Criminal justice

Published on: August 28, 2014

Next time you say, “well, he must be guilty of something …”: Your Worst Nightmare

By Laura Orr

ABA Journal magazine: “Prisoner exonerations are at an all-time high, and it’s not because of DNA testing,” by Kevin Davis, September 1, 2014.

‘…. And even when he was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison, Awe continued to hold out hope that someone would get to the bottom of this mess.

“I suffered from the delusion that innocent people get to go home,” says Awe, who served nearly all three years before being exonerated. “I thought at some point someone would do an investigation. I never gave up hope even after being convicted.” [Link to full article.]

Continue reading →

Published on: August 31, 2011

Researching “Criminal Justice” versus Researching “The Law”

By Laura Orr

Researching criminal justice topics can be quite different from researching the law. There is overlap, of course, but sometimes not very much at all depending on the specific question.

The field of criminal justice also has many of its own research resources that are completely separate from legal research resources.

Both fields of study have roots and branches in law, courts, public policy, government, history, sociology, and psychology, but they are different fields of study. One could say that criminal justice is a subset of “the law,” but it’s also its own field, and it is, of course, as interdisciplinary as any field of study is nowadays.

Continue reading →

Published on: July 9, 2010

Indexes: How to Save Time When Researching Legal or Criminal Justice Subjects

By Laura Orr

Whether you’re researching juvenile sex offender laws or marijuana taxation or jails or something in between, you will want to use an Index, that is, “indexes to periodical literature,” including magazine, journal, newsletter, and other print and online specialty or general publications indexes.

Indexes save you time, lots of time, and enable to you to locate articles you might otherwise miss if you search only full-text resources or simply “Google” a subject.

Most of the following indexes are online, but none is free online, although one or more may be “free” to institutional members, e.g. public library cardholders, educational institution students, staff, and faculty, and professional associations, to name a few groups that offer no-charge online index and other database and literature searching to their members.

Continue reading →