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Reference and Circulating Materials
Government Documents
Journals & Other Periodicals
Databases
Selected Internet Resources
Job Search
Writing Your Paper and Citing Your Research
The Marvin K. Peterson Library has a wide array of resources for research in Criminal Justice. This guide presents a selection of useful resources, both ours and the Internet sources we list. Use our catalog to find more resources, and search the Internet -- carefully and critically -- for additional websites. In addition to this specific guide on Criminal Justice, we also have other guides that may prove useful, such as Law (Connecticut and Federal) and Forensic Sciences.
You can find this and all Library Guides on the library's home page.
[Note: This online guide contains direct links to databases and websites. To locate any of the sites listed if you have printed out this guide, simply type in the name of the organization in Google or another search engine to find a link to the site.]
Go directly to the Peterson Library home page or start at the UNH website and click on Library down on the left. There are several important links on the left side of our home page, including the following:
Use the library catalog to find circulating and reference materials, including books, audio-visual holdings, and government documents. Our catalog uses the Library of Congress (LC) classification system and subject headings. LC assigns call numbers (letters and numerals) according to the book's primary subject. The H call numbers encompass many of the social sciences, with criminal justice represented in the HV section. You will find legal volumes in the J and KF sections.
Some subject terms to search by: Corrections; Criminal Behavior; Criminal Courts--United States; Criminal Justice, Administration of; Criminal Psychology; Criminology; Criminal Law; Juvenile Justice, Administration of; Police; Prisons; Serial Murder; Serial Murderers.
Quick search tips:
♦Truncate with "?": criminol? will get criminologists, criminology, etc.
♦Put phrases in " ": "Serial Murderers"
♦Sort results by Publish date descending to get newest items at the top of the list.
♦Click on the Bibliographic tab to determine the LC subject headings for an item and then click on those headings as links to additional material with the same subject.
♦Always click on any Linked Resources (often included in the record) to check for electronic access for single items or supplementary materials.
For more search tips, consult the library guide on Using the UNH Library Catalog.
UNH students, faculty and staff can use our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service for materials we do not own. ILL request forms for books and articles are available at the library Information Desk and online from the library's website. You should complete a separate ILL request form for each item requested. Incorrect or incomplete information (such as abbreviations or lack of a publication date) will slow down receipt of material. For more information on Interlibrary Loan, click here.
Reference and Circulating Materials
Reference materials, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries and statistical compilations are a good place to start research. They are kept in the reference stacks on the library's entry level and can be used in the library. Circulating materials are shelved in open stacks on the second and third levels of the library and may be borrowed. The following is a sample of the books available. "Ref." before the call number means that the book is kept in the Reference stacks.
The Marvin K. Peterson Library has been a Federal Depository Library since 1971. Government documents have been listed in our online catalog since 2000, and many publications are available online from the catalog. Click on the Linked Resources tab at the top of the catalog record screen to get to the live link to the publication.
For documents received before 2000, use other online and print indexes. You may also consult our Finding Government Documents,
Journals and other Periodicals
The Journals link on the library home page is a listing of most of the periodical titles, current and historical, to which you have access through the library. It includes print, microform and electronic periodicals.
♦♦How to find:
♦Single journals or articles: If you have the citation to an article, type the title of the journal into the top search box. Results will show which databases contain the journal electronically and give you a list of available issues to search through. Available UNH Library Holdings are also given to enable you to find and/or copy the article in the library. Current and older issues of most of our print periodicals, now interfiled in a single alphabetical arrangement, are on the lower level. Ask for current newspapers and microform holdings at the Circulation Desk.
♦Lists of journals by keyword or subject: Use the top search option, with the drop-down box set to Title contains all words and search with title keywords (e.g., crime, criminal, etc.). You can also use the lower drop-down search box and select subjects like Law, Politics & Government or Social Sciences and the listed subcategories. These methods allow you to identify periodicals in a field and browse current issues of these periodicals, either online or in the library.
♦If you need a list of articles on a subject, use the Databases (section below). For more on searching for periodical articles, consult our library guide on Finding Articles.
The most efficient way to find articles by subject is to use an index that searches the contents of many journals at one time. Increasingly, electronic indexes offer the full text of the article as well as the citation and abstract. In addition, our Serials Solutions journal-linking service will frequently offer you Find full text-type links to other databases or tell you the availability of periodicals in the library.
Enter your 16-digit UNH ID number when requested. Select databases by title or provider, or use the Subject List. Use the Annotated List of Electronic Resources on the library home page for search tips, publications included, user's guides, tutorials, and links for each database.
Some government-produced databases have universal free access.
Following is a list of some specialized and multidisciplinary databases useful to criminal justice students:
♦♦Criminal Justice/National Security:
♦Criminal Justice Periodicals provides citations, abstracts and some full-text articles.
♦Criminal Justice Abstracts provides indexing and abstracts for journals, books, dissertations, reports, and other documents on the topic of criminal justice and criminology.
♦Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security from E-Books for Colleges by Gale Virtual Reference Library via iCONN (scroll to title). "A guide to the history, uses, related scientific principles and technology of espionage and intelligence"--vendor description from the iCONN website.
♦Homeland Security Digital Library. The HSDL provides access to U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national security documents, as well as theses and reports from academic institutions and local and state organizations. If you click on Browse Topics, you will find the topic of Law and Justice and the sub-topics of Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement.
♦PsycARTICLES contains the full text of APA (American Psychological Association) journals back to the 1980s.
♦The Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection contains much full text with some citations and abstracts from non-APA journals back to the 1970s.
♦PsycINFO provides citations with abstracts to psychological literature from 1887 to the present. No full text, but a citation in this database will link to the full text, if available, in either PsycARTICLES or the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, so a search in this database amounts to a search in all three.
♦♦Legal:
♦HeinOnline. Full text back to the late 1800s of many top national and international legal journals as well as the Federal Register from its inception in 1936 up to the 1990s. (Federal Register is available online from GPO Access from 1994 onwards.) Also includes the U.S. Reports from 1754-2001.
♦LegalTrac. An index of more than 1,400 titles including law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals. LegalTrac also contains law-related articles from over 1,000 additional business and general interest titles.
♦Campus Research by WestLaw provides access to news and legal information. Use the Law tab case research and legal publications.
♦♦Multidisciplinary:
♦ABI/Inform, which includes ABI/Inform Global, Trade & Industry, and Dateline, provides business and economic news nationally and internationally, back to the 1970s. Citations, abstracts and some full text, including the full text of the Wall Street Journal back to 1984. Useful for business crime and crime prevention.
♦Academic OneFile. Source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources. Contains extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects. Millions of articles are available in both PDF and HTML full-text. Database includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995.
♦Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress). Peer-reviewed journals, working papers and other scholarly information offered for free downloading by the authors themselves. Includes law journals.
♦FirstSearch provides access to many databases such as Dissertations from North America and Europe, AltPress Index and more. Available in the library only. Ask at the Information Desk for password, if needed.
♦GPOAccess. The Government Printing Office site provides access to government publications and indexes.
♦General OneFile is a comprehensive periodical resource that puts more than 39 million database records at researchers' fingertips. More than 9,200 titles and coverage back to 1980--from mainstream and specialized sources.
♦ProQuest Historical Newspapers offers full text, searchable images of Hartford Courant (1764-1922), Los Angeles Times (1881-1985), and New York Times, (1851-2003). Later coverage of these newspapers is provided by ProQuest Newspapers. Note that you cannot search the historical and current newspaper collections together, so check the dates before you begin your search.
♦Associations:
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
American Society of Criminology
National Center for State Courts
National Criminal Justice Association
♦Criminal Justice Statistics:
FedStats provides links to Federal Government statistics. The link to the Bureau of Justice Statistics is under B for Bureau, or search for Agencies by topic.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data includes datasets.
Rutgers' World Criminal Justice Library Network's annotated links to sources of international statistics.
USDOE (U.S. Department of Education) Office of Postsecondary Education Campus Security Statistics provides statistics on campus crime.
♦Federal & State Government Agencies:
The Connecticut State Library page provides guides and links to web reference resources on all topics. The direct link to CSL Research Sources includes links to information on Capital Punishment and more.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
GPOAccess. The Government Printing Office home page provides access to the full text of the US Code, Federal Register, public and private laws and other resources.
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) includes a database of citations and full text publications in this area. We may have some of the publications in our library, or available via Interlibrary loan.
The State of Connecticut's site provides a search box and links to the Department of Children and Families, the Judicial Branch, and Department of Correction.
The CT Judicial Branch site links to the Office of Victim Services.
U.S. Department of the Treasury has information on law enforcement and organized crime.
USA.gov. The U.S. Government's official Web Portal, the gateway to Federal and State government resources on the Internet.
♦International:
Rutgers' annotated list of links from the World Criminal Justice Library Network
United Nation's Crime & Justice Information Network
♦Non-Governmental Agencies & Resources:
ACLU (American Civil liberties Union) Freedom Network
Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing reliance on incarceration.
CopNet provides a guide to law enforcement and justice resources.
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
Criminal Justice Research Center. This site is sponsored by Ohio State University and includes historical violence data.
The Nathanson Center for the study of Organized Crime and Corruption of York University, Toronto, Canada. A database of citations and links to other sites.
The Rand Corporation researches public policy issues. Their site includes a Public Safety and Justice page and an Institute for Civil Justice.
Social Explorer provides demographic information in an easily understood format: data maps.
The Career Services Center in Maxcy 205 offers assistance with the job search process and résumés.
A good place to look for online job postings is the web site of a large public library. Try the New Haven Free Public Library's set of job-related links or the New York Public Library's job page.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook outlines working opportunities for criminal investigators and those in related occupations.
Writing Your Paper and Citing Your Research
The Library produces guides to several citation styles, and our Style Guides includes links to additional online guides. The staff of the Center for Learning Resources (Maxcy Hall, Room 108) will help students write papers and formulate bibliographies.
Any Questions? Ask at the Information Desk, call us at (203) 932-7189, or e-mail us.
rev cas 9/08