Library Guides: Bachelor of Criminology: Journal Articles

Journal Article Databases

The databases listed below contain articles on the subject of criminology from a wide range of journals.

Try to work out which databases are most likely to contain the information that you need. Consider the:

Subject: Does the database contain the information that you are looking for?
Jurisdiction: Does the database have information on the jurisdiction (country) that you are interested in?
Features: Does the database have a feature that will make your search easier? E.g. can it limit results to peer reviewed, or by jurisdiction

If you still can't decide, then choose:

Either Library Search or Google Scholar; and
A database with good coverage of the Australian jurisdiction. e.g., CINCH; and
A broader social sciences database. e.g. Sage, Springer, Wiley or Criminal Justice Database.

For example: Library Search, CINCH, and Criminal Justice Database.

AGIS Plus Text
Provides comprehensive coverage of articles published in Australian and New Zealand law Journals.

Australian Federal Police Digest
Australian Federal Police Digest (AFPD), produced by the Australian Federal Police Library, Canberra, is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts articles from published material on policing & law enforcement, and national security issues such as counter-terrorism, aviation security, protection, organised crime, cyber threats, border operations and intelligence capabilities from 1991 onwards

Criminal Justice Database
Criminal Justice Database is 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, dissertations, crime reports, crime blogs and other material relevant for researchers or those preparing for careers in criminal justice, law enforcement and related fields. Can limit search results to articles from peer reviewed (refereed) journals.

Google Scholar
Good for broad searches across multiple jurisdictions, reports, grey literature. Coverage of academic journal articles is not as comprehensive as Library Search. Cannot filter out non-peer reviewed (refereed) journals.
Library Searech
Searches within many library databases and displays the results in one place. Excellent for broad searches for articles across multiple jurisdictions. Can limit search results to articles from peer reviewed (refereed) journals, and can output references in APA7 style.

SAGE Journals
Good databases for broad searches across criminology and sociology journals. Use subject filter on results page to easily limit results to criminology. Cannot filter out non-peer reviewed (refereed) journals.
Springer Nature Link
Includes book chapters and reference works as well as journal articles. Cannot filter out non-peer reviewed (refereed) journals.
Wiley Online Library
Offers journals, books, reference works, laboratory manuals and the Cochrane Library, covering a range of subjects including Medicine, science, engineering and the social sciences.

Criminology Journals

A selection of current criminology journals that are available in full-text online.

What is Peer Review?

A peer reviewed article has been read, reviewed, and approved by subject experts. This adds an additional level of quality control. Peer reviewed journals may also be called refereed or scholarly journals.

The video below explains more detail about the peer review process.

How do you check if an article is peer reviewed?

Some databases, such as AGIS allow you to refine your results to just peer reviewed articles.

Other databases, such as Hein do not mention if the article is peer reviewed. Therefore if you need to check if an article is peer reviewed you can use the database Ulrichsweb. Type the name of the journal (not the name of the article). If the black and white referees jumper icon is next to the name of the journal this means that it is peer reviewed.

Alternatively you can also search for the journal's web page. If the journal is peer reviewed their web page will usually mention this.