eReviews: Criminal Justice Abstracts
By Cheryl LaGuardia Nov 15, 2010Criminal Justice Abstracts
EBSCO Publishing, ebscohost.com/academic/criminal-justice-abstracts/
CONTENT Criminal Justice Abstracts (CJA) from EBSCO Publishing provides indexing and abstracts for books, journals, dissertations, governmental and NGO reports, papers, and newsletters in the field of criminal justice and related subjects (such as criminal law, forensics, prisons, and history of crime). There are currently over 235,000 records in the file, with more than 270 scholarly journals indexed cover to cover. Content runs from 1912 to the present and is updated quarterly.
USABILITY The EBSCOhost interface is one of the most recognizable in the business—a basic Search box at screen center with links to Advanced Search, Visual Search, and Search History directly below it. The Advanced Search screen contains three search boxes accompanied by drop-down menus to Select a Field (to search), with the option to Add Row and more Search Options (Boolean/Phrase, SmartText Searching) and ways to Limit Your Results (Full Text, Scholarly Journals, Publication Date) listed below. It’s neat and clean, with the power searching options low on the screen for the ambitious searcher.
I started out by doing a Basic Search for “assassinations” and got 260 hits. At this point, I was able to see the new results display EBSCOhost has implemented featuring a “bread box,” which included check-box options to Refine My Results by Linked Full Text, References Available, and/or Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, and which revealed the date range for my result list (1926–2010, quite impressive). I chose all three bread- box options, clicked the green Update button, and got a revised result of 16 hits, all of which were right on target. I was able to re-sort the list by date ascending or descending (an important feature for this file especially), and I noted that the publication range listed at screen left had narrowed from 1985 to 2010. Fast, easy, powerful—I like it.
Next I tried an Advanced Search for the words “parole” and “murder” appearing in All Text and got 136 items from 1925 to 2010. I asked to limit my results to Full Text, and that cut it down to five items (not surprising, given the dates of coverage and the specialized nature of many of these works). These results, too, were right on target. At that point, I went back to my list of 136 (having removed the limit to Full Text) and limited the results to References Available. This returned eight items with available Cited References, and I simply had to click the Cited References link to see them. Easy, powerful, and smart—I like it a lot.
My next Advanced Search, for “criminal” and “profiling,” found 751 results from 1977 to 2010. When I asked for Full Text results only, that number fell to 183, from 1983 onward; with References Available, I got 169 results ranging from 1994 and later. Suffice to say limiting to either of these conditions will likely get you only newer material—which makes perfect sense.
I examined a number of these citations and was struck by the diversity of sources: Criminology Contemporary Justice Review, International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling, Police Journal, Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology, to name just a few of the heavy hitters indexed here.
An Advanced Search for “recidivism” and “personality” yielded 226 results from 1967 to 2010. In this set of results, my first hit was for an article accompanied by high resolution images of charts, tables, and figures—all accessible, printable, and downloadable, not to mention easy to read. My search for “politicians” and “crime” found 385 results from 1927 to the present and included articles from the Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science and Social Forces, while a search for “psychopathology” and “criminals” found 263 items from 1934 to 2010, including articles from Development & Psychopathology, International Criminal Police Review, and JAMA. As you can see, this is a diverse file.
Next I tried a search for “genetic” and “propensity” just to see what kind of results it would yield. Turns out it’s a great case in point to demonstrate this file’s range. Just take a look at a few of the subject terms for the first article in my results’ list: Murderers—Psychology, Violence—Psychological Aspects, Primates—Psychology, Aggressiveness, Human Genetics, Criminal Psychology, Genetic Polymorphisms, and Environmental Engineering. But wait, there’s more! My search for “bibliotherapy” yielded 23 results, for which subject headings included Preteens—Psychology, Children of Divorced Parents—Psychology, Anxiety Disorders, Conduct Disorders in Children, Play Therapy, and Bibliotherapy for Children. There is so much here that I didn’t expect! And it’s easy to search and find.
PRICING Pricing is based on FTE, current subscriptions, consortial agreements, and buying groups; the price range is $2000–$4000 per year for a single institution (may vary for consortia and online institutions). Contact EBSCO for a customized quote.
BOTTOM LINE CJA offers much more content—for a broader span of years—than I thought possible, and the content is first-rate. So is the delivery system. It gets a ten and an enthusiastic recommendation. Not just for libraries serving criminal justice researchers, this file will be used by researchers across the disciplines (I started to list the subject areas, but there are too many!). Highly recommended for public, academic, and special libraries.
For a free trial, go to http://www.ebscohost.com/academic/request-information/criminal-justice-abstracts.
