Criminal Justice Librarian
Government Publications, Laws, & Court Cases
One easy way to find government publications on a topic is by limited to web sites with gov in their web addresses. We can do that in Google with the site:gov command:
juvenile diversion programs site:gov
Government Reports
Homeland Security Digital Library--"nation's premier tool for homeland security policy and strategy research. The collection includes homeland security strategy, policy and research documents published by: Federal, state and local government agencies; International governments and institutions; and Research institutions, universities, think tanks."
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)--" 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justice, including Federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research.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."
Laws
There are three basic types of laws: statutes, regulations, and court cases (case law).
Here are some databases with U.S. and PA laws and cases.
For citation examples, please see A Brief Guide to Legal Citations in APA Style.
🏛 Statutes
Statutes are primary legal sources. Statutes are laws enacted by Congress or the state legislatures. A collection of statutes is sometimes referred to as a code.
Federal Statutes
- U.S. Code at Findlaw.comThe U.S. Code contains the permanent laws of the United States. Please use the "Search by Keyword or Citation" box in the center of the screen (rather than the search box at the top right):
- United States Statutes at Largecontains both permanent and temporary laws passed by Congress (temporary laws might include budget allocations or the naming of a post office).
State Statutes
- FindLaw.comScroll down to the "Browse Cases and Codes" section.
- Statutes of Pennsylvania and the Constitution of Pennsylvaniafrom the Pennsylvania General Assembly
âś” Regulations
Administrative regulations are primary legal sources. Administrative regulations are laws created by an executive branch agency or department such as the EPA, ATF, FCC, or FAA.
- Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) [Government Publishing Office]find federal regulations
- Law Library at the Library of CongressFind state regulations
âš– Court Cases
Court cases (case law) are primary legal sources. Case laws are generated by the application of general laws to specific court cases.
Power Search Tip: If you are not able to find the case, try Googling your case and identifying the citation. Then, type the citation into Nexis Uni.
Law Reviews
Law reviews are secondary legal sources. They are scholarly legal journal articles that analyze the law.
Try searching the resources below for law reviews:
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowLaw reviews as well as Supreme Court opinions, U.S. Attorney General opinions, treaties and international agreements, and the Federal Register.
CJ Videos
- Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video This link opens in a new windowThe "netflix" of criminal justice! Offers training videos and documentaries.
- Kanopy Streaming Service This link opens in a new windowAnother streaming service with CJ documentaries that you won't find elsewhere.
Instruments
Instruments (surveys, tests, quizzes) can be hard to find because they are often not included in CJ articles and books. You can start by searching in PsycTests. You can also search in CJ article databases with keywords like instrument, survey, test, questionnaire, inventory.
- PsycTESTS (formerly listed as APA PsycTests®) This link opens in a new windowThe starting point for finding surveys, tests, and other types of instruments.
Statistics
- Bureau of Justice StatisticsA gold mine of CJ data, crime rates, CJ personnel, prisons, probation, and more!
- Uniform Crime ReportsU.S. data on murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft, number of arrests, hate crime, police officers killed and assaulted. Compiled by the FBI from thousands of local police departments.
- Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting SystemQuick access to PA crime stats.
- CrimeMapping.comMany Berks County police departments feed their data into this site.
Power Search Tips: You can also search for data in article databases by typing in keywords like statistics, rate, frequency, quantitative.
- Google Imagesis also a great source of data--just be sure that it comes from a credible government or university site. Type in your topic with keywords like graph, chart, figure, table to locate visual representations of data in Google Images.