Subject Guides: Criminology: Find Articles

Why use library databases?

We recommend that you start your research with library databases for several reasons:

1) Your tuition helps pay for access to the journal articles contained in the databases.

2) They are clear about what they do - you know whether the journals contained within are peer-reviewed,

3) There are many journals in databases that are not free. If you just use Google, you will be missing many resources.

Database Tutorials

Basic Search in EBSCOhost databases
This group includes Criminal Justice Abstracts, Academic Search Complete, and many others.

Online Indexes and Databases

These indexes and databases help you identify journal articles and other publications relevant to your research topics.

Criminal Justice Abstracts
Criminal justice policies, theories, programs and administration. Primarily a domestic focus but has numerous international topics too.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
Contains summaries of more than 140,000 federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research on criminal justice. Topics covered include corrections, courts, drugs and crime, law enforcement, juvenile justice, crime statistics, and victims of crime.

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a large scholarly, multidisciplinary, full-text database, with full-text periodicals, including peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers scholarly, popular, trade, and special interest serials, and publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and more.
SAGE Journals Online
SAGE Journals Online provides access to full-text articles from 1999 to the present. Topics covered are primarily in the social sciences as well as sciences, technology, and medicine. All journal titles in the collection are also listed and linked individually in LibrarySearch.
HeinOnline
A searchable collection of full text articles from nearly 370 academic legal periodicals.

Newspaper Resources Research Guide
A guide to all the news related databases at USM.

PsycINFO
The primary index to the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines. Coverage includes references and abstracts to journals in more than 20 languages, and to book chapters and books in the English language.
Social Work Abstracts
An index to the social work literature, with good coverage of topics such as child abuse and domestic violence.
Sociology Collection (Includes Sociological Abstracts)
Sociology Collection indexes the literature of sociology and related disciplines, including anthropology, criminology, demography, education, gerontology, mental health, minority studies, political science, public health, social psychology, social work, urban studies, welfare programs, and women's studies. Content types covered include journals, books, conference papers, and doctoral dissertations. Sociology Collection incorporates Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA), and Sociology Database into a single resource.
ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts
ASSIA is an indexing and abstracting tool covering health, social services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. Updated monthly. Dates of Coverage: 1987 - current.

eJournals & eBooks

You can search for specific Journals by title using our eJournal & eBooks Search below

You can also look though our eJournal collection by Browsing by Subject.

You'll find Criminology under Social Sciences--Social Welfare & Social Work--Criminology, Penology & Juvenile Delinquency

LibrarySearch (Journals by Title)
Search specifically for journals in the catalog for the University of Maine System, including USM.

Get articles USM doesn't have

If you can't get access to an article or book, you can request a copy from outside our library with InterLibrary Loan. It's free but you'll need to create a user name and password.

Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) Account
Create or sign into your free ILLiad account to electronically request journal articles that USM does not have, or to request print books, music scores, & videos not available through LibrarySearch and MaineCat.