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Criminology & Criminal Justice Research Guide

Criminology and criminal justice

Welcome to the Criminology & Criminal Justice Guide! Criminology is the study of how crime affects society. It delves into the socio-economic and psychological factors that foster criminal behavior. It studies how the criminal justice system operates. Finally, it details how criminals are rehabilitated.

This guide is intended to be a starting point for students taking Criminology & Criminal Justice courses by providing information on how to obtain books/e-books, peer-reviewed articles, web resources, and citing help. Please do not hesitate to ask for help if you have any questions!

Starting Your Research

The first step is to choose a topic. We recommend you consider the following:

  1. What topic are you interested in?
  2. If your topic was set by the instructor, what does your instructor want you to learn by doing the research?

Once the topic is selected, you should:

  1. Do a preliminary search for background information on the topic using a reference source, such as Credo Reference (Credo).
  2. Take note of significant people, places, events, etc. Consider why your topic is important to learn about today.
  3. Narrow your topic. Focus on the aspects that the paper will discuss.
  4. Create initial thesis statement.
  5. Search for scholarly articles (recently published academic research) that support your thesis. You can find them using library databases like Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) or JSTOR Arts & Sciences I-XV (JSTOR). 

Library Information

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