Research Guides: Criminal Justice: Find Policy Research

Agency and Thinktank reports

Think Tanks, advocacy organizations, and foundations often provide policy research reports. These can be found in databases, and on individual organization websites.

American Policy Directory
Links to think tank and advocacy group websites by topic via University of Oregon Libraries
Death Penalty Information Center
Harvard Kennedy School Think Tank Search
Think Tank Search searches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations.
National Center for Juvenile Justice
Non-profit think tank that deals exclusively with juvenile justice. Access to downloadable publications covering issues such as juvenile courts, corrections, and probation.
National Center for State Courts
Independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the improvement of justice. Includes Court Statistics Project with information about state caseloads and other publications.
National Registry of Exonerations
Registry of detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989, and a more limited database of known exonerations prior to 1989.

Policy Commons This link opens in a new window
Note: This is the free version of Policy Commons.
Policy Commons offers access to over a million policy documents from thousands of IGOs, NGOs, research centers and think tanks. Includes the digital archive of global, non-partisan public policy research previously known as PolicyArchive.
Policy File Index This link opens in a new window
Policy File Index is a resource for U.S. public policy research. Users are able to access timely, updated information from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities.

Prison Policy Initiative, Research Clearinghouse
Contains links to 1800+ empirical criminal justice research reports. Site includes keyword searchable database.
Rutger's School of Law, Gray Literature Database
Published by Rutgers School of Law Library, this searchable index links to online gray literature publications on all aspects of crime and criminal justice.
Urban Institute - Justice Policy Center
Includes policy briefs and reports on criminal justice topics authored by staff from the Urban Institute.
Vera Institute of Justice
Includes an extensive resource library, built up by decades of research and analysis.

Government Research Reports

Department of Justice - All Agency Publications
Directory of research and publication pages from all agencies under the US Department of Justice.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) Reports
Reports discuss the efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-benefit of selected legislation. Browse by date and search by topic.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is an online product with pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline provides coverage from law and law-related periodicals. It also contains the Congressional Record Bound volumes in entirety, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754.

USA.gov
Portal to government information and services. Browse by agency to find research reports and policy briefs on agency websites.

Media Sources

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Note: As of July 2023, CQ Researcher has an updated platform and URL. Please update bookmarks accordingly.
Concurrent user limit: 20
CQ Researcher provides reports written by journalists, footnoted and fact-checked. Full-length articles include an overview, historical background, chronology, pro/con feature, plus resources for additional research. Graphics, photos and short "sidebar" features round out the reports.
CQ Weekly This link opens in a new window
CQ Weekly contains weekly reports on Congress, White House, and every federal agency. CQ Weekly includes an archive dating back to 1983.

The Marshall Project
Journalism about Criminal Justice
Find News coverage
This guide lists the major daily newspapers available full-text online through Temple, and the library's best bets for newspaper databases.

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