Because criminal justice is interdisciplinary in nature, there are several databases that you might find useful. Depending on your topic, you may want to search in areas related to legal issues as well as sociology and psychology, in addition to criminal justice and criminology.

Instructors often ask students to find “scholarly”, “academic”, or “peer reviewed” sources of information for their research.  These terms all refer to the same type of information – sources based on in-depth research, and are considered higher in quality and more reliable for your research. 

These sources can range from chapters within books or entire books, or journal articles, but all have common characteristics that can help you recognize that type of information.