Criminology Subject Guide: Online Library Support

Key Criminology Research Databases

The following databases will help you discover material related to criminology and criminal justice. You have access to further resources via the Criminology subject list area in the A-Z Databases list. 

Use the Databases A-Z List to access all the resources available to you.

You can browse by subject e.g. Criminology or type (e.g.maps, news, images etc.) or search to find your required resource.

Allied subjects include Sociology, Psychology, Politics and Security Studies. You will also find LibGuides available for these and other subject disciplines.

• TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less).  

• You can explore TED Talks related to the topic of crime and criminal justice.

• You'll find talks on all sorts of other topics too. The latest and most popular talks are available from the TED homepage. 

• Below is a talk giving insights into 'How global crime networks work', delivered by Misha Glenny

You can use the following catalogues to search for material held at other libraries:

• Library Hub Discover - search and locate books and journals throughout the collections of the UK research and specialist libraries.

• WorldCAT - lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and tens of thousands more around the world.  It also has a mobile app you can download.

• The European Library - gives access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.

• The Library of Congress - contains the catalog records for books, serials, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources in the Library of Congress collections in the USA.

• LibWeb - Access to a listing of online library catalogues worldwide

Online Books

You have online access to hundreds of online books that cover criminology and criminal justice.  Use the Library Search to search by topic to discover relevant content.  For example, you have access to criminology ebook collections from the Sage and Springer publishers. Take a look a the following to give you an idea of how you can search and browse online books like these,

21st Century Criminology: a reference handbook

Expert Evidence and International Criminal Justice

Print Books

The Forum Library print books are arranged in Dewey Decimal Classification order.  This means that books on similar topics are grouped together.  Find out more with our Classmarks  guide.  The majority of books on criminology related subjects will be found at number 364 in the library, for example:

However, criminology is a wide ranging discipline and you are likely to wish to consult materials from other areas such as Sociology, Politics, Law, Psychology - to name just a few!  Library Search will help you locate these materials

Here is an indication of some of the article topics related to Criminology and Criminal Justice within Oxford Handbooks Online.

Use Library Search to find Journal Titles and articles that relate to your research/study area, drawn from a wide range of full text sources

For targeted searching, select a research database and explore the published literature in your field. Key databases are flagged above.

• News sources can be invaluable research resources. 
• They provide contemporaneous accounts of events as they emerge and unfold, affording a snapshot of developments at a point in time.
• You can engage in historical research by tracing commentary on issues over time, to identify and track changing political, economic and social trends. 
• The availability of news resources online allows for very effective and comprehensive searching, in a way that was impossible with print or microfilm / microfiche editions of the newspapers 

Find out more on the News LibGuide 

• Official publications are documents and other resources produced by Parliament and Government during the course of parliamentary and government business.
• Content ranges from statements of law and policy to government reports and statistics.  
• These publications can be a very valuable primary research source as they address all aspects of governmental work such as science, education, law, agriculture, transport, health etc.

Find out more in the Official Publications LibGuide.

• Statistics is the science of collecting, analysing and presenting numerical data.

• Statistical data can be found on a huge variety of subjects, for example the economy, employment, the environment, government, health, international trade, manufacturing, and population.

• They can be a vital source of information for your studies.

Find out more on the Statistics LibGuide.

• It is  easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of information available to you.  

• Academic Skills: Skills for Referencing online support

Find out more about the skills support available to help you develop a range of study skills including essay writing, referencing, critical reading and getting the most out of lectures.

Study Skills Support

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) is a great resource to use when you are planning and conducting your research. 

It is targeted at social science researchers but is useful across all subject areas as it covers key research methodology topics that are applicable across the research spectrum.

Sage have produced a comprehensive LibGuide to help you get the best from the resource.

Linking the University of Exeter Library to Google Scholar 

Google Scholar is an online, freely accessible search engine for locating scholarly literature  from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. But not all full text content is free to access.

However, it is possible to link the University of Exeter online library to  Google Scholar, making it quick to identify and access library full text content.

Just follow these instructions:

Click on Check for this @ Exeter or Access this @ Exeter options to view full text article:

Find out more here: Making the most of Google Scholar