with juvenile justice. Access to downloadable publications covering issues such as juvenile courts, corrections, and probation.
Prison Policy Initiative, Research Clearinghouse
This resource contains links to 1800+ empirical criminal justice research reports. The site includes a keyword-searchable database.
U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
This Federal Government site provides information about human trafficking to include the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report.
Vera Institute of Justice
Vera's extensive resource library, built up by decades of expert research, analysis, and real-world application. Vera produces a wide variety of resources about our work, including publications, podcasts, and videos, dating from 1961 to the present.