· If you haven't already done so you should establish your computer account so you can use the University computer system to write papers, access the library, send and receive e-mail, and use the internet.
To create your account you must be a registered student, have a current i-card, and provide your social security number. If you have problems contact the Client Services Office of the Computer Center (2267 SEL) or call them at (312) 413-0003.
Once you have established your computer account I suggest you first check
out the UIC Homepage. (By the way, when you
see a word(s) in blue, use your mouse and click on the link to go to that web
location.) From here you can also access the home pages of various
academic units, including the Criminal
Justice Department. For students, I consider the UIC Library to be a very important
location for doing research in this class, or any other you may take. Learn to
use the library's resources and subject guides and they can save you countless
hours researching various criminal justice and criminological issues.
There are also many valuable criminal justice websites at UIC
Lib Govt Info. If you scroll down the list and click on the City of Chicago you can tap information about
everything from Chicago Landmarks, to summer and fall music festivals in the
city, to how to pay your parking tickets on line. You will also find out
what the Chicago Police Department advises on fighting crime, and the latest
monthly crime statistics for your neighborhood (under City Departments, choose
"police" and then Citizen ICAM). With respect to finding other
criminal justice sites, you may want to try search engines like Yahoo!, Google, AltaVista,
or Dogpile. You need to be
specific in using your search parameters since putting in a search term like
"criminal justice" can yield several hundred thousand references!
Several individuals have constructed their own home pages which offer their
so-called "best" linkages to criminal justice information. You may
wish to try Cecil Greek's
criminal justice links at Florida State University, or Tom O'Connor's Criminal Justice Mega-Sites, the Best
of CJ. You should remember, though, that some of these web sites
are "vanity" pages where authors principally like to tell you about
themselves and their accomplishments. Some of them have good resources and
others are poor. There is another extensive source of criminal justice
information maintained by John
Jay College Publishers of criminal justice books like Wadsworth have established home pages that contain
subject indices and links to interesting criminal justice sites.
If you are interested in gathering information from federal government agencies, I would suggest you start with the Fed Web Locator which contains links to a great number of web servers in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of federal government. There are many justice-based government agency web sites which are informative, like the U.S. Justice Dept., the Office of Homeland Security, the FBI, CIA, ATF, Illinois Department of Corrections, Criminal Justice Internet Exploration Guide , and many other police agencies, including Chicago's noted above and the UIC Campus Police.
In particular, though, you will find most useful those sites which offer criminal justice research reports and statistics. You will learn of valuable justice research related home pages, including NIJ, a site about criminal justice technology, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The Bureau of Justice Statistics also has an "At a Glance" site for quick referrals. The National Criminal Justice Reference Service and the Bureau of Justice Statistics are two very powerful sites which can lead you to many valuable sources. The NCJRS also maintains abstracts of thousands of research documents which can help you immensely when writing research papers NCJRS Abstracts Database Introduction . The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan can also yield criminal justice data ICPSR. I also suggest you subscribe to the Justice Information Electronic Newsletter:
The White House also has a home page in which it publishes social science and criminal justice statistics, including some nifty graphs. You can review the national crime statistics for 1996 and preliminary 1997 data published by the FBI in their Uniform Crime Reports, and world-wide crime statistics published through the Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention of the U.N.. If you are searching for information about crime or criminal justice agencies in Illinois you may want to check on the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, which also has a number of other valuable criminal justice resources you can access. You can also read Governor Rod Blagojevich’s formally introduced strategic plan that calls for the integration of state, county, and local justice information systems throughout Illinois. You can also subscribe to receive CJ DISPATCH the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority's monthly e-mailing list containing the latest information about the Authority and the latest additions to the Authority's Web site by clicking CJ DISPATCH
The current controversy over the death penalty has resulted in a great deal of information on the internet. You should read the special report of the special panel commissioned by Governor Ryan to investigate the use of the death penalty in Illinois Capital Punishment . You may also want to read Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's speech in 2001 on the death penalty at the N.Y. Times website. Students may also wish to access the Georgetown University's Constitution Project (students will need to use Acrobat Reader to access this report; if you don't have this feature you may download it here) on the death penalty to read eighteen proposed reforms.
If you are interested in accessing forensic science information, I suggest you start with Zeno's home page. Those of you interested in the investigation of the FBI Crime Laboratory in the aftermath of the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombing cases, should access the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General Activities Site. This site is interesting in that it also includes reports of investigations of other DOJ operations. You may also wish to examine President Bush’s new initiative on DNA technology -- see.Advancing Justice
There are also a number of international sources of criminal justice information. The World Justice Information Network is a great resource to international sites and can also provide daily briefings on important criminal justice events. Or, you can leap to the United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network UNCJIN for a start. An excellent text on international criminal justice is the book by Philip Reichel, Comparative Criminal Justice Systems. There are also a number of private research institutes that may have information including the Public Safety and Justice’s website of Rand and the Vera Institute of Justice’s research collection Vera. In addition, there are some library sources that are particularly good, including Villanova University and IIT Kent Law School. The Legal Information Institute at Cornell University also supports U.S. Supreme Court opinions and Columbia University’s Justice Project and its Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform ("A Broken System")
There are many wonderful sources of criminal justice and criminology information on the Internet and the above suggestions are just a smattering of what is available. If you find any new or better sites that the ones I have suggested, please email them to me. After exploring this world, you will need to focus on those services that will best serve your needs. Remember, much of the information on the Internet is not peer reviewed and there is no guarantee it is accurate and reliable. Remember, also, to use any Internet information in your research paper for this course you will need to supply a complete reference. Literature published in reputable journals is still your best source.
New links under construction
Cleary Act Crime Statistics – UIC Police: