Criminal Justice & Law

Contents for Criminal Justice And Law

Good Starting Places: Reference Books 

Reference books are a good place to start research. They can help you find background information, choose topics, and understand concepts and terminology. To access online resources from off campus you will need a your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password; host provider students may obtain a login from the instructor or librarian.

Encyclopedias & Handbooks 

Dictionaries 

To access online resources from off campus you will need a your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password; host provider students may obtain a login from the instructor or librarian.

Browse dictionaries of criminal justice and law

Finding more electronic books 

To access these books from off campus you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password. Type a word or phrase describing the subject in the search space below:

 

Finding Laws, Regulations, and Case Law

Cases

Laws and Regulations

Reference and Reviews

Patents

Tax Law

 

Finding Articles on Your Subject

All the electronic databases listed in this section may be accessed by going to the library's Database Page. If you are accessing the databases from a location other than Chemeketa Community College, remember to click the link marked, "Off-campus users."

Journal Article Databases 

These tools index and/or provide full text access to articles in magazines, newspapers, and scholarly or professional journals.

You may need to combine multiple search terms to find articles on your topic. Many databases have an Advanced Search screen that has find a form for entering multiple terms.

picture of Gale Advanced Search screen

TIP: When using keywords, try truncating: theor* finds theory, theories, theoretical, etc. (* is the truncation character for Gale).

If you find an article that meets your needs, look at its description for additional terms you can use to search.

Academic OneFile [Gale] More information about this database
A good place to start. Has journals in all disciplines.
Infotrac Criminal Justice Collection More information about this database
Indexes over 800 journals in law enforcement, criminology, security, criminal law and corrections, with full text of many.
LexisNexis Academic More information about this database
In addition to newspapers and business information, LexisNexis includes many resources for law, including cases, state and U.S. laws and codes, law review articles, legal reference, and international law resources.
NCJRS Abstracts Database
Criminal justice abstract database, including crime, juvenile justice, law enforcement, corrections, courts, etc. To limit result to journal articles, type "AND Journal" along with your search term(s). When the NCJRS server has full text of a work, a link connects the user from the abstract to the full text. Journal articles and book chapters are not included in full text. From the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

Finding Images 

You may wish to find photos or diagrams of your subject. Britannica ImageQuest is a searchable database of more than two million images. All images are rights-cleared for non-commercial, educational use. To access online resources from off campus you will need a your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password; host provider students may obtain a login from the instructor or librarian.

Try our customized search, or browse the list of sites below.

Customized Search

 



Browsing List

Resources on the Web 

Customized Search for Criminal Justice

Try our customized search, or browse the list of sites below.

For statistics, please see Useful Statistics Sites

 

Browsing List for Criminal Justice

National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Extensive sources of information on criminal and juvenile justice. NCJRS is a collection of clearinghouses supporting all bureaus of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs: the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the OJP Program Offices. It also supports the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
National Gang Center
Includes research, program information, gang related legislation by state and subject, and links to related agencies.
NCJJ: National Center for Juvenile Justice
Founded as the research division of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The Publications/Databases include many downloadable items. Most require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Sex Offender Notification – "Megan's Law."
KlaasKids Foundation site with state-by-state info on sex offender reporting laws. Also has victims' rights information, state-by-state, and information on the Amber Alert system.
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
Web version of the annual publication
Vera Institute
Includes under Resources an extensive list of criminal justice-related sites; maintained by Vera Institute, a private, non-profit organization devoted to encouraging just practices in public services.
Virtual Gumshoe
Directory of investigative resources including: sex offender notification; information on cults, gangs, terrorists, and hate groups.

Customized Search for Law and Regulations 

 

Browsing List for Law and Regulations

Copyright & Fair Use - http://fairuse.stanford.edu
Tries to clarify the term "fair use"; copyright law in the United States, and internationally.
FDsys Federal Digital System - http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
Includes links to all kinds of U.S. government documents - slip laws, CFR, Federal Register, U.S. Code. A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office.
FindLaw - http://lp.findlaw.com/
FindLaw is the most popular Web site for legal reference. The "Legal Professionals Channel" is classified by type of legal practice area and is a good place to start searching for resources.
Guía para la Naturalización - http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/M-476_Spanish.pdf
Guía para la Naturalización, la guía oficial del Servicio de Inmigración y Naturalización de los Estados Unidos. Incluye ejemplos de preguntas del examen de ciudadanía. Archivo grande de Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Idaho state legislature - http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/
 
Initiative & Referendum Institute - http://www.iandrinstitute.org
Presented by a nonprofit research organization, this site includes historical and current information on national, state, and local initiatives and referenda (I&R), and informative guides to the I&R and the recall process.
Internet Law Library - http://www.lawguru.com/ilawlib/
Originally developed and maintained courtesy of the United States House of Representatives Office of the Law Revision Counsel. The House no longer maintains this site, but has given the content to various other hosts to administer and make available to the public. Includes the unexpected - foreign laws, U.S. treaties; laws of states and territories, law school libraries & catalogs, legal directories, more!
Oregon Legislature - http://landru.leg.state.or.us
Search for bills that are being introduced in the Oregon State Legislature
Oregon.gov (Oregon Government Information) - http://www.oregon.gov/
Information on all state departments and web pages; a search engine is avaiable. To find election-related information, click on Elected Officials, then Secretary of State.
Salem, Oregon, Revised Codes - http://www.cityofsalem.net/Departments/Legal/Pages/SalemRevisedCodes.aspx
Ordinances of the city of Salem, Oregon.
Southern Poverty Law Center - http://www.splcenter.org/
Resources on civil rights and civil liberties. Topics include Legal actions in progress, Center information, Klanwatch (including militia organizations and other "hate groups"), and Teaching tolerance.
State and local government on the net - http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm
Searchable list of links to official state and local government information, including laws.
U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services - http://uscis.gov
The official U.S. Government page with information on becoming a citizen. Includes relevant laws and regulations, as well as examination questions, a practice citzenship test, and history and government guides for the exam.
U.S. Constitution on Findlaw - http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/constitution/
Text of the U.S. Constitution. The text of each article and each amendment is accompanied by notes and commentary on its legal history and significance.
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office Searches see
   Patents: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
and
   Trademarks: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
USA.gov - http://www.usa.gov/
Guide to U.S. government Web sites, with a search engine. Gobierno USA es el portal oficial del gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Incluye un motor de búsqueda a nivel federal o a nivel estatal.
Voters' Pamphlets (Oregon) http://library.state.or.us/databases/subjects/Voters_Pamphlet.php
A valuable resource for election history, and for debate on measures referred to voters, including those which subsequently became law.
Washington state legislature - http://www.leg.wa.gov/
 
 

Finding Additional Resources

See a list of printed reference books.

The library subscribes to the following current periodicals in printed form:

  • Corrections Today
  • Criminology
  • Criminology & Public Policy
  • FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin

Finding other books and and audiovisual materials 

Use the library catalog to look for additional materials

  • The catalog page includes instructions on using the catalog, as well as links to other library catalogs
  • You can search by key words, by authors, or by subject headings
  • A suggestion on where to find subject headings to use in the catalog is given below

picture of catalog screen

Fig. 1. The library catalog search

The Library of Congress has a arrow showing important tip Web site where you can search for subject headings. When you put in a search term, the results will list terms in a table. Those with a red button marked, "Authorized and references" are terms that the Library of Congress uses in subject catalogs. Clicking the button may show more specific ("narrower") terms.

You may have to do several searches in the library catalog to find books that might be pertinent to your subject. Try different combinations of key words.

If you live in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS) district, you may also access the catalog online at your local public library. In addition to the books in the Chemeketa College Library, the catalog also contains the collections of the 17 public libraries located in the regional library district. You can request books through the catalog, and can pass your search through to Summit (see below).

Summit

Chemeketa students registered for credit may use Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog, to request items from 37 member libraries in Oregon and Washington. Summit uses a search called WorldCat. Authorized users have access to all of the material in the Chemeketa Community College library, plus about 28 million items in Summit. Chemeketa users may request items using the barcode number from their ID card, and have them sent to Chemeketa, or they may set up a Visiting Patron account at another Alliance library.

To comment or request help, please e-mail Reference or call 503.399.5231.

Address of this page: http://library.chemeketa.edu/information/virtual/criminaljustice.php

Updated: 8 May 2013