Finding academic sources
Journal Articles
Some of the most common and useful database for criminology and crime, justice and legal studies are listed below. You can also use the list of Criminology databases in the Library's database guide.
- Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include: Criminal Justice; Criminal Law and Procedure; Corrections and Prisons; Police and Policing Criminal Investigation; Forensic Sciences and Investigation; History of Crime; Substance Abuse and Addiction; Probation and Parole Criminology.
- Criminal Justice Database (via ProQuest)A comprehensive database supporting research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as litigation and crime trends. As well as U.S. and international scholarly journals, it includes correctional and law enforcement trade publications, crime reports, and crime blogs.
- Informit Complete This link opens in a new windowAustralasian scholarly research for the education, research and business sectors.
This package provides access to the full suite of Informit products, with full text cover-to-cover access to journals, monographs, conference proceedings and other research material. - JSTORArchive of important scholarly journals, mainly in the humanities and social sciences.
- Criminology and Criminal Justice (Library Database Guide)Access a curated list of databases that may be useful in criminology, criminal justice and socio-legal studies.
You can also search for articles using Library Search, however, not all databases feed their full results into library search, so it should be used more as a final check than a first point of call. Library Search is good for books (including eBooks), so don't forget to include it at some point in your research process.
- Access Library searchStart your research in Library Search to find books, some journal articles, and more resources.
- Using EbooksUse this guide to help you navigate and use the different eBook platforms available to La Trobe University students, and to find out how to download books to read offline.
Academic sources
It is possible that your assessments will require you to use academic sources - which means you will need to understand how to identify an academic source. Academic sources (also called "scholarly sources") have been subject to a level of editorial or peer review beyond what is normal for a non-academic source (such as a newspaper). Watch the video below for how to identify academic sources.