Finding Journal Articles on a Topic
Checking the Complete List of Journals Available at Albright
Finding Reference Sources
Finding Popular Books and AV Materials
Finding Quality Internet Sites
REMOTE USERS NOTE: Students, faculty and staff accessing these databases from home or off site must log into the remote list of databases. You will need a current college ID card for obtaining access. Anyone with problems accessing these databases should call 610-921-7211 or email libraryref@alb.edu for assistance.
The most popular databases with criminology information are listed below. You can read more information on each database and review the online help options for each database by going to our Complete List of Library Databases. Once you find the sources you need, you can see if we own that particular magazine, journal or newspaper by checking a full listing of the serial items that the college can access in print (in the Library) or by reading online.
- Index to Legal Periodicals (ILP), available via WilsonWeb, covers all areas of law including domestic relations, drug law, minorities, and international law.
- JSTOR, a pdf archive of journal articles in various subject areas. Because it is an "archive," there are no current articles.
- Lexis Nexis Legal Research and Lexis Nexis News, available via Lexis Nexis Universe, provide fulltext of legal news, cases, and newspaper coverage.
- PsycINFO, available via Ebsco, covers all areas of psychology and is particularly useful in the areas of victimization, juvenile delinquency, domestic violence, and deviant behaviors.
- Social Science Index, available via WilsonWeb, indexes articles from English-language periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere. Coverage includes criminology, corrections, criminal justice, law and juvenile delinquency.
- ScienceDirect College Edition provides access to over 350 fulltext peer-reviewed journals in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.
- SocINDEX with Full Text contains full text for nearly 400 core sociology research journals dating back to 1908, and 150 priority coverage journals. This database also includes full text for more than 720 books and monographs, and full text for 6,743 conference papers.
Other useful databases include:
- Alternative Press Index (AltPressIndex), available via FirstSearch, indexes nearly 300 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines in journals covering cultural, economic, political & social change
- ProQuest Research Library, available via ProQuest, covers a broad range of academic topics, including the social sciences.
Check our list of online and print journals to determine which titles you can access in the library and online. If you cannot find the article you need, request it via interlibrary loan.
Reference sources provide solid background information on a topic or provide a quick and easy access to sources with factual information. You will want to consult them when you either want to get a good background on a topic (e.g., an encyclopedia entry), to find a quick fact or definition (e.g., dictionary or almanac), or to locate statistics. The reference sources listed here may be in print or online format. Online database sources with a double asterisk, must be logged into as a remote user -- see instructions below.
REMOTE USERS NOTE: Students, faculty and staff accessing any starred databases from home or off site must log into the remote list of databases. You will need a current college ID card for obtaining access. Anyone with problems accessing these databases should call 610-921-7211 or email libraryref@alb.edu for assistance.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available online, the site is maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its mission is to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
- Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior [Ref 364.03 E58 2001] 4 vols.
- Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice [Ref 364 E562 2002] 4 vols.
- Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment [Ref 364.03 E58L 2002] 4 vols.
- Uniform Crime Reports. This site includes publications of statistics collected from nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. A print copy of some statistics is available in the library at [Ref 364 U58Fu].
To find books and AV materials at Albright, check our Online Public Access Catalog (a.k.a. OPAC)
Need some help in using the OPAC? Try scanning our online OPAC instruction guide. If you cannot locate what you need in the OPAC, try these other catalogs to find materials in other libraries, which can be interlibrary loaned.
Some popular books and AV materials used in criminology classes are:
- The Bullet or the Bribe : Taking Down Colombia's Cali Drug Cartel [364.1 C519b 2003]
- Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Sourcebook [362.82 D668H 2000]
- Tony Soprano's America : The Criminal Side of the American Dream [361.1 S594t 2002]
- The True Story of Killing Pablo [Video 363.45 T866]
There are many Internet gateways and high quality resources that provide high quality criminology information. Some of the ones we recommend are:
FBI Home page
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin
Internet Resources for Criminal Justice (University of Delaware) provides a comprehensive list of useful criminal justice links.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, a federally funded resource offering justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide.
