Criminal Justice

This page will provide you with some tips and tricks to make your research a breeze! If you still can't find what you need, please don't hesitate to contact the library! You can find our contact information and more on the Get Help page.

To get you started, here are some general search strategies:

Keyword Strategies

Use these keywords in a general search in any one of our recommended databases or inside DragonQuest:

• “Corrections System” AND Goal
• Incarceration AND “Sentencing Trends”
• Race AND Criminal Justice
• Ethnicity AND Criminal Justice
• Incarceration Statistics
• “Sentencing Policies” AND United States
• Gaols AND Penitentiaries AND Prisons
• “Solitary Confinement”
• “Prison Model”
• Elderly AND Incarceration
• Gender AND Prison
• Prison treatment programs
• “Community Supervision”
• “Community Corrections”
• “Alternative Sentencing"

Subject Strategies

Searching for results by subject heading, rather than by keywords, can help you focus your search in new directions. Consider these subject search options:

• “Correctional rehabilitation”
• Probation
• Prison Overcrowding
• Juvenile Offenders
• Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
• “Criminal Justice System”
• Recidivism
• “Three-Strikes Laws”
• “War on Drugs”
• “Prison Reform”

The following image shows you how to change your search to a subject search by using the dropdown menu inside DragonQuest:

Research Starters

Need some extra guidance? Try a Research Starter:

• “Death penalty: Overview”

• “Solitary Confinement”

• “Prison and Jail System”

• “Adult Probation”

• Parole

What is a Research Starter?

Research Starters are encyclopedia entries, so they are more of an "idea gathering" mechanism than a scholarly source to support your stance on an issue. They provide you with background information on a broad topic and highlight keywords you can use and/or links to source material to get you started on your research. 

Narrowing DragonQuest Search Results

If you'd like to know how to narrow down your DragonQuest list to only full text, peer reviewed, or specific types of resources, we recommend the following tutorial:

If you'd like additional guidance on using Academic Writer, we recommend the following tutorial: