General (online) resources for J140
Finding books
Finding articles
Crime (and other) statistics
Selected reference sources
Research assistance and consultation
 

General (Online) Resources for J140

National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS): Information clearinghouse on all aspects of the criminal justice system. Full-text government reports back to 1995. This site also houses a free version of the NCJRS Abstracts Database, a source for finding articles, reports and other criminal justice publications.
http://www.ncjrs.org

Library Subject Guide for Criminology, Law & Society
http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/subject/crim.html

UCI Libraries Tutorials: Tips on finding books, articles, and government information in general.
http://tutorial.lib.uci.edu

Dr. Joan Petersilia's Publications & Links
http://www.seweb.uci.edu/users/joan/publications.html

Connecting to library databases from home: information and instructions
http://www.lib.uci.edu/services/how/connect.html
 

Finding Books: ANTPAC & Melvyl

To find books, start with ANTPAC, which is the most up-to-date source on UCI holdings only. To find more books, try Melvyl, the combined library catalog for all University of California campuses. For items not owned by UCI, you can use Melvyl Request to order them via Interlibrary Loan.

Start your search by keyword, e.g. probation and california
Note: * is a placeholder for any missing letters, so probation* will capture both probation and probationer

Pay attention to the subject headings of relevant items -- they will lead you to additional items.

For example, selective subject headings in ANTPAC and Melvyl include:

probation - United States
criminals - rehabilitation - United States
alternatives to imprisonment - United States
criminal statistics - california

Getting there:
Library Homepage (http://www.lib.uci.edu/) --> Article Databases (http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/databases.html)
 

ARTICLE DATABASE	SEARCH TIPS
Expanded Academic ASAP: multidisciplinary database, with some coverage of criminology journals.	Use the Advanced Search mode to combine keywords Limit to "Refereed Publications" for academic/scholarly journals only Print/save to disk/e-mail articles or citations If the full-text article is not included in the database, use UCeLinks or ANTPAC to look up the journal title.
NCJRS*: devoted to criminal justice content, includes a large proportion of state, local and federal government reports in additional to journals	Available free on the web at http://AbstractsDB.ncjrs.org/content/AbstractsDB_Search.aspand through the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) interface. For the CSA version: Use the Advanced Search mode to combine keywords Limit to "journal articles only" Analyze and use descriptors from the article summaries you are interested in -- add these terms to your search and refine Print/save to disk/e-mail citations and summaries To get the full article, use UCeLinks or ANTPAC to look up the journal title For the free version, see this online tutorial
Sociological Abstracts*: Sociology and related disciplines, with very good coverage of criminology journals	Use the Advanced Search mode to combine keywords Limit to "journal articles only" Analyze and use descriptors from the article summaries you are interested in -- add these terms to your search and refine Print/save to disk/e-mail citations and summaries To get the full article, use UCeLinks or ANTPAC to look up the journal title
Web of Science: Social Science Citation index is multidisciplinary, covering the core journals in each discipline	Select "full search" of the Social Sciences Citation Index only Select date range and choose general search Do a topic search with your keywords Use "find related records" to find similar articles on your topic To get the full article, use UCeLinks or ANTPAC to look up the journal title
PsycINFO: Good database for all aspects of psychology and social behavior	Use the Advanced Search mode to combine keywords Limit to "journal articles only" Analyze and use descriptors from the article summaries you are interested in -- add these terms to your search and refine Print/save to disk/e-mail citations and summaries To get the full article, use UCeLinks or ANTPAC to look up the journal title
PAIS International*: journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more	same as above

* NCJRS, PsycINFO, PAIS, and Sociological Abstracts can all be search simultaneously through the CSA interface by choosing "Change Subject" and then "Social Sciences." However -- each database uses a different, specialized vocabulary in the descriptor field. Searching them simultaneously by keyword will give you a good idea where the literature is clustered. But you will be able to do more powerful searching in the databases individually, by paying attention to the words used in the descriptor field, and refining your keyword searches accordingly.

Finding newspaper articles: See "News and Newspapers" on the UCI Libraries Homepage
http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/news.html
 

Crime (and other) statistics

Crime statistics section of Criminology Subject Guide
http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/subject/crim.html#crime

California Department of Corrections: Reports and Statistics (includes demographic information on three strike population)
http://www.cdc.state.ca.us/CDC/rep_stats.asp

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Criminal justice statistical reports and publications. Some data available for downloading into Excel spreadsheet format.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs

Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe: Available from UCI computers (or via proxy server). Wealth of statistical data from government and private sources.
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/statuniv

California Statistical Abstract and Demographic Research Unit:
http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/FS_DATA/stat-abs/toc.htm
 

Selected material from the Langson Library Reference Collection: good for background information

Criminal justice information : how to find it, how to use it / by Dennis C. Benamati ... [et al.]
Phoenix, Ariz. : Oryx Press, 1998
Langson Lib. Reference:  HV7419.5 .C75 1998

Encyclopedia of crime and punishment / David Levinson, editor
Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, c2002
Langson Lib. Reference: HV6017 .E524 2002 (4 vol.)

American prisons : an annotated bibliography / compiled by Elizabeth Huffmaster McConnell and Laura J. Moriarty
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1998
Langson Lib. Reference: HV9471 .M36 1998

Encyclopedia of American prisons / editors, Marilyn D. McShane, Frank P. Williams III
New York : Garland Pub., 1996
Langson Lib. Reference: HV9471 .E425 1996
 

Library research assistance and consultation

You have many options for getting research assistance from the UCI Libraries. You can:

• Call or visit the Reference Desk at the Main Library (949) 824-4976 (during certain weeks of the quarter, you can sign-up for a 30 minute research consultation appointment) Hint: Bring this handout with you to the Reference Desk!
• Use Ask a Librarian EMAIL or LIVE
• Follow up with Judy Ruttenberg directly (contact info above)