Review Serials

One very handy resource for updating your research is a review serial. Review serials contain a number of articles or chapters giving a critical analysis of recent developments and research in a particular area. They usually limit their discussions to the most recent years of research. An important review serial for public justice is called Crime and Justice and most volumes can be found on the third floor of the Academic Library at call number HV/6001/C672/vol. Another copy of this review serial can be found at the Law Library using call number HV/6001/C74/vol.

Each volume consists of a lengthy critical essay and bibliography of current research for a particular public justice topic. Topics recently covered include prevalence of drug use in the U.S., academic performance and delinquency, intermediate sanctions, evaluating crime prevention, preventing repeat victimization, preventing substance abuse, community crime prevention, and insider trading.

Use these review essays as a starting point for your library research. You may also find this series helpful in narrowing your topic since the essays are comprehensive in nature for current research, at least up until the publication date. This will give you an idea of how much research has been done on a topic before you devote very much research time to it.

In reading the journal literature of the field, keep in mind the distinction between popular, scholarly, and professional literature. Popular magazines are intended for the average adult reader to consume and is written in a style that is easily accessible to novices in the field. Time and Newsweek are examples of popular literature.

Scholarly literature is written by and for an audience which is interested in methodology and precise identification of sources. It often follows the scientific method such that there is a hypothesis, method of research, results, and discussion. Examples of sources are Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Journal and Justice Quarterly.

Professional or trade literature addresses the day-to-day problems of the practitioner in the field as distinct from the work of academics. This literature may also follow the scientific method but tends to be more applied rather than theoretical information. An example of professional or trade literature would be the magazine Police Chief.

Another type of periodical you are already familiar with is the newspaper. Newspapers and news reports can be valuable sources of information for public justice as they can be used to study events over time in a single place or compare reactions to similar problems in different places. Newspaper information should be used with great care by the researcher since, despite claims of objectivity, there is always some subjective decision-making involved in newspaper publication.

The Academic Library carries a limited number of newspapers including the San Antonio Express-News, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.