CRIJ/POSC/SOCI 4375 (Dr. Price): Capital Punishment
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 capital punishment more efficient.
Reference Sources
- Excellent place to start research.
- Provide background information.
- Use for background and source bibliography: do not use as sources for your paper.
- 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.
- The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle : Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
- HV8699.U5 M35 1998 Ref.
- Address racial issues, and timing of various execution methods.
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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 death penalty,
- The general LC subject heading capital punishment, and
- the LC subject heading for a specific time and place such as criminal rehabilitation Texas or for a specific sub-topic such as capital punishment--religious aspects--christianity.
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. The differences are important, for citation and for evaluating reliability.
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
- FullText NOW!
- Simultaneous search of several EBSCO databases, limited to immediate full text. Use the check box under the "Refine Search" tab to also limit to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.
- Web Of Science
- Citation index with coverage from 1970-present. Full-text links.
- Academic Search Complete
- A multidisciplinary database containing both citations and many articles in fulltext on a variety of topics. Includes the journal Criminology & Public Policy.
- LEXIS-NEXIS Academic
- Full-text database. Contains Crime and Justice, plus many Law Review's. Journals, magazines and newspapers. New interface makes search much easier.
- Power Search
- Search multiple databases with one entry. Keyword searching, cannot limit to scholarly journals. See "Custom Search" for additional database suggestions
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 is an excellent source of information.
- Not everything found on the Web is accurate.
- You must evaluate information on the Web.
Capital Punishment & Criminal Justice
- Texas Department of Criminal Justice: Death Row Information
- Includes gender/racial statistics, offender profiles and last statements, executions by year.
- Most states have a similar page. The search string corrections death row on a search engine finds many of them.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics
- Statistics on criminal offenders, victims, prison inmates, etc. collected by the U.S. Department of Justice. Includes summarized Capital Punishment statistics.
- Death Penalty Information Center
- Statistics, essays discussing issues surrounding capital punishment, news updates, and state-by-state information.
- 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.
- 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.
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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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