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Criminology: Databases

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Databases provide access to high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, dissertations and many other resources. 

These databases have been especially selected for this subject area. When carrying out your research for a piece of work, you will need to search more than one database to find all of the journal articles relevant to your topic, as each database covers different journal titles.

Database Spotlight

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Oxford Bibliographies Online

Oxford Bibliographies Online is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary resource encompassing material from 43 diverse discipline areas across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.   

Developed in collaboration with scholars worldwide, this database offers authoritative and updated research guides that blend the features of an annotated bibliography with those of a high-level encyclopaedia. Each article serves as an up-to-date, reliable guide to current scholarship across a wide array of disciplines, complete with original commentary and detailed annotations.  

The platform's advanced discoverability tools help users locate the content they need—be it chapters, books, journal articles, websites, blogs, or data sets. Users can sign in to save searches, create personalised lists of citations, and access links to full-text content in print and online.  

Additionally, email alerts notify users of updates to articles and bibliographies.  

With its multidisciplinary scope, Oxford Bibliographies Online is an invaluable resource for teaching and research across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and complements our access to Oxford Research Encyclopaedias in providing accurate, peer reviewed and regularly updated summaries.  

Essential databases

The following are important databases for this subject area, however if you don't see what you're looking for, please go to the Database Directory for Criminology to browse a wider selection.

 

  • Westlaw UK Essential
    Includes EU & UK legislation, law reports & case digests, citators & analysis (commencement, amendment, subsequent treatment, history etc), Legal Journals Index, Financial Journals Index Archive (-Mar. 2006), selected full text law journals, news & current awareness, Woodfall's law of landlord and tenant, and Palmer's company law. Westlaw UK is a dynamic, ever-growing and easily searchable source of case law, legislation, news, legal journals, commentary, current awareness alerts and EU legal materials.
  • Scopus Essential
    Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Scopus delivers an overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities. As research becomes increasingly global, interdisciplinary and collaborative, you can make sure that critical research from around the world is not missed.
  • Lexis+ Essential
    A database containing the full text of unreported cases from 1981 to date and tax cases from 1875 to date. Other older cases go back to the late nineteenth century. As it is primarily an American database it also contains a wealth of American material, but also European, Commonwealth and international information. For UK and Irish regional and national newspapers click on 'Content' then 'Newspapers'.
  • HeinOnline Law Journal Library Essential
    The Law Journal Library is HeinOnline's signature collection of more than 3,000 fully searchable, image-based journals, each dating back to the first issue ever published. This scholarly journals database spans more than 41 million pages bridging a crucial research gap. Every document in the library is an exact recreation of its print counterpart, while still providing the ease and speed that accompanies online searching. To improve discoverability of relevant content, this database has also been integrated with a number of unique artificial intelligence tools and research aids. Though initially named the "Law" Journal Library for the content it originally contained, this resource has grown from a small collection of law reviews to a multidisciplinary journals database spanning tens of millions of pages. Its coverage is comprehensive and includes works from 60 different countries, as well as 50 states and the District of Columbia. The journals in this database span more than 1,500 research subjects.
  • Oxford Law Trove Essential
    Includes law textbooks on: Business Law, Company & Commercial Law, Comparative Law, Constitutional & Administrative Law, Contract Law, Criminal Law, Criminology & Criminal Justice, Employment Law, Environment Law, Equity & Trusts, EU Law, Evidence, Family Law, Human Rights & Immigration Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, IT & Communications Law, Jurisprudence & Philosophy of Law, Land Law, Legal Practice Courses, Legal Systems & Skills (English Legal System), Medical & Healthcare Law, Tort.
  • SAGE full text collections: Journals Essential
    The SAGE Full-Text Collections are discipline-specific research databases of the most popular peer-reviewed journals in [various fields], published by SAGE Publications and participating societies. Includes abstracts and table of contents of all SAGE published journals. Also provides full text access to subscribed titles. SAGE is the natural home for leading authors, editors and societies. Publishing more than 1,000 journals, from a wide range of disciplines, SAGE is here to meet your research and study needs.
  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts Database Essential
    TheNational Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts Databasecovers literature related to research, policy and practice in criminal and juvenile justice and drug control. Search over 189,000 U.S. and international publications, including federal, state and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations and unpublished research.
  • Criminal Justice Abstracts Essential
    This database includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to criminal justice and criminology. It contains more than 200,000 records selected from the most important sources within the discipline. Subject areas covered include: criminology; criminal justice; criminal law and procedure; corrections and prisons; police and policing; criminal investigation; forensic sciences and investigation; history of crime; substance abuse and addiction; probation and parole.
  • Crime, Punishment and Popular Culture 1790-1920 Essential
    Crime has had an enduring fascination, from the bloodstained narratives of myth and folklore to the Bible, from Cain and Abel onwards. How crime should be best prevented, contained, and penalized has been a persistent concern of legal and judicial authorities throughout time. As society has developed over the millennia, so have its crimes, and also the response to them, from prison reform to forensics and policing. Popular culture's reactions to crime matter and have inspired genres such as the murder ballad and the detective novel. For the first time, Gale Primary Sources gathers the raw data about crime, its solutions, and the popular response into one archive, Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920. The archive's focus is on the most rapid period of evolution for crime and its associated legal/penal systems: the long nineteenth century, a period of major social upheaval and technological development, from wars to the Industrial Revolution. Almost all aspects of society underwent transformation during this time, and the law adapted to these changes.
  • Westlaw UK Essential
    Includes EU & UK legislation, law reports & case digests, citators & analysis (commencement, amendment, subsequent treatment, history etc), Legal Journals Index, Financial Journals Index Archive (-Mar. 2006), selected full text law journals, news & current awareness, Woodfall's law of landlord and tenant, and Palmer's company law. Westlaw UK is a dynamic, ever-growing and easily searchable source of case law, legislation, news, legal journals, commentary, current awareness alerts and EU legal materials.
  • Scopus Essential
    Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Scopus delivers an overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities. As research becomes increasingly global, interdisciplinary and collaborative, you can make sure that critical research from around the world is not missed.
  • Lexis+ Essential
    A database containing the full text of unreported cases from 1981 to date and tax cases from 1875 to date. Other older cases go back to the late nineteenth century. As it is primarily an American database it also contains a wealth of American material, but also European, Commonwealth and international information. For UK and Irish regional and national newspapers click on 'Content' then 'Newspapers'.
  • HeinOnline Law Journal Library Essential
    The Law Journal Library is HeinOnline's signature collection of more than 3,000 fully searchable, image-based journals, each dating back to the first issue ever published. This scholarly journals database spans more than 41 million pages bridging a crucial research gap. Every document in the library is an exact recreation of its print counterpart, while still providing the ease and speed that accompanies online searching. To improve discoverability of relevant content, this database has also been integrated with a number of unique artificial intelligence tools and research aids. Though initially named the "Law" Journal Library for the content it originally contained, this resource has grown from a small collection of law reviews to a multidisciplinary journals database spanning tens of millions of pages. Its coverage is comprehensive and includes works from 60 different countries, as well as 50 states and the District of Columbia. The journals in this database span more than 1,500 research subjects.
  • Oxford Law Trove Essential
    Includes law textbooks on: Business Law, Company & Commercial Law, Comparative Law, Constitutional & Administrative Law, Contract Law, Criminal Law, Criminology & Criminal Justice, Employment Law, Environment Law, Equity & Trusts, EU Law, Evidence, Family Law, Human Rights & Immigration Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, IT & Communications Law, Jurisprudence & Philosophy of Law, Land Law, Legal Practice Courses, Legal Systems & Skills (English Legal System), Medical & Healthcare Law, Tort.
  • SAGE full text collections: Journals Essential
    The SAGE Full-Text Collections are discipline-specific research databases of the most popular peer-reviewed journals in [various fields], published by SAGE Publications and participating societies. Includes abstracts and table of contents of all SAGE published journals. Also provides full text access to subscribed titles. SAGE is the natural home for leading authors, editors and societies. Publishing more than 1,000 journals, from a wide range of disciplines, SAGE is here to meet your research and study needs.
  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts Database Essential
    TheNational Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts Databasecovers literature related to research, policy and practice in criminal and juvenile justice and drug control. Search over 189,000 U.S. and international publications, including federal, state and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations and unpublished research.
  • Criminal Justice Abstracts Essential
    This database includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to criminal justice and criminology. It contains more than 200,000 records selected from the most important sources within the discipline. Subject areas covered include: criminology; criminal justice; criminal law and procedure; corrections and prisons; police and policing; criminal investigation; forensic sciences and investigation; history of crime; substance abuse and addiction; probation and parole.
  • Crime, Punishment and Popular Culture 1790-1920 Essential
    Crime has had an enduring fascination, from the bloodstained narratives of myth and folklore to the Bible, from Cain and Abel onwards. How crime should be best prevented, contained, and penalized has been a persistent concern of legal and judicial authorities throughout time. As society has developed over the millennia, so have its crimes, and also the response to them, from prison reform to forensics and policing. Popular culture's reactions to crime matter and have inspired genres such as the murder ballad and the detective novel. For the first time, Gale Primary Sources gathers the raw data about crime, its solutions, and the popular response into one archive, Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920. The archive's focus is on the most rapid period of evolution for crime and its associated legal/penal systems: the long nineteenth century, a period of major social upheaval and technological development, from wars to the Industrial Revolution. Almost all aspects of society underwent transformation during this time, and the law adapted to these changes.
  • Amnesty International Archives : a Global Movement for Human Rights Essential New
    Amnesty International Archives presents the archival records of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International from the period of 1961-1991. These records are housed at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. Covering a wide range of human rights concerns and issues, the documents in Amnesty International Archives allow researchers to follow not only the influence Amnesty International had on the global human rights movement in the late twentieth century, but also to chart the internal growth and development of the organisation through the first three decades since its founding in 1961.
    Content Acknowledgement: Amnesty International Archives: A Global Movement for Human Rights publishes the records of Amnesty International from the second half of the twentieth century. The material contains minutes, reports, correspondence, first-hand accounts, publicity materials and circulars relating to human rights violations of all kinds in all parts of the world. Amnesty International’s remit of campaigning for an end to human rights abuses means that this archival material inherently relates to the themes of oppression, cruelty and degradation. Content includes, but is not limited to, descriptions of persecution, disappearances, capital punishment, violence and torture. This content contains both written descriptions and images.
    Language Statement: All editorial decisions relating to Amnesty International Archives have been made with great care, consideration and sensitivity. Every effort has been taken to preserve the historic authenticity of the documents included in this collection. Due to the age and nature of this material, some items may reflect outdated, biased, and offensive views. With this in mind, terminology that would no longer be deemed acceptable may be found within the digitised sources.

Key database categories

Follow the links below to browse databases for specific types of resources.

Database Directory

You can use our Database Directory to browse a broader range of databases that are relevant to Criminology as well as other subjects. The directory also allows you to identify databases that provide access to specific types of resources (e.g. Full Text Articles, Streaming Video, Patents, Theses and Dissertations, and much more).

Database Directory Criminology

 

Research at the University of Manchester

The University of Manchester's research is internationally recognised. Go to Research Explorer, Manchester's research database, to discover the breadth of research produced by staff across the University.

Browse research publications from the Department of Criminology (please note: whilst many of the publications listed are available to access/Open Access, some records are for forthcoming titles awaiting publication).

 

Research Explorer Search Interface

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