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Library Resources for CJ102

Keyword Searching Help

Need help developing and combining the right search terms? Click on the link below to take the brief interactive tutorial in order to get a better understanding of Basic and Advanced search features in the Library. 

Research Strategies

This assignment requires you to write an essay about theories of crime causation. The Library has lots of reliable resources, including reference books and journals, which will help you research and explore theories of crime as they relate to criminology.

Studies continually demonstrate a correlation between improved grades and library usage, so be sure to use the suggested research strategies provided on this page. 

Starting Out

Gale eBooks is a great database to begin your research. This database consists of reliable reference encyclopedias and handbooks, giving you an overview of the topic.

Suggested search phrases to try

criminology

"criminological theory" (keep the quotation  marks as shown)

Finding Journal Articles and other Publications

To search for reputable journal articles, search ProQuest Criminal Justice, a subset of ProQuest Central that focuses just on the law enforcement-related journals provided by ProQuest. This helps focus your research and cuts out publication types unlikely to have good info on this topic like newspapers.

Need more?

You can also try expanding your search by using the search box on the Search page of this research guide. This box, powered by EBSCO Discovery Service, will expand the resources beyond just ProQuest Criminal Justice and include everything EBSCO and our other databases has to offer.  

For example, type the phrase "crime causation" theories​ and select SEARCH.

Be sure to Include the quotation marks as shown above because they tell the database to look for the words together as a phrase:

Other searches to try include:

  • criminology and criminal justice
  • criminology "crime-psychology"
  • criminology and public policy