Background Information & Statistics - Criminal Justice - Sheaffer - LibGuides at Harrisburg Area Community College

Background Resources

Use these resources to get basic factual information on your research topic.

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Full-text periodicals on issues from 1923 through current. All articles include an introduction to the topic, a lengthy overview, background information, the current situation, the outlook, and a pro/con section.
Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Topic overviews, contrasting viewpoints, articles, primary source documents, statistics, videos, and recommended websites covering specific issues.

Immigration Statistics
Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security
US Courts Statistics
Provides statistical data on the business of the federal Judiciary.
Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Statistical Briefing Book
Enables users to access online information via OJJDP's Web site to learn more about juvenile crime and victimization and about youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
National Center for Education Statisics (NCES), Crime & Safety Surveys
Data and reports produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on the topic of school crime and safety are centralized at this web site.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Uniform Crime Reports
Reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation.

Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics: 1985-2018
Independent analysis of national estimates of delinquency cases processed by the nation's juvenile courts. With this application, users can perform unique analyses on the age, sex, and race of juveniles involved in these cases as well as the referral offense, the use of detention, adjudication and case disposition.
Easy Access to FBI Arrest Statistics
Developed to provide access to juvenile arrest statistics at the national, state, and county level. Arrest statistics are presented for 29 detailed offense categories. Users can select displays based on counts or rates for juveniles, adults, or all ages combined.
Easy Access to Juvenile Populations
Provides access to National, State, and County level population data detailed by age, sex, race, and ethnicity. Users can create detailed population profiles for a single jurisdiction or create State Comparison or County Comparison tables.

Juvenile Court Judges' Commission
Contains statistics that are used to analyze the functioning of juvenile courts and to develop long-range plans for future court operations.
Youth.gov Statistics
youth.gov is the U.S. government website that helps you create, maintain, and strengthen effective youth programs. This page contains juvenile statistics.

Check out the resources below for statistics to support your position in argumentative/persuasive papers and speeches:

United States Census Bureau
Public resources from the U.S. Census Bureau including population, economic, industry and geographical studies.
** Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
An online source of credible information. Diseases & Conditions A-Z Index
Crime in the United States
This report contains a compilation of the volume and rate of violent and property crime offenses for the nation and by state.