Some of the examples and suggestions on this page may help you when searching for criminal justice-related information in library databases.
If you get too few sources...
Think of synonyms.
You tried: teen
Try: teenager, teenagers, adolescent, juvenile, youngster, "young adult"
Use truncation (? or *) for more word endings.
You tried: crime
Try: crim? or crim*
(This will look for crime, criminal, criminality, criminology,and other words that begin with CRIM.)
Don't use terms that are too specific.
You tried: embezzlement AND Kentucky
Try: white collar crime AND Kentucky
embezzlement AND United States
white collar crime AND United States
You get too many sources:
Use AND to separate terms.
You tried: child abuse Kentucky prison
Try: child abuse AND Kentucky AND prison
Use quotation marks to search words together.
You tried: motor vehicle theft
Try: "motor vehicle theft"
This will look for the words motor vehicle theft all together in that order, as a phrase, instead of finding each word separately.
Don't use terms that are too broad.
You tried: criminal behavior
Try: "criminal behavior" AND "at-risk youth"
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