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Lecture Note Research for Criminal Justice
Students
Introduction to Christian Thought (D) (Liberty University)
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“Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.” – Wernher von Braun
“Research is to see what everybody else has seen and to think what nobody else has thought.”
– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
I. Introduction: Researching is an art; the more you research, the more your
research skills will improve.
II.
How to Begin Your Research:
A. Initial Broad Topic: When you are faced with writing a research paper, you must first
decide on your initial topic (unless one has been assigned to you). To find topic ideas,
look at your textbook’s table of contents or look in other related textbooks. You may also
find some interesting criminal justice topics by watching the news.
B. Narrow the Topic: Once you have chosen a topic, read some general
information so that you are able to sufficiently narrow the topic so that it is
manageable in the allotted page limit. Read general information from your
textbook or from encyclopedias. For example, you may decide to write a term
paper on sentencing. You can read in a general criminal justice textbook about
interesting areas of sentencing. For instance, when you read about sentencing, you
may realize that the sub-topic of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel
and unusual punishment would be an interesting research paper topic.
C. Gather Background Information: Look to articles and books concerning your chosen
topic by searching your topic using Internet search engines or scholarly journals
(discussed below). If you have access to a law library, look up your topic in
secondary legal resources—such as Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS), American Law
Reports (ALR), or American Jurisprudence (Am Jur)—and in legal treatises1 by area
of law. This is also a good time to go to Liberty University’s library, your local
library, or another local university library. (Note: Even though you are completing
your degree on the Internet via online learning, it is wise to establish a relationship
with a local library or university library; many are open to the public or will give
you special permission to use the library if you explain that you are a local online
student. Go to the library and look through some relevant books. If you only do
research online, you may miss important information because you have limited your
search terms. By looking through books, you may find other subject areas of which
you were not even aware.) For the example topic, research both “death penalty” and
“cruel and unusual punishment” in order to find sufficient research about the topic.
Do not worry; this research will not go to waste. Rather, it will become background
information for your research paper. While doing background research about the
example topic, you may realize that a recent hot topic is: prisoners challenging the
use of lethal injection by claiming it is a violation of the cruel and unusual
punishment clause.
1 Here I am not referring to International Treaties and the like; rather, these are books which give a comprehensive
yet fairly easy-to-read overview of each area of law, such as McCarthy on Trademarks.
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D. Research Your Topic: When you have reached the point at which you can research
your topic, search the Internet, the variety of databases from the ILRC,
LexisNexis, and the physical library for resources.
Electronic Resources: When searching electronic resources, determine
your search terms and refine your search using Boolean connectors (and, or,
but, not). Depending on the database, you may also be able to put search terms
in quotation marks or specify that you want the terms within a few words of
each other (e.g., cruel w/5 “death penalty”). Other searches could include cruel
or “eighth amendment” and “death penalty” or “lethal injection”.
Physical Library Resources: Use the computer to search for books using
WorldCat or other online book indices; then, go to the library to find the books.
Once you look up a few of these books, you will probably find other valuable
books on your topic on the surrounding shelves. Spend some time leafing
through and browsing the books; this may lead you to other resources.
Multiply Your Sources: Once you find a few sources that are focused
specifically on your particular topic, look at the citations contained within these
sources. Look at bibliographies and footnotes to find additional books and
articles. Each source will lead you to several more sources; keep a running list of
the sources you will need to find.
III.
Internet Search Engines (i.e., Google, Google Scholar,
Yahoo,
etc.): Use these and other Internet search engines to begin preliminary
research; sometimes these tools are helpful in finding news articles. Do not rely on
Internet search
engines to do the majority of your serious research.
A. How to Improve Your Internet Searches: One of the problems with search
engines is that they indiscriminately return tens of thousands of sites. It is
impossible to know if the first few hundred sites are the most relevant, and it is
equally impossible to look at every returned site. Here is a suggestion for developing
a better search: Using Google, click on the Advanced Search link (you will likely
find it next to the text box). This will allow you to limit your searches so that Google
will return the most relevant sites. You may also use Google Scholar, which focuses
on scholarly articles; this page also offers an advanced search option. Google
Scholar is useful for finding articles and books; however, you will not generally be
able to read the entire text of the article or book. If this is the case, use the journal
finder in the ILRC to see if Liberty University has access to that journal. Even if you
are unable to obtain the full text of the article through the ILRC’s online
subscriptions, you may fill out an interlibrary loan request. Typically, the article will
be photocopied and sent to you via PDF within a few days. You may also look for
books on your chosen topic at Google Books.
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B. Be Aware: Not all sources are created equal. Be sure to check the credentials of the
authors of your sources. A blogger who writes about a topic may or may not be an
expert on it. Sometimes, an article that is written like a scholarly article is simply
an unqualified person sharing his or her opinion. This does not make the author’s
point irrelevant, but check to be sure the information is both relevant and true
before considering it as a resource.
IV. Scholarly Journals: Here are a few examples of scholarly journals specifically
focused on criminal justice: Justice Quarterly, Criminology, Justice Professional, and
Journal of Criminal Justice. There are many other criminal justice scholarly journals, so
you should do several searches in the journal finder to find them. When you are
searching in some of the other databases, you may find that you are unable to access the
full text of a particular article; this is when the journal finder will be helpful. The journal
finder will search for the journal in all the ILRC databases. You may want to have two
windows open when you are doing research via ILRC: one for the database in which you
are working and the other for the journal finder. Remember: To use the ILRC resources
when you are not on campus, sign into EZ-proxy using your normal Liberty University
username and password.
V. LexisNexis: This is a helpful database for finding news articles and legal research. To
access this resource, go to the “Research: Articles/Journals” tab in the library portal. You
will be brought directly to a list of the “Top Multidisciplinary Databases.” One of the
databases on the list will be “LexisNexis Academic.” Click on “LexisNexis Academic,”
then enter your Liberty University login credentials to access the site. Once inside the
site, if you have a current topic, enter your topic in the “Search the News” query. If you
are working with a legal topic, use either the “U.S. Legal” or “International Legal” link,
depending on the topic. To begin your research on a legal topic, search in the “Law
Reviews” database under the specific legal link. Once you click on the “Law Review”
link, you will see several ways to enhance your search at the bottom of the page. You
may need to try several search terms to get the results you want. Search as broadly as you
can, and, once you get your search results, use the “Edit Search” feature (located at the
top of your screen) to narrow your results. Another link that may be helpful is the
“Subject Areas” link on the LexisNexis Academic home page. Once in this window, put
your search terms in the top keyword box; then, in the drop down box, select your area of
the law. You can also do searches for Supreme Court cases, state and federal cases, and
statutes.
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