CRIJ 4348 (Dr. Price): Ethics and the Justice System
Purpose: To acquaint you with materials in Cornette Library, in the databases, and on the World Wide Web that will make research for your paper on ethics more efficient.
Source Evaluation
All information sources, print, electronic, and personal, should be evaluated for credibility before use. The ultimate use of the information should guide the rigor of the evaluation process.
General Evaluation Guidelines
- Authority
- Consider the qualifications (education, training, work experience, etc.) of the author/organization, other works they've authored, who links to or cites them.
- Specificity/Relevance
- Determine if the source is focused correctly, and what portion of your research question it addresses.
- Audience
- Consider age, education, interest level of those for whom the piece is written.
- Accuracy
- Are "facts" correct and verifiable? Does the information match that found in other reputable sources? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
- Currency
- Look for publication/creation date. Does internal material reflect the "created" date? Remember that scholarly books take longer to get published than scholarly articles.
- Objectivity
- Does the author present only one side of an argument?
Further details and examples show on Cornette Library's Evaluating Your Sources page.
Scholarly Journals
One way to speed the evaluation process is to look for publications (print, database and online) which are scholarly. Several general guidelines help with this determination:
- Physical appearance
- Scholarly sources tend to use graphs and charts for illustration, more black and white, fewer ads, etc.
- Content
- Scholarly sources intended for experts, professionals in the field.
- Authors
- Scholarly authors are always identified. Education and affiliation often indicated, sometimes also publication record.
- Sourcing
- Scholarly writing always shows were information is obtained. May be identified as Bibliography, Reference List, Works Cited, footnotes, or endnotes.
- Review Process
- Scholarly writing is, at minimum, reviewed by editor with some expertise in the field. Peer-reviewed journals submit all content to a panel of experts in the field for blind review.
- Audience
- Scholarly writing is intended for other experts in the field, as opposed to the general or hobbyist audience for newsmagazines.
- Government documents
- Not normally considered scholarly (not research based), but ARE considered reliable sources for statistics, demographic information. May be print or online.
Further detail and examples provided on Cornette Library's Journals vs. Magazines web page.
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Reference Sources
- Excellent place to start research.
- Provide background information, not typically cited in upper division/graduate work.
- Include basic information sources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, chronologies, and research guides.
Subject Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
- Provide in-depth, scholarly articles, focused on a specific subject or discipline. Often include bibliographies.
- Dictionary of American Criminal Justice: Key Terms and Major Supreme Court Cases
- HV 7411 .C48 2005 Ref.
- Brief definitions of terms in use. Also summarizes Supreme Court cases, indexes by topic.
- Encyclopedia of American Prisons
- HV9471 .S54 2003 Ref.
- Includes coverage of capital punishment and violence in prisons. Bibliography for the volume.
- Encyclopedia of Crime & Justice
- HV 6017 .E52 2002 Ref.
- Provides historical perspective, pro/con, and legal status. Includes domestic violence, crime causation, etc. Bibliographies.
- Encyclopedia of Prisons & Correctional Facilities
- HV9471 .E693 2005 Ref.
- Covered topics include corporal punishment, drug treatment, racism, rehabilitation, and more. Also profiles Bureau of Prison facilities by state. Bibliographies.
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Books
- Cornette Library's Online Catalog
- Includes books, government documents, videos, journals, etc. available throughout the Library. Suggested searches include:
- A keyword search for your subject, such as police use of force,
- The general LC subject heading police brutality, and
- The LC subject heading for a specific time and place such as police ethics United States
To determine the most appropriate subject headings for your search, refer to the red Library of Congress Subject Headings near the Reference computers in the Library or search the online Library of Congress Authorities Catalog.
- WorldCat
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- Online catalog for libraries around the world.
- Lists Cornette Library books along with many more in other libraries.
- Search by keyword, author, title, or subject.
- Request books not in Cornette Library through the pre-filled Interlibrary loan form. Allow at least two weeks for the books to arrive.
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Journal, Magazine, & Newspaper Articles
Provide current information
- Library shelves contain more than 1500 bound and current journals.
- Microform (film or fiche) available for dozens of leading newspapers, as well as other periodicals.
- Databases index articles found in journals and magazines.
- Citation only;
- Citation and a short summary of the article (abstract);
- Full text;
- General, covering many kinds of topics, and specialized, for specific disciplines.
- For this assignment be sure to use scholarly sources, not general interest magazines.
How to Access Databases
- On-campus: In the library or HELC.
- Off-campus: Login with your Buff Advisor username (for example, js123456) and your Buff Advisor password (for example, buffaloes).
- Database citations not in full-text may be located in the library catalog, or the list of online journals.
- Use Interlibrary Loan to request articles inaccessible through Cornette library. Allow up to 1 week (3 weeks for books) for articles to arrive.
Best Places to Start
- Power Search
- Search multiple databases with one entry. Keyword searching, cannot limit to scholarly journals. See "Custom Search" for additional database suggestions
- Social Sciences Citation Index (Web Of Science Interface)
- Citation index with coverage from 1970-present. Full-text links.
- Digital Dissertations
- Finds dissertations on multiple subjects. Many of more recent are available for download in PDF format. Very useful for bibliography purposes.
- Academic Search Complete
- A multidisciplinary database containing both citations and many articles in full-text on a variety of topics. Includes the journal Criminal Justice Ethics.
- LEXIS-NEXIS Academic
- Full-text database. Contains Crime and Justice, plus many Law Review's. Journals, magazines and newspapers.
Logo
Most of our database will include the logo on the options for each search result. Clicking this link will open a popup window with several options for retrieving the full-text of the document. One or more of these choices will be shown:
- One or more links to full-text of the cited article,
- A link to a pre-set search of the Cornette Library catalog for the cited item,
- A link to a pre-filled Interlibrary Loan request form for the article, or
- A link to various help options.
If you would like more information about the feature, please see the tutorial Using SFX to Link to Articles
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Government Documents
Cornette Library collects United States federal and Texas state documents on many topics.
- Most U.S. documents published since 1994 are listed in the Cornette Library's Online Catalog.
- For older documents, you will need to use the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications.
- We also have British Parliamentary Papers from 1731-1978/79 in microform.
Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications
- Indexes all United States government documents made available through the Government Printing Office.
- Includes Congressional reports, hearings, debates, and records; judiciary materials; documents issued by executive departments (Defense, State, Labor, Office of the President, etc.).
- Dates available include:
- Documents/Reference (1913-present).
- Online via FirstSearch. (1976-present)
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World Wide Web
- The World Wide Web can be an excellent source of information.
- Not everything found on the Web is accurate.
- You must evaluate information on the Web.
Criminal Justice
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service
- Contains text of a number of special reports on crime issues published by the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
- Site offers keyword search and topic browse access to more than 600 tables from various governmental sources.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics
- Statistics on criminal offenders, victims, prison inmates, etc. collected by the U.S. Department of Justice
- Criminal Justice Links - Corrections
- Links to information on community corrections, restorative justice, prisons, and the death penalty prepared by the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University.
Web Guides
- Searchable lists of annotated web sites, discussion lists, and electronic journals that have met specific selection criteria.
- Scout Report Archives
- Scholarly. Keyword or advanced search. Results listed by relevance.
- INFOMINE Scholarly Internet Resource Collections
- Scholarly. Keyword search or browse by general subject area. Can limit to free sites.
- Librarians' Internet Index
- General public interest. Keyword search, or browse by general topic and subtopic.
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Citing Your Sources
Why must I cite the sources I use for research projects?
- To give credit to the author of the information you use.
- To avoid plagiarism (WTAMU Code of Student Life: Appendix I-Academic Integrity Code). Plagiarism is a serious offense that can result in a failing grade or worse!
- So that others can verify the information.
- To assist others in doing their own research.
Turabian
- Dr. Price requires you to use the parenthetical reference/reference list method detailed in A manual for writers of term papers, theses and dissertations by Kate L. Turabian.
- A copy of A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations is located at the Reference Desk. In the 7th. edition, use Chapters 18 and 19 for rules, and Fig. A16 for a reference list sample.
- Additional assistance is available from our Citation Basics web page.
- Follow the link on the above page, or go directly to the Recommended Web Sites: Citing Sources, and use the Georgetown University link (fourth on the list for Turabian) for examples of the reference list/parenthetical reference style.
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Your Comments
- Suggestions for improvements?
- Particularly helpful items?
- Please email Mary Jarvis.
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