Online Databases and Websites in Criminal Justice


Databases - scholarly material, citation only and full text
E Books - use free electronic texts when you can't find the printed book 
Federal Laws and Court Decisions
General Web Resources - selective sites with broad coverage in all aspects of criminal justice
Government Resources - local, state, federal and international; also historical texts
Law Enforcement
Massachusetts State Laws 
Specific Crimes -
Statistical Data
Web Directories - subject guides to selective and carefully chosen sites on the Web

Web Search in a Nutshell - getting started in library research

Subscription Databases Available Only to the WSC Community:

Criminal Justice Periodicals Index.  a comprehensive collection of U.S. and international criminal justice journals including information for professionals in law enforcement, corrections administration, drug enforcement, rehabilitation, family law, and industrial security. Abstract and indexing for over 230 titles, with more than 75 available in full-text.

ProQuest Social Science Journals - a definitive resource for those who need access to a variety of specialized journals in the social sciences. The database includes over 510 titles, with more than 280 available in full text. Information on hundreds of topics including addiction studies, family studies, urban studies, criminal justice and international relations. 

Lexis-Nexis  Provides full-text documents from over 5,900 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications with a variety of flexible search options. 

Sociological Abstracts - via CSA Illumina (1952-present) citations and abstracts with good coverage of criminal justice and other social issues.  

Public Affairs International.  Public affairs and worlds issues with coverage from 1972 to the present. An index to over 1/2 million articles, books, government documents, Internet sites and documents from more than 120 countries. Obviously useful for global issues in criminal justice.

Newspapers - our Web page with links to daily and searchable archives of online newspapers

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Other Web Resources - selective list of free sites

General

• Legal Research Tips - Learn about legal research from Nolo Press: definitions, statutes, federal and state links, local ordinances.
• U. S. Department of Justice - Statistics and research about fighting crime, the justice system, hot topics, and crime victims, including violence against women and family violence.
• Justice Information Center - From the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.  Links to Web sites and full-text documents of statistical data and scholarly research.  Arranged by broad subject
• World Fact Book of Criminal Justice Systems - narrative descriptions of the criminal justice systems of 45 countries
• Criminal Justice Resources - from Michigan State University. Very comprehensive with 70 categories; updated continuously.
• World Criminal Justice Library Electronic Network - maintained at Rutgers University. Links, library catalogs, statistical sources and more.
• Constitution Finder - Links to constitutions of foreign countries. Texts are usually in English.
  

Federal Laws and Court Decisions 

• US Government Links - our Web page with links to the US Constitution, US Code, Federal Register, Congressional Record, and more
• US Supreme Court Opinions -Full text of all decisions from 1893 to date. Can be searched by citation, case title, and full text
• Supreme Court Collection -From the Legal Information Institute, Cornell University. Provides full text of all US Supreme Court decisions since 1990, plus 610 of the most significant earlier decisions. Indexed by topic, date, and parties.
• United State Public Laws 1973-Present - From Thomas/Library of Congress; access to full text of Public Laws beginning with those of the 93rd Congress. Listed by law number and bill number.
  

State Laws (Massachusetts) 

• Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
• The General Laws of Massachusetts - searchable by keyword or section
• Massachusetts Legislative Tracking System  full text of bills before the current session of the Legislature, searchable by bill number or keyword
• Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Court of Appeals Opinions - from 1998 forward 

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Statistical Data

• Fed Stats - one stop shopping for Federal Statistics
• National Archive of Criminal Justice Data - From the Inter-University Consortium for Political and  Social Research, University of Michigan. A collection of data sets compiled by government agencies and individual researchers. To download data, you must be at a computer where you can copy files to a local disk.
• Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics Online - brings together data from more than 100 sources about many aspects of criminal justice in the United States. Archives go back to 1994 and the site is updated annually. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader®.
• Uniform Crime Reports - From US FBI. Data on crimes reported and cleared, persons arrested, drugs in America. Also contains "Crime in the United States", an annual publication from 1995 +
• US Bureau of Justice Statistics - Data on crime victims, criminal offenders, law enforcement personnel, prisoners, and corrections staff.
  

Law Enforcement

• Massachusetts State Police - Department's divisions, recruitment, news, crime statistics, wanted and missing persons
• Massachusetts Department of Corrections - information on the Department's programs, with a directory of statistical reports
• US Federal Bureau of Investigation - links to the Bureau's activities, history, press releases, employment opportunities, Most Wanted, and a family page.
• National Center for Women and Policing - news and research on women in law enforcement
• Security on Campus, Inc. - Newswire, research, crime statistics, law enforcement issues on the nation's campuses
  

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Specific Crimes

• Victims' Rights and Services for the 21st Century - online book from the US Department of Justice. Summary of recent advances in victims' rights
• US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention - federal program descriptions, trends, juvenile arrests, news, research reports, statistics, and state contacts
• Child Abuse, Child Welfare & Adoption - foremost  bibliographic resource on the maltreatment, safety, permanency and well-being of children.  FREE registration required
• National Youth Gang Center - Institute for Intergovernmental Research. Statistical data, legislation, descriptions of anti-gang programs, and a new FAQ section
• Correctional Boot Camps - From the US National Institute of Justice. A 314 page research report  on boot camps. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader®
• Rand Drug Policy Research Center - From the Rand Corporation. Studies on drug control policy, annual newsletter (HTML or PDF), and related links.
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - drug abuse, drug supply reduction, terrorism, human trafficking, treaties, statistics worldwide
• Counter Terrorism - from the National Security Institute. Full text of legislation; reports, facts, commentaries, precautionary advice.
• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network - US Department of the Treasury; concerning the complex crime of money laundering, both domestically and internationally
• National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect- US Dept. of Health & Human Services. Searchable database of documents, links to Web resources; legal issues, related issues, state specific information; information in Spanish also.
• Hate Crimes - National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Definitions, causes, legal aspects, enforcement, facts & figures, related resources.
  

Web Directories

There are excellent subject directories on the web. that can point you to the best online resources in specific areas of criminal justice. These human guides to the Internet are a great way to find the best of the Web, and often find sites that can't be accessed by search engines. The best ones to use for scholarly material are:

• Librarians Internet Index - Provides a well-organized point of access for reliable, trustworthy, librarian-selected Internet resources. Covers a broad range of subjects, has both a topical directory arrangement and search capabilities.
• InfoMine - Virtual library of scholarly Internet resources. Features well organized access; notable for its collection of annotated and indexed links.
• Academic Info - gateway to freely available academic resources on the web, with annotated entries. General links, related topics, in the news sections.

More subject directories on the web

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