Research Guides: Forensic Science: Criminal Justice Databases and Data Sources

Criminal Justice Librarian

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Primary Criminal Justice Databases

These Criminal Justice resources available from the library may be of interest to Forensic Science researchers. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list. Please contact the subject librarian for further assistance.

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Criminal Justice (CJ) Abstracts This link opens in a new window Index with abstracts of the major scholarly journals, books, and reports in criminology and related disciplines. This is the best place to search for scholarly article citations.
Criminology Collection This link opens in a new window The Criminology Collection includes the full-text of volume one to the present for select journals published by SAGE and participating societies. Articles cover such subjects as Criminal Justice, Juvenile Delinquency, Juvenile Justice, Corrections, Penology, Policing, and Forensic Psychology.
ProQuest Criminal Justice This link opens in a new window Provides information on criminal justice topics, including corrections administration, law enforcement, social work, industrial security, drug rehabilitation, and criminal law. Contains full text of selected scholarly journals.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) This link opens in a new window The National Criminal Justice Reference Service is the research library of the Department of Justice. This database provides summaries of criminal justice publications, including Federal, State, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. Many of the publications from 1995 forward are full-text.

Primary Legal & Journal Article Databases

Legal Source This link opens in a new window Includes scholarly law journals, scholarly articles, symposia, jurisdictional surveys, court decisions, legislation, books, book reviews, and more. Covers topics such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, medical law, labor & human resource law, ethics, the environment, and more. International scope covers U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
Westlaw This link opens in a new window Westlaw provides access to cases from the courts of all 50 states and the federal courts, statutes from all 50 states and federal statutes. Contains full text of American Law Reports and numerous law reviews. This is the best place to start legal research.

Related Research Guides

Criminal Justice by Dianna Kim

CJ Statistical Sources Online

FBI Crime Data Explorer The FBI's Crime Data Explorer (CDE) aims to provide transparency, create easier access, and expand awareness of criminal, and noncriminal, law enforcement data sharing; improve accountability for law enforcement; and provide a foundation to help shape public policy with the result of a safer nation. Use the CDE to discover available data through visualizations, download data in .csv format, and other large data files.
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics brings together data from more than 100 published and unpublished sources about many aspects of criminal justice in the United States. Since 1973, the project has been located at the University at Albany, School of Criminal Justice, and compiled and managed by staff at the Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center in Albany, New York.

Statistical Abstract of the U.S. Online This link opens in a new window The ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. The online version includes monthly updates to tables, deep searching at the line-item level, powerful facets for narrowing search results, image and spreadsheet versions of all current and historical tables, along with links to provider sites.Contains statistics related to:Population -- Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Divorces -- Health and Nutrition -- Education -- Law Enforcement, Courts and Prisons -- Geography and Environment -- Elections -- State and Local Government Finances and Employment -- Federal Government Finances and Employment -- National Security and Veterans Affairs -- Social Insurance and Human Services -- Labor Force, Employment, and Earnings -- Income, Expenditures, Poverty and Wealth -- Prices, Business Enterprise -- Science and Technology -- Agriculture -- Forestry, Fishing and Mining -- Energy and Utilities -- Construction and Housing -- Manufactures -- Wholesale and Retail Trade -- Transportation -- Information and Communications -- Banking, Finance and Insurance -- Arts, Recreation and Travel -- Accommodation, Food Services and Other Services -- Foreign Commerce and Aid -- Puerto Rico and the Island Areas -- International Statistics.

Bureau of Justice Statistics All Data Analysis Tools Dynamic data analysis tool allows you to generate trend tables and figures of arrest data since 1980, including national arrest estimates and agency-level counts by offense, age, sex, and race.
Bureau of Justice Statistics A resource for information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the U.S.
National Crime Victimization Survey The Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 240,000 interviews on criminal victimization, involving 160,000 unique persons in about 95,000 households. Persons are interviewed on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The NCVS collects information on nonfatal personal crimes (i.e., rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and personal larceny) and household property crimes (i.e., burglary, motor vehicle theft, and other theft) both reported and not reported to police. Survey respondents provide information about themselves (e.g., age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, marital status, education level, and income) and whether they experienced a victimization. For each victimization incident, the NCVS collects information about the offender (e.g., age, race and Hispanic origin, sex, and victim-offender relationship), characteristics of the crime (e.g., time and place of occurrence, use of weapons, nature of injury, and economic consequences), whether the crime was reported to police, reasons the crime was or was not reported, and victim experiences with the criminal justice system.
Uniform Crime Reports from the F. B. I. A resource for law enforcement executives, students of criminal justice, researchers, members of the media, and the public at large seeking information on crime in the nation.
U.S. Sentencing Commission Research and Statistics Resources that include sentencing statistics, impact assessments, retroactivity reports, surveys, and more.
Uniform Crime Reports: Publications The UCR Program consists of four data collections: The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the Summary Reporting System (SRS), the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Program, and the Hate Crime Statistics Program. The UCR Program publishes annual reports for each of these data collections and a preliminary semiannual report of summary data each winter, as well as special compilations on cargo theft, human trafficking, and NIBRS topical studies.
Reports and Publications from the US Department of Justice Links to publications of US government agencies
Bureau of Prisons Inmate Statistics Weekly updates that provide a statistical snapshot of our inmates including age, citizenship, ethnicity, gender, offenses, safety, race, security assignments, and sentences imposed.
Bureau of Prisons Staff Statistics Weekly updates which provide insight into staff safety and diversity in the workplace.
Bureau of Prisons Population Statistics Weekly updates of the Bureau of Prisons' inmate population.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Statistics Information Access information about OJJDP research, evaluations, and statistics.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Statistical Briefing Book Easy-to-use tool for analyzing detailed statisticson juvenile population characteristics (age, gender, andrace/ethnicity) at the national, state, and county levels.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics 1985-2020 Tool developed to facilitate independent analysis of national estimates of delinquency cases processed by the nation's juvenile courts. With this application, users can perform unique analyses on the age, sex, and race of juveniles involved in these cases as well as the referral offense, the use of detention, adjudication and case disposition. Users can also view pre-formatted tables describing the demographic characteristics of youth involved in the juvenile justice system and how juvenile courts process these cases.
National Survey of Youth In Custody The National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC) is part of BJS's National Prison Rape Statistics Program, which gathers mandated data on the incidence and prevalence of sexual assault in juvenile facilities under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 as specified in PREA; P.L. 108-79. PREA requires a 10% sample of juvenile facilities to be listed by incidence of sexual assault. Data are collected directly from youth in a private setting using audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) technology with a touchscreen laptop and an audio feed to maximize inmate confidentiality and minimize literacy issues.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data Archived information and data concerning criminal justice matters.

Justice Statistics : An Extended Look at Crime in the United States 2024 by Shana Hertz Hattis (Editor) Justice Statistics: An Extended Look at Crime in the United States is a special edition of Crime in the United States. It brings together key reports that fall under this category. Topics covered include capital punishment, rape and sexual assault among college-age women, correctional populations, crime in the United States, hate crimes, probation, parole, human trafficking, and law enforcement officers killed and assaulted. Tables in this volume provide a comprehensive account of each of these subjects. Each section contains statistical tables and figures highlighting the data, as well as a brief summary of the report's methodology and at-a-glance highlights of the most compelling information. This completely updated volume providesvaluableinformation compiled by the Department of Justice, including its subsidiaries, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
ISBN: 9798892050418