Criminal Justice and Law Web Sites

Most students at some point find themselves seeking legal information about their field of study, whether it be education, medicine, health, counseling, or human services. The following are legal research and information links recommended by University of Scranton reference librarians. Additional Web sites may be found by linking to ‘Internet Resources' from our main page, at www.scranton.edu/library. If you have any questions, or need additional information with your research, please contact us at the Reference Desk.

 

Legal Information Institute - http://www.law.cornell.edu/
A non-profit activity of Cornell Law School, the LII has as one of its stated goals, "To make law more accessible not only to... legal professionals but to students, teachers, and the general public..." They have succeeded admirably. Especially useful is their "Law About..." section providing information on over 110 legal topics from copyright to torts and personal injury; their "Law by Source or Jurisdiction"; their links to various directories of lawyers; and their "Eye on the Courts," a current awareness service that reports on recent Supreme Court decisions as well as lower Federal court decisions.

 

FindLaw - http://www.findlaw.com/

 

This Web site also provides a useful starting place when researching legal topics. It contains numerous links, including ones for full-text of federal and state codes and case law, law schools, and legal topics. Also contains a Criminal Defense and Criminal Justice section.

 

Everybody's Legal Dictionary - http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/dictionary/wordindex.cfm
Maintained by Nolo Press, a recognized publisher of legal materials, this dictionary contains plain-English definitions for over a thousand legal terms, from the common to the bizarre. Continuously being updated. Don't know what an annotated code is? Unclear about what case law means? Try looking here first. Finding Court Opinions on the Web - http://www.nlj.com/special/courts.shtml
This web site provides a helpful overview of the nation's court structure, including links to or about the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Circuit Courts, the U.S. District Courts, U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, specialized U.S. Courts, and state courts.

 

FBI Uniform Crime Reports- http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

 

This is the place to look for data collected by the FBI on crime statistics in the US. You may also access the full-text of Crime in the United States, an annual publication based on data provided by nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, including volume and rate of crime offenses for the nation, the states, and individual agencies, as well as arrest, clearance, and law enforcement employee data.

 

CrimeLibrary.com - http://www.crimelibrary.com/

 

Crime TV purchased this website in September 2000 and has made it a popular resource for nonfiction stories on major crimes and criminals as well as some short fiction stories from prominent authors. Includes sections on serial killers, notorious murders, gangsters and outlaws, the criminal mind, terrorists and spies, crime fiction, and news.