Researching Criminal Law
Research in Criminal Law
By Kathy Fletcher, Reference and Public Services Librarian, FPLC
Primary Sources on Criminal Law
U.S. Constitutions (and states too!)
- Amendment IV – Search and Seizure
- Amendment V – Self incrimination
- Amendment VI – Speedy trial, right to a jury
- Amendment VIII – Cruel and unusual punishments
United States Code -Title 18 (Annotated by U.S.C.S. andU.S.C.A. and analyzed by both Moore’s Federal Practice and Federal Practice and Procedure)
Code of Federal Regulations, Title 28 – Rules of the Department of Justice, Board of Prisons, and Office of Independent Counsel
State Criminal Codes (e.g. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title 42; Massachusetts General Laws, Chapts. 263-274)
Treatises in substantive criminal law
Model Penal Code and Commentaries (official draft and revised commentaries), American Law Institute (in Pierce Law Library Reference area KF 9209.5.A2 M631 1985)
Substantive Criminal Law, Wayne R. LaFave (in Pierce Law Library at KF 9219 .L386 2003)
New Hampshire Practice Series, Criminal Practice and Procedure, Richard B. McNamara (in Pierce Law Library Reference at KFN1280 .N4 v.1,2,2A AND ON LEXIS)
Report of Commission to Recommend Codification of Criminal Laws established under chapter 451 Laws of 1965, Frank R. Kenison, Chairman. (in Pierce Law library at KFN1761.R44)
Massachusetts practice series, criminal law, Joseph R. Nolan and Laurie J. Sartorio (in Pierce Law Library KFM2480 .M3 v. 32 AND ON WESTLAW)
Other subject specific criminal law books are located on the first floor of the library in the following classifications:
- KF 9201 - KF 9220 -- Criminal law
- KF 9223 -- Criminal justice administration
- KF 9227.C2, KF 9927.D42 -- Capital punishment
- KF 9241 - KF 9242 -- Insanity defense
- KF 9315 -- Abortion
- KF 9322 - KF 9324 -- Abuse
- KF 9325 - KF 9329 -- Sex offenses
- KF 9350 -- White-collar crime
- KF 9375 -- Organized crime
- KF 9444 -- Obscenity
- KF 9619 -- Criminal procedure
- KF 9625 -- Arrest
- KF 9630 -- Search and seizure
- KF 9632 -- Bail, pre-trial release
- KF 9635 -- Extradition
- KF 9640 -- Indictment & Prosecution
- KF 9642 -- Grand jury
- KF 9646 -- Right to counsel
- KF 9660 - KF 9678 -- Evidence
- KF 9680 -- KF 9682 -- Jury trial
- KF 9685 -- Sentencing
- KF 9690 -- Appeals & Post-conviction remedies
- KF 9701 - KF 9710 -- Juvenile justice
- KF 9728 - KF 9742 -- Imprisonment
- KF 9771 - KF 9827 -- Juvenile justice
You can also try “subject” searching MelCat with one of these Library of Congress Subject Headings:
Criminal Law – Geographic Place Name
Criminal Procedure – Geographical Place Name
Other secondary sources:
AmJur 2d and CJS – American Jurisprudence 2d and Corpis Juris Secondum are legal encyclopedias which provide a broad overview of legal topics with annotations to state and federal cases. (examples of “criminal” subject headings include “search and seizure,” “former jeopardy,” “larceny,” etc.) (Available in our library on the second floor or, Westlaw “CJS” or Lexis “American Jurisprudence 2d”)
Note: there are also “Jurisprudences” for states as well. (e.g. Illinois Jurisprudence). Once you find a subject in one “jurisprudence,” that same subject will be the same in any state-level jurisprudence you find.
ALR – American Law Reports, ALR’s are “annotations” of specific questions of law, with well-laid-out compilations of various state and federal cases. (e.g. What Belief that Burglary Is in Progress or Has Recently Been Committed is Exigent Circumstance Justifying Warrantless Search of Premises, 64 A.L.R.5th 637 (1998)) (In our library on first floor or, Westlaw “ALR” or Lexis “ALR”)
Periodicals and Current Awareness:
The Criminal Law Reporter, BNA (in Pierce Law Library at KF9615 .C7, the most current copy on Reserve. A weekly reporter summarizing and analyzing recent state and federal criminal decisions.
U.S. Law Week, BNA (in Pierce Law Library at KF8742.A3 U5 ) a weekly reporter summarizing and analyzing interesting cases from state and federal cases in the U.S.
Journals and Law Reviews:
There are many journals and law reviews with a specific criminal law focus.
Hein On Line has a specific “Criminal Justice Journals” link which allows for full-text searching of over 70 American and international journals.
On Westlaw, there is the “JLR” library of “documents from law reviews, CLE course materials, and bar journals. A document is an article, a note, a symposium contribution, or other materials published in one of the available periodicals.”
On Lexis, “US Law Reviews and Journals, Combined “ a “combined United States Law Reviews and Bar Journals contains the full text of documents which are dedicated to the scholarly review of a variety of legal topics and developments and are of importance to students, practitioners and academics.”
JSTOR is an on line service of periodicals which are not “legal” per se, but may be useful in criminal law research in regard to statistics, sociology, public policy, and economics.
Other “criminal” information
www.usdoj.gov – United States Department of Justice. Crime statistics, pleadings, publications for attorneys and the public.
www.fbi.gov – Federal Bureau of Investigation, home to the Uniform Crime Reports, the mother lode of crime statistics in the United States.
www.ussc.gov – United States Sentencing Commission, home to the Sentencing Guidelines as well as links to state sentencing commissions.