Public Safety: Criminal Justice

The ASC is a well-established, decades-old organization which exists to further the study of criminology and justice in all respects. In addition to hosting annual conventions with a broad range of themes and guest speakers, the society's website connects its visitors to a range of online resources. These include relevant social media accounts, offering networking opportunities for currently enrolled college students, and connections to potential sources for grant money for individuals pursuing related degree programs. It provides an up-to-date list of highly accredited degree programs throughout the United States, as well as offering access to some of the most reputable journals in existence.

Modern, online encyclopedias are far more interactive than their hardbound forebears, and the Encyclopedia Britannica is one of the most reputable in the world. It is the standard by which other encyclopedias are compared, including the World Book Encyclopedia, and the collaborative Wikipedia. Britannica's relevant entry contains a great deal of historical information on the field, but it also goes deeper: it links the interested student to other Britannica articles on closely related subjects, and presents reputable, scholarly articles and authenticated news sources with regard to current events and applications.

With the expansive scope and growing prevalence of the criminal justice degree, these resources are intended to serve the interests of students looking to refine their focus and find their career paths. With a little browsing, you should be able to maintain helpful networks with professionals and other students pursuing the discipline, while tracking down ample resources suitable for dissertations and other academic projects.

Established in 1972, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) is a federally funded resource offering justice and drug-related information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide.

The NIJ archives its publications and journals for easy sorting and reference. This represents an expansive library of online documentation, one that covers everything from corrections, the US court system, and law enforcement techniques to crime-specific academic works and forensic science journals. Also provided are convenient statistics collected and compiled by Justice Department professionals, which can be used for referencing in academic work and other student documentation.

Examining the criminology pages of the Oxford Research Encyclopedias, one finds a wealth of resources made readily available. This includes in-depth research conducted by some of the world's most respected scholars in the fields of justice, criminology and forensics. There are also links to publications and organizations, based in a wide range of locations across the globe (including within the United States). This allows for a quick and convenient student access to a diverse range of viewpoints, strategies, and academic information which purely domestic American sources might not offer a direct connection to.