Library Guides: CRIMJ 408: Police Administration: Finding Information

Searching Tips

You are not limited to the resources named in this guide -- if you find relevant scholarly articles through other sources, you are welcome to explore them.

The resources presented here are meant to give you an introduction to the University Libraries' holdings and guide you through the initial steps of searching. This is not an exhaustive list of the resources available.

If you are struggling to find sources, please contact a librarian.

Library Databases

Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts of articles from the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, as well as books and reports from government and nongovernmental agencies.
Provides abstracts of articles from the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, as well as books and reports from government and nongovernmental agencies. For each document, an informative summary of the findings, methodology, and conclusions is provided. Topics include crime trends, prevention projects, corrections, juvenile delinquency, police, courts, offenders, victims, and sentencing.
ProQuest Social Sciences Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a number of social sciences publications that cover a wide range of topics, including criminal justice.
Criminology - Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology is a much-needed online guide to the essential literature across the various subfields of criminology. It combines the best features of a high-level encyclopedia and a traditional bibliography in a style tailored to meet the needs of today’s online researchers. Each article, written and reviewed by top scholars in the field, is rich with citations and annotations, expert recommendations, and narrative pathways to the most important works for virtually all areas of criminology.
"Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology is a much-needed online guide to the essential literature across the various subfields of criminology. It combines the best features of a high-level encyclopedia and a traditional bibliography in a style tailored to meet the needs of today’s online researchers. Each article, written and reviewed by top scholars in the field, is rich with citations and annotations, expert recommendations, and narrative pathways to the most important works for virtually all areas of criminology."
ProQuest - U.S. Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Current U.S. news content going back to the 1980s. It features top newspapers, wires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, and news sites in full-text format. US Newsstream provides key national and regional news sources from the U.S. and includes exclusive and preferred access to top titles, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and Chicago Tribune.
US Newsstream enables users to search current U.S. news content going back to the 1980s. It features top newspapers, wires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, and news sites in full-text format. US Newsstream provides key national and regional news sources from the U.S. and includes exclusive and preferred access to top titles, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and Chicago Tribune. All titles are cross searchable on the ProQuest platform.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts This link opens in a new window
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 150,000 publications on criminal justice, including Federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. Subject areas include corrections, courts, drugs and crime, law enforcement, juvenile justice, crime statistics, and victims of crime.
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 150,000 publications on criminal justice, including Federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. Subject areas include corrections, courts, drugs and crime, law enforcement, juvenile justice, crime statistics, and victims of crime. Coverage: The time period covered is from the early 1970's to the present.
Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies This link opens in a new window
This curated video database provides a rare breadth of study for students to investigate both crucial global trends in mass incarceration, and the detailed prison infrastructure of specific countries. Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies is organized around a selection of key historical and contemporary events and themes, bringing together archival and reference materials, court cases, first-hand accounts, videos, Supreme Court audio files, research on rehabilitation, training materials and artistic works.
"This curated database provides a rare breadth of study for students to investigate both crucial global trends in mass incarceration, and the detailed prison infrastructure of specific countries. Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies is organized around a selection of key historical and contemporary events and themes, bringing together archival and reference materials, court cases, first-hand accounts, videos, Supreme Court audio files, research on rehabilitation, training materials and artistic works."
Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video This link opens in a new window
Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video includes hundreds of hours of video for professionals and students in criminal justice and public safety. Documentaries and interviews provide personal field experiences as well as insight into the function and controversies of the justice system. Students will benefit from invaluable training videos that demonstrate how to respond to potentially-dangerous situations, all from the safety of the classroom.
Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video includes hundreds of hours of video for professionals and students in criminal justice and public safety. Documentaries and interviews provide personal field experiences as well as insight into the function and controversies of the justice system. Students will benefit from invaluable training videos that demonstrate how to respond to potentially-dangerous situations, all from the safety of the classroom. Featuring titles by In the Line of Duty, BBC, and A&E Television, Criminal Justice & Public Safety in Video provides an authoritative resource for both students and experts.

LionSearch

LionSearch This link opens in a new window
an integrated search of books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.

If you are beginning your research and are unsure of where to find information, you may want to start with LionSearch, available on the University Libraries homepage. A capture of the LionSearch box is displayed below.

Type in your keywords and LionSearch will help you find books and articles available through the Libraries on your topic. You can also use the resources you find as starting points for new keywords and journals for further research.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Once you set your institutional preferences, links to full-text, if available at Penn State, should appear.

Journals of Interest

You can access the journals below directly through these links. To access other journals, use the library website to browse or search the full list of journals by title from the main page.

Criminology
This is a peer-reviewed publication of the American Society of Criminology and is considered a top journal in the field.
Criminology and Criminal Justice
A peer-reviewed journal focusing on a broad range of topics in criminal justice and criminology including policing and other issues.
Justice Quarterly
A peer-reviewed publication of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Articles focus on a broad range of criminal justice topics, including policing issues.
Journal of Criminal Justice
A peer-reviewed journal focusing on theory and practice in the criminal justice field.
Policing and Society
A peer-reviewed journal focused on policing and police institutions.

Is this journal peer reviewed?

Ulrich'sWeb (PSU access will expire on December 31, 2023.) This link opens in a new window
A database of publication information, including peer-review status.
Ulrichsweb.com provides data on over a quarter-million serials titles (magazines, newspapers, newsletters, journals, etc...) produced around the world. Information typically provided includes: status (active/inactive),subscription price, publisher information, frequency of publication, ISSN, whether the publication is refereed, and which indexes cover the title. In some cases circulation and advertising data, tables of contents, and links to online materials are provided. Includes reviews from the publication Magazines for Libraries.