Subject Guides: Criminal Justice: Finding Scholarly Literature

Core Criminal Justice Databases

Many of these databases include a variety of sources including books, journal articles, newspapers, and conference proceedings. Always consult your syllabus and instructor to determine the source expectations for your research, and use features within the databases to find resources that meet those specifications. When in doubt about peer review, check for information on a given journal's website for publication and review standards.

Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of international journals, books, reports, and dissertations on criminology and related disciplines
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts This link opens in a new window
The NCJRS Abstracts database is produced by the U.S. Department of Justice and contains summaries of over 189,000 U.S. and international publications on research, policy, and practice related to criminal and juvenile justice and drug control. The publications covered are from 1970 to present and include federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations, and unpublished research.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Coverage is from 1952 to the present.
Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Social Services Abstracts (CSA)Citations and abstracts from over 1,800 serials as well as dissertations on social work, human services, social welfare, and social policy.
HeinOnline Law Journal Library This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive collection of full-text PDF (or text) images of major law journal articles, including back issues.
Social Science Database (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and some full text of journals and magazines in anthropology, sociology, psychology, business management, public administration, political science, criminology, and economics.

Multidisciplinary Databases

ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Multi-subject reference source covering general and academic periodicals; full-text is available for many articles.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
This scholarly database contains over 3,600 peer-reviewed publications in full-text on every subject.
JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive This link opens in a new window
Full-text of back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.
Note: Artstor content is now available in JSTOR. The Artstor site will be retired in August, 2024. Read about the transition on this information page.

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