The Effect of Police Conduct on Public Trust in the Law
LEGAL DATABASES
ABA Journal
This is a free journal of legal news. One interesting feature is its BLAWGS application, which allows you to browse legal blogs by subject. There is an extensive database of BLAWGS in Criminal Justice. Whereas you cannot use this information in your research paper, there is a lot of interesting information that can help you in your analysis. Also, their news features provide legal information on current cases. ABA journal helps you identify current hot topics in criminal justice, like police misconduct.
DRAGNET: Search of Free Legal Databases via New York Law School
DRAGNET, or "Database Retrieval Access using Google's New Electronic Technology," is a specialized search engine that allows you to "drag the net" through a group of free law-related Web resources. It is similar to a Google search, except that it is more selective. It is a great place to go hunting for data.
FindLaw U.S. Supreme Court Cases
This site provides basic legal information and has an interesting application: you can actually ask questions that will be answered by members of FindLaw, which includes lawyers, law professors, and law students.
Google Scholar
This is a very good site, but rather frustrating because it redirects you to other databases where the information is not free. However, at least you can view the abstracts, and on occasion you can access the full article, although generally these are too old to use in your research. It is a good place to start. Google Scholar will lead you to other sites, like Justia, HeinOnline, and Jestor.
HeinOnline
Yet another giant database but you have to pay giant prices. Occasionally you can access one of their papers through Google Scholar. Usually you get “teasers;” that is, just an abstract, or the first page in a book.
Justia
This is a very good site, and free, to find legal sources, especially cases. It also directs you to other legal databases, like Cornell WEX, and WashLaw; and, international databases like UN Int’l Law and vLex. If you have patience and navigate around it you can usually find some information relevant to your research.
Legal Information Institute (LII)
This is small database by Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York that promotes open access to law resources. LII offers free access to legal data.
LEXIS/NEXIS
A giant database but you have to pay giant prices. Occasionally you can access one of their papers through Google Scholar.
Oyez. Org
This site is by Chicago-Kent and is a multimedia resource of Supreme Court material, including audio going back to 1955. You can access old cases pertinent to your research. And, it is free.
Public Library of Law (PLoL)
This is the largest free, US case law database on the Internet. Excellent source.
Social Science Research Network
This site provides free access to thousands of research papers, including legal theses. Its database includes papers from all over the world. This is a very good place to start your research. The papers are uploaded onto this site by the authors for free, so there might some concern whether they have been peer-reviewed. In that case, you can look at the references and find sources with a better pedigree.
WESTLAW
Another giant database but you have to pay giant prices. Occasionally you can access one of their papers through Google Scholar. Good for law students.
HINT #1: A good source can lead to many other good sources. The References section can be a goldmine of information. So, it is important to find that one first golden source and the rest becomes easier after that.
HINT#2: Do not limit yourself to a single database, no matter how successful your search has been, even if you have found all the sources you need. It is good practice to check and see what the other databases have to offer. Sometimes you can find even better sources, or sources that complement the ones you have already discovered.
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED: The only real obstacle to collecting data is that not all of it free. Often you find an article that seems just perfect but all you get is a brief abstract. However, sometimes the titles of those pay-per-view papers can give you a hint as to where your research should lead you next.
