Some Recent Faculty Publications

W. S. Lofquist and Harmon, T. R. (2008). Fatal Errors: Compelling Claims of Executions of the Innocent in the Post-Furman Era. In Ronald C. Huff and Martin Killias (eds.) Wrongful Conviction: International Perspectives on Miscarriages of Justice. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, pp. 93-115.

Harmon, T.R. (2008). Themes of Wrongful Executions in the Post-Furman Era April 2008. In Robert M. Bohm, (ed.) The Death Penalty Today. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, pp. 61-80.

Roscoe, T., Duffee, D., Rivera, C., and Smith, T. (2007). Arming probation officers: Correlates of the decision to arm at the departmental level. Criminal Justice Studies, 20(1), 43-63.

Timothy O. Ireland, Terence P. Thornberry and Rolf Loeber (2006). Residential Stability Among Adolescents in Public Housing: A Risk Factor for Delinquent and Violent Behaviour? In John Flint (ed). Housing, Urban Governance and Anti-social Behavior: Perspectives, Policy and Practice. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press.

Kevin D. Blair and David B. Taylor (2006). Examining the Lives and Needs of Child-Only Recipient Kinship Caregivers: Heroes Stepping Up to Help Children. Journal of Family Social Work, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 1-24.

Richard Spano, Craig Rivera and John Bolland (2006). The Impact of Timing of Exposure to Violence on Violent Behavior in a High Poverty Sample of Inner City African American Youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol. 35, no. 5, p. 681-692.

Carolyn A. Smith and Timothy O. Ireland (2005) Developmental Consequences of Maltreatment Among Young Women in the Rochester Youth Development Study. Criminologie, 38: 67-102.


Niagara University Library
Guide to Criminal Justice Research

 
Need Help?

Contact the Library subject specialist for criminal justice:

David Schoen
716-286-8002
schoen@niagara.edu


Finding Journal Articles

Start with:

Academic Search Complete via EBSCOhost
This database helps you find articles in the leading criminal justice journals and provides access to psychology and sociology journals.

Tip: It's usually a good idea to search a multidisciplinary database like Academic Search Complete before you search a specialized database like Criminal Justice Abstracts (CJA). Why? Academic Search Complete is slightly more up to date, and while it doesn't include as many criminal justice journals as CJA, it will provide access to the most recent issues of the leading criminal justice journals quicker than CJA because it is updated weekly.

Then, if you need to be more comprehensive, proceed to the following:

Criminal Justice Abstracts
This database helps you find journal articles, books and reports in criminal justice and related disciplines. For each reference, a summary of the findings, methodology, and conclusions is provided. The database is updated quarterly and extends as far back as 1968.

NCJRS Databases
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) provides access to the full text of more than 1,500 criminal justice reports as well as a bibliographic database that contains summaries of more than 160,000 publications on criminal justice, including federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research.

The databases listed above cover the criminal justice literature quite well. However, there are some other useful databases:

PsycINFO via EBSCOhost
This database covers the field of psychology but offers surprisingly good coverage of criminal justice.
ABI-Inform via ProQuest
If your topic relates to business (for example, white collar crime, fraud, shoplifting), then try searching this database. It covers business and management journals, and provides a lot of full text.
Lexis/Nexis
If your topic somehow relates to courts or the judicial process, then search the full-text law reviews available via these two databases.

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Finding Books

Criminal justice research is typically disseminated through journal articles and government reports, which can be located through Criminal Justice Abstracts and the NCJRS Database described above.

Books can still be an important component of your research. Just remember to look at the publication dates and note that journal articles may give you more recent research.

Use Niagara University's Library Catalog to locate books owned by the Library. If you want to search for books owned by other libraries, too, then try searching WorldCat, a catalog that contains references to more than 57 million items owned by 9,000 libraries worldwide. Don't worry - if you need a book owned by another library, you can request it. To learn how, jump to the section called Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own.

Tip: One thing to note when searching for books is that they are usually not as specific as articles, so construct your search in a more general way than you would for an article search. So, let's say that you were doing research on community policing as a method of crime prevention--your best bet would be to search for books about community policing and pick out book titles that may look relevant.

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Finding Facts, Statistics and Web Sites

The Library has a number of excellent reference books that provide overviews of various criminal justice topics. For example:

  • Encyclopedia of Criminology
  • Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
  • Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities
  • World Police Encyclopedia

These and other titles are located in the Reference Collection on the first floor across from the Reference Desk near call number Ref HV 6017.

Tip: Reference books can also help you locate keywords to help you perform better searches. For example, suppose you are doing a paper on Miranda rights. If you take a few minutes to look in a criminal justice encyclopedia, you will learn more about the topic and find keywords like due process, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment, self-incrimination and double jeopardy. Knowing more background information and keywords will help you do better and more comprehensive research.

If you need to read laws, regulations or court cases, use Westlaw Campus or Lexis/Nexis.

Tip: Westlaw Campus is easier to use than Lexis/Nexis, but be aware that legal research can be tough. If you need help, please feel free to contact the subject specialist identified at the top of this page.

The World Wide Web is a great place to find statistical data. Try these sites:

If you are looking for specific information on the World Wide Web, visit a search engine like Google and type your keywords in.

If you would like to browse directories of criminal justice web sites, try these:

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Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own

If you need an article or a book that NU Library does not own, you can make use of Interlibrary Loan to obtain it.

Tip: In a hurry? If the article or book you need is owned by another library in Western New York, you can visit that library and use their resources on site (view a list of Western New York library web sites).

Please note: If you wish to borrow a book from another Western New York library, you can get an Infopass Card at the Reference Desk.

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How to Cite Your Sources

The Criminal Justice Department uses the citation style found in Criminology, the leading journal in the field.

There is a page on the publisher's web site that provides guidance to authors wishing to submit articles for publication.

Although you probably are not submitting an article for publication, this page provides information on how to cite:

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/submit.asp?ref=0011-1384&site=1

Even more useful is a link to a sample issue that you can read to see how others cite in this style.

Tip: Please talk to your professor if you have questions about how to cite your sources.

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