The most efficient approach to locating scholarly journal articles on any topic is to start out with one of the library’s databases such as Criminal Justice Abstracts or Sociological Abstracts. These databases index hundreds of scholarly journals and will link you to articles on your topic of choice.

The library has subscriptions to numerous scholarly criminal justice journals. The links on the library’s web site are your access point to the full text online. You may be prompted to authenticate as a Villanova student. Use your Villanova user id and email password. You can find some of the same content through Google, but you may not be able to link to the full text.

 Journal Articles

  Criminal Justice Abstracts (EBSCO)

Criminal Justice Abstracts covers crime trends, crime prevention and deterrence, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, police, courts, punishment and sentencing. The database contains indexes and summaries of international journal articles, books, and governmental and non-governmental reports on a wide range of topics in criminal justice.

  Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest)

Covers sociological topics in fields such as anthropology, economics, education, medicine, community development, philosophy, demography, political science, and social psychology. Journals published by sociological associations, groups, faculties and institutes, and periodicals containing the term "sociology" in their titles are abstracted fully.

  Social Services Abstracts (ProQuest)

ProQuest Social Services Abstracts provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. The database abstracts and indexes over 1,600 serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations, and citations to book reviews.

 Research Published in Books, Dissertations and Reports

  Library Catalog

The Library's catalog enables patrons to search & browse Falvey Memorial Library’s collection of books, journals, audio/video materials, electronic resources and more.

  WorldCat (OCLC)

A catalog of library holdings worldwide. WorldCat will indicate any local library holdings and also offers an inter-library loan request option.

  Dissertations and Theses Full Text (ProQuest)

A comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses with over 2.4 million dissertations and theses included from around the world.The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637, and more than 65,000 new citations are added to the database every year. Where available, PQDT provides 24 Page Previews of dissertations and theses. In addition, nearly one million are available for download in PDF format. (Digital dissertations and theses are archived as submitted by the degree-granting institution. Some will be Native PDF, some PDF Image).

  ICPSR

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research holdings include several time series and other types of aggregate data, its holdings consist mainly of raw data derived from surveys, censuses, and administrative records. The data holdings contain some 6,000 studies and 450,000 files that cover a wide range of social science areas such as population, economics, education, health, social and political behavior, social and political attitudes, history, crime, aging, and substance abuse. Click for searching tips.

Getting the full text of journal articles

  Your gateway to the full text of journal articles.

Content is available via the following links:  Click on the Article link(s) to go to the full text.
Request from another library:  Submit an interlibrary loan request online. It takes on average 3-5 days for the article to arrive via email.

Background Research

The Library has a large number of subject specific online encyclopedias, companions and handbooks with exhaustive and well-researched entries written by subject experts. These essays are generally helpful startiing points and can help you in defining and focusing your topic. Essays generally include bibliographies that will lead you to further sources on your topic.

Listed below are the most authoritative reference sources on criminological theory and social science research methods. More encyclopedias, companions and handbooks can be found on the Criminal Justice e-Reference list and in the library's online catalog. And remember, the most up-to-date information is not always available online.

 Encyclopedias, Handbooks & Companions

Citing Your Sources

• Research and Documentation Online - APA
  Online guide to citing in APA style.
• Export references from journal indexes/databases
  All the indexes listed above format references in APA style:
  Select the articles which you plan to cite and look for the Cite link. Copy the APA style citation into the application of your choice. APA is a widely used style in the social sciences.

• Export references from online encyclopedias
  Most of the online encyclopedias format references in APA style: