Introduction
This subject guide highlights some key discipline resources to get you started with study and research.
- Refer to the New Students Library Guide for everything you need to know about Library services and resources.
- Build your researching, reading and writing skills with the Research Essentials Library Guide.
- Streamline your access to online resources with the Library's quick access tools.
Encyclopedias
- Oxford ReferenceProvides high quality, up-to-date reference content on a variety of topics including Criminology.
- Oxford Bibliographies OnlineProvides short, focused overviews of a wide range of topics including Criminology, also pointing you to key works and further recommended readings.
- Handbook of Critical CriminologyCollection of original essays specifically designed to offer students, faculty, policy makers, and others an in-depth overview of the empirical, theoretical, and political contributions made by critical criminologists around the world.
- 21st Century CriminologyStraightforward and definitive overviews of 100 key topics comprising traditional criminology and its modern outgrowths,
- Encyclopedia of crime and punishmentThe contributors to the 'Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment' are experts from 16 countries, with an advisory board, including renowned researchers and librarians from centres of criminal justice, aiding the project.
- Encyclopedia of murder & violent crimeCovers both murder and violent crime in their variant forms. Included are biographies, chronologies special interest inset boxes, up to 100 photographs and appendices.
- Encyclopedia of race and crimeCovers a number of broad thematic areas including basic concepts and theories of criminal justice, juvenile justice, public policy, and the media specific groups and populations.
- Encyclopedia of victimology and crime preventionCovers the status of victims within the criminal justice system, and topics of deterring and preventing victimization in the first place and responding to victims' needs.
- Encyclopedia of white-collar & corporate crimeCovers corporate, financial and non-violent crime.
- Encyclopedia of criminology and criminal justiceCovers Corrections and Criminal Justice Supervision; Courts, Sentencing and the Judicial System; Crimes, Criminals and Victims; Crime Places and Situations; Explanations for Criminal Behavior; Forensic Science; Data, Methods and Statistics; Police and Law Enforcement; Psychology of Law; Social Interventions and Prevention.
Books
To find books on a particular subject, do a keyword search in the Library Catalogue. Alternatively you can search by title, author, etc.
You can also find books on similar topics through the subject headings in item records. Click on these headings to find related subjects and titles.
Looking for a book we don't have or is not on our shelves?
Inter-Library Loans
University of Melbourne staff and students can request resources through the Library’s Inter-Library Loans service. For more information visit the ILL web page, or you can access the request forms.
A CAVAL card allows you to borrow from other universities and TAFEs. Visit the CAVAL website to find out how to sign up for a CAVAL card.
You can then use the Trove website to see which library has the book you want.
Databases and journals
Use databases to search across many academic resources (including peer-reviewed journals) at the same time.
Refer to the A-Z Ejournals and Databases page for a comprehensive list of available resources.
Core Arts and Humanities databases (try these first):
The selection of multidisciplinary databases below will retrieve results from different subject areas.
- Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery to look for books, ebooks, journal articles and more. It's a great place to start your search but does not give you everything the Library has. We highly recommend searching in at least one other database on this list as well as Discovery.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is one of the most popular ways to find academic sources for study and research. Did you know you can use it to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to? You can do this through the link above or set up your Google Scholar preferences to include Library content.
- JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It is a multidisciplinary database so it looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects - many of them related to arts and humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is another large, multidisciplinary database. It looks through journals, books, and conference papers. It has some advanced tools that can help you discover new research quickly - the 'times cited' and 'related articles' links are great time-savers. While it doesn't always have full-text PDFs it is still an excellent place to look for your research.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a massive, multidisciplinary database which includes a large amount of humanities and social sciences material from as far back as 1900. Like Scopus it has some advanced features that allows you to quickly link to related research.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
Criminology-specific databases:
For more focused results try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.
- CINCH (Informit)Australian Criminology Database (CINCH), produced by Australian Institute of Criminology includes articles from published and unpublished material on all aspects of crime and criminal justic including corrections, crime, crime prevention, criminal law, criminology, juvenile justice, law enforcement, police and victims of crime. It covers the period of 1968 to present.
- AFPD - Australian Federal Police Digest (Informit)Australian Federal Police Digest covers policing, criminology, law enforcement, law, management, occupational health and safety, and social sciences and is produced by the Australian Federal Police Library, Canberra. It include selected Australian and overseas journals, conference papers and chapters of some books. It covers the period 1991 to present.
- Criminal Justice Abstracts (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowCriminal Justice Abstracts contains bibliographic records covering essential areas related to criminal justice and criminology from hundreds of journals from around the world.
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts (EBSCOhost)This database covers literature related to research, policy and practice in law enforcement and criminal justice. Search over 190,000 U.S. and international publications, including federal, state and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations and unpublished research. Content dates range from 1970 to the present.
- Women and the LawBrings together books, biographies and periodicals dedicated to women's roles in society and the law.
Offender narratives
When searching for (auto)biographies or personal accounts by criminals, try searching the catalogue by using keywords such as:
- memoirs AND crim*
- memoirs AND murder*
- autobiog* AND crim*
Criminals' accounts or reflections on their lives may be within chapters or sections of books, rather than complete books dedicated to the person concerned. You may have to browse through the books you have identified to find what you are after.
Get started with these two online sources:
- Narrative criminology (Oxford Bibliographies)An article that provides an excellent overview of narrative criminology as a concept, and links to further reading resources including offender narratives.
- Narrative criminology: understanding stories of crime"In Narrative Criminology, prominent scholars from across the academy and around the world examine stories that animate offending. From an examination of how criminals understand certain types of crime to be less moral than others, to how violent offenders and drug users each come to understand or resist their identity as 'criminals', to how cultural narratives motivate genocidal action, the case studies in this book cover a wide array of crimes and justice."
Statistics
News
Research methods
Many disciplines rely on research methods to guide the process of conducting primary research.
To find methods for your discipline, do a keyword search in the Library Catalogue and add your discipline, e.g. Criminology AND "research method*".
To get started, try some of the resources below:
- SAGE Research MethodsA great resource to help you understand specific research methods, conduct research, and write up findings. SAGE Research Methods Cases are original, specially commissioned, and designed to help you understand often abstract methodological concepts by introducing case studies of real research projects.
- SAGE internet research methodsGood starting point for conducting internet-based research.
- Doing ethnography in criminology: discovery through fieldworkExamines the use of ethnography and fieldwork in Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Using a combination of case studies, as well as "behind the scenes" contributions, it provides an comprehensive look at both the insights gained from ethnographic research, as well as the choices researchers make in conducting that work.
- Criminological skills and research for beginners: a student's guideEmphasises practical skills required in studying Criminology, the importance of criminological research, and places related methodology firmly in the context of students broader study of the discipline, before moving on to provide a detailed guide to the actual processes of research.
Websites
You can find relevant information and resources for your research on the websites of professional organisations and bodies, institutes, NGOs, government departments, etc.
This guide gives a few suggestions to get you started and to give you an idea what to look for. It is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided website recommendations.
Tip: if you want to limit your Google search results to organisational, governmental, or educational websites, use Google's advanced search option to limit the site or domains to .org, .gov, .edu.
Some website suggestions to get you started:
- Australian Institute of CriminologyResearch and policy papers on Australian crime and justice topics.
- Crime Statistics Agency (Victoria)The Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) is responsible for processing, analysing and publishing Victorian crime statistics, independent of Victoria Police.
- World Factbook of Criminal Justice SystemsProvides narrative descriptions of the criminal justice systems of 45 countries around the world.
Referencing and citing
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