LibGuides: Criminal Justice: Racial Justice

Welcome to the Racial Justice Research Guide

This guide provides members of the Rosemont community with a host of resources, both free and subscription-based, on racial justice, allyship, and anti-racist activism. Included are a number of critical, theoretical, and historical texts from prominent Black and POC scholars as well as articles and media related to current events. Many of these resources were compiled from social media posts that proliferated during the protests following the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Please contact us if you are having difficulty accessing any of the materials and resources linked here, or if you are aware of any further resources that you believe should be highlighted.

Featured resources are divided into three pages:

To pursue your own research, please use the links and search tools below. You may find the following key terms helpful. Remember, librarians are always standing by to assist!

Suggested search terms and phrases:

white supremacy
racial capitalism
racial stereotypes in media
structural inequality in education
hate crimes
microaggressions
school to prison pipeline
redlining
voter suppression
police brutality
war on drugs
racial wealth gap
systemic racism
prison industrial complex
environmental racism
broken windows policing

Encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries and other reference books can be a great place to start your research. They will:

Give you the background information you need to start researching unfamiliar concepts
Help you to narrow your topic down to a manageable research question
Provide fast, reliable sources for definitions, facts, and statistics.

CREDO Reference This link opens in a new window
Electronic collection of over 1,000 reference titles including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks. Subjects cover all major fields including art, literature, history, social sciences, law, psychology, religion, philosophy, business, science, medicine and more.
Click here for support.
Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
Indexes critical reviews of current research in the biomedical, physical, and social sciences. Limited volumes are available for the following titles: Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology, Clinical Psychology, Genetics, Marine Science, Physiology, Physical Chemistry, Plant Biology, Psychology, and Public Health.
Click here for support.
The Reference Shelf This link opens in a new window
Each volume in this series compiles a host of resources—including news articles, analyses, and background information—on a particular topic of critical importance in contemporary society. The series also includes collections of representative American speeches.
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Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to more than 30,000 pages of documents pertaining to women and social movements. Also includes a dictionary of social movements and organizations, a chronology of U.S. women's history, reviews, and teaching tools.
Click here for support.

Follow these links to search additional eBooks online:

Humanities E-Book Project This link opens in a new window
A digital collection of over 5000 full-text, cross-searchable titles in the humanities offered by the American Council of Learned Societies. Subjects include global histories, history of art and architecture, literature, dance, film and media studies, religion, gender, and sexuality.
Click here for support.
eBook Academic Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides access to thousands of ebooks in a wide variety of academic disciplines. Available through EBSCOhost.
Click here for support.

Use the following multi-subject and subject-specific databases to search for detailed research articles on your topic. Login required for off-campus access. Click here for the full list of Rosemont's electronic databases.

Civil Rights and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Containing links to more than 500 scholarly articles, hearings and committee prints, legislative histories on the landmark legislation, CRS and GAO reports, briefs from major Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights, this database allows users to educate themselves on the ways our civil rights have been strengthened and expanded over time, as well as how these legal protections can go further still.
Click here for support.
Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text contains more than 400,000 records selected from the most important sources within the discipline. Subject areas covered include: criminology; criminal justice; criminal law and procedure; corrections and prisons; police and policing; criminal investigation; forensic sciences and investigation; history of crime; substance abuse and addiction; probation and parole.
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ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts and selective full text of journal articles and reports on education research and practice from 1966 to the present. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
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Gun Regulation and Legislation in America This link opens in a new window
Gun regulation in the United States is arguably among the most controversial and heavily debated topics in American history. This collection brings together more than 680 titles dealing with this difficult and important topic, including legislative records, court briefs, and more.
Click here for support.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. For most publications, full text coverage is provided from the first issue to within two to five years of the current date.
Click here for support.
NexisUni This link opens in a new window
NexisUni features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.
Click here for support.
OmniFile Full Text Mega This link opens in a new window
OmniFile contains a wealth of essential material for learning and detailed research in a single, easily-searched database, with the full text of articles from over 2,500 publications, and indexing and abstracts from nearly 3,600 publications.
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PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
Provides full text access to more than 50 journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe Publishing Group. Coverage is from 1985 to the present.
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PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Indexes and abstracts journal articles, books and book chapters, and dissertations on psychology and psychological aspects of other disciplines. Coverage is from 1806 to the present.
Click here for support.
Slavery in America and the World This link opens in a new window
This collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. It includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
Click here for support.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to more than 30,000 pages of documents pertaining to women and social movements. Also includes a dictionary of social movements and organizations, a chronology of U.S. women's history, reviews, and teaching tools.
Click here for support.

Criminal Justice

Contact Us

Rosemont Archives

Welcome to the Racial Justice Research Guide

Critical & Historical Texts

Allyship & Anti-Racism Resources

Activist Organizations

Suggested search terms and phrases: