Abortion Law Homepage
Down-the-middle information on abortion legislation, judicial opinions and arguments.
American Society of Criminology
The major professional organization for criminologists,ASC can refer journalists to its members. Studies prevention, control, and treatment of crime.
Argus on Government & Law
Use the “Government & Law” link to find information about government, intellectual property, law and regulation, military, and politics and elections.
Bureau of Justice Assistance
Part of the U.S. Justice Department, BJA “supports innovative programs that strengthen the Nation�s criminal justice system by assisting
State and local governments in combating violent crime and drug abuse. Established by the Omnibus
Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, as amended, BJA accomplishes its mission by providing
funding, evaluation, training, technical assistance, and information support to state and community criminal justice programs, thus effectively forming partnerships with State and local jurisdictions.”
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Useful statistics about crime, including homocide, prosecution and expenditure trends. Part of the U.S. Justice Department, BJS “is the Nation�s primary source for criminal justice statistics. BJS collects, analyzes, publishes,
and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of
justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to Federal, State, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded. BJS also provides financial and technical support to State governments in developing State capabilities in
criminal justice statistics, improving criminal history records, and implementing crime identification technology systems.”
Center for Responsive Politics on gun control
Gun Control vs. Gun Rights. Info from the leading chronicler of money in politics.
CNN gun laws
A state-by-state comparison of gun laws.
Code of Federal Regulations
Regulations published in the Federal Register by the executive agencies and departments of the federal government.
Code of Federal Regulations at LII
U.S. regulations in context, linked to the official site to stay current. From Cornell Law.
Code of Federal Regulations search
Several ways to search or browse U.S. regulations. From the Government Printing Office.
Congressional Record Filter
Every newsroom can use this free tool to keep track of new mentions of the local Congressperson, or river, or city, or business, in the Congressional Record, the official proceedings of the U.S. Congress. Instead of searching anew at Thomas (what the Library of Congress calls its Web service, in honor of Thomas Jefferson), you can save your Thomas search queries, then check back periodically to see new items only. Allows a comprehensive search of items from 1993 to date. This is a personalized search extension of the Thomas service from the Library of Congress, provided by the University of North Carolina. The catch: You must fill out a questionnaire to play.
Congressional Research Service
Congressional research, and research by state research agencies, compiled by Gary Price.
Corporate Crime Reporter
Current news in the sordid world of corporate crime, as well as long, detailed interviews with the big names in prosecution, plus reports and document files.
Corrections Corporation of America
Largest private operator of jails. The corporation designs, constructs, finances, and manages detention facilities of all security levels.
Council of State Governments
Daily news headlines from state government, as well as services for state government: research and reference publications, inquiry and referral services, an interstate loan library, innovations, suggested state legislation, secretariat services, marketing, data processing services, leadership development and interstate consulting.
Covering Crime and Justice: A Guide for Journalists
An online guide by Criminal Justice Journalists.
Covering Criminal Justice Volume II
Reporting on criminal justice requires persistence and perspective. The crime beat contains innumerable obstacles and complex legal and ethical issues for a journalist. This guide, presented by the Center on Crime, Communities & Culture and the Columbia Journalism Review, provides the most reliable resources to assist the criminal justice reporter.
Crime & Justice News
Current links to articles on criminal justice issues, from Criminal Justice Journalists.
Crime Victims for a Just Society
A victims group that rejects vengeance, instead promoting restorative justice, community policing, and paying closer attention to the often socio-economic roots of criminal behavior. A member of their speaker’s bureau can be available for media appearances.
Criminal Justice Journalists
Criminal Justice Journalists is an association of journalists covering crime, court and prison beats. Check out the “information center” for links by topic. Operates a cops and court reporters mailing list. Publishes Covering Crime and Justice: A guide for Journalists.
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Pro-death penalty organization, advocating “swift and certain punishment” for criminals, and specializing in victim’s rights.
Critical Resistance
Critical Resistance opposes the expansion of the prison industry, calling instead for more social programs providing education, health care, and jobs. Launched in September 1998 by Angela Y. Davis and other longtime left-wing prison activists, the group will hold conferences and roundtables on human rights in prison, women in prison, the �criminalization of youth,� and prison privatization.
CyberSleuths
Frequently updated crime headlines from around the United States, ranging from high-profile cases to more locally-focused incidents.
Cyberspace Law and Policy
Bibliography of cases and opinions on cyberspace law. From the UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy.
Dart Center for Journalism and trauma
The Dart Center “is a global network of journalists, journalism educators and health professionals dedicated to improving media coverage of trauma, conflict and tragedy. The Center also addresses the consequences of such coverage for those working in journalism.” Awards fellowships to journalists to study emotional injury, its effects on victims of disaster and violence, and its implications for journalists.
Deadly Lessons: School Shooters Tell Why
“Deadly Lessons,” a special report in the Chicago Sun-Times on a study by the U.S. Secret Service. PDF file.
Death Penalty Information Center
This organization is opposed to the death penalty, but provides responsible statistics on capital punishment: executions by year, by state, by method, death row inmates, etc.
Directory of Legal Academia
Lists U.S. law schools alphabetically. Also links to directories of lawyers and law organizations. From the Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.
DOJ FOIA files
Guides to using the Freedom of Information Act for FBI files and other information from the U.S. Department of Justice. Also a list of contact people for FOIA at agencies.
FBI
FBI main page.
FBI Crime Statistics
Includes statistics on major crimes, hate crimes, terrorism and the FBI’s most wanted.
FBI Electronic Reading Room
Information from the most-requested FBI files: John Wilkes Booth, J. Edgar Hoover, John Lennon, the Rosenbergs, John Steinbeck, UFOs, Weatherman Underground, even John Wayne.
Federal Grand Jury
Reporters not already familiar with how grand juries work in the U.S. can find a short explanation of why grand juries will be employed in the cases of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Law professors Susan Brenner and Lori Shaw at the University of Dayton provide this Federal Grand Jury site, with frequently asked questions and info on both state and federal grand juries.
Federal Legal Information Through Electronics
Search for Supreme Court decisions from 1937-1975 by case or keyword.
Federal Register
Full-text access, up to date, to the Federal Register, the official daily publication of federal regulations: rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
Federal Web Locator
A comprehensive list of federal agencies. From the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law.
FedWorld
A portal for U.S. government sites. Full text of Supreme Court decisions, Customs rulings, EPA Clean Air Act Database, a few others. And pointers to much more. Searchable.
FindLaw
The Yahoo of law. Legal subject index, law schools, etc.
FindLaw Law Crawler
Excellent search engine for legal information. A service of FindLaw.
Firearm Image Library
Information for each type of firearm may include: description, country of origin, manufacturer, caliber, feed, muzzle velocity, sights, length, width, history of manufacture.
Firearm Injury Center
The effects of gun violence, from the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Full-text state statutes on the Net
This page seeks to link to sites containing full-text state constitutions, statutes (called codes or compiled laws in some states), legislation (bills, amendments and similar documents) and session laws (bills that have become laws).
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
GLAAD’s “Eye on the Media” features news updates and stories to watch. Full-text publications and e-mail news alerts available.
Health Law Resource
A lawyer’s compilation of resources for anyone interested in health care law. Focuses on telemedicine, bioethics, privacy, Medicare/Medicaid, fraud, and mergers and acquisitions.
Hieros Gamos Online Law Library
A comprehensive legal site with directories of bar associations, law schools, publishers, etc.
Historic Supreme Court Decisions — by Topic
Alphabetical list of Supreme Court cases by category. From the Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.
Institute for Law and Justice
The Institute specializes in research, consulting, and evaluation of law enforcement and can provide information on policing and corrections management.
Internet Legal Research Compass
Comprehensive links to U.S. Federal courts, state courts, state statutes, state agencies, state rules. From the Villanova University School of Law.
Judicial Opinions
Search for state and federal court decisions by cicuit court or by state. From the Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.
JURIST
The law professor’s network, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Extensive links on legal topics: subject guides, books, reviews, articles, conferences.
JURIST guide to the U.S. Supreme Court
Court calendar, orders, cases, justices, procedures, statutes, clerks, et al. From the law professor’s network and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
JURIST on gun laws
Backgrounder on gun laws, from the law professor’s network: current cases, legislation, position papers, case law, statutes, books, articles, scholars. From the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
JURIST subject guides
Authoritative legal guides that are terrific for reporters on deadline: administrative law, commercial law, cyberspace law, environmental law, et al. Each links to recent articles, legislation, books and journals.
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Part of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention “is the primary Federal agency responsible for addressing the issues
of juvenile crime and delinquency. In 1984, Congress added the problem of missing and exploited children to OJJDP�s legislative mandate. OJJDP administers the Missing and Exploited Children�s program, four programs under the Victims of Child Abuse Act, and the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. OJJDP provides Federal leadership by providing grants and contracts to States, local communities, and Indian tribes to help improve their juvenile justice
systems and by sponsoring innovative research, demonstration, evaluation, statistics, and technical assistance and training programs to improve the Nation�s understanding of and response to juvenile violence and delinquency.”
Keeping Schools and Communities Safe
Resources on school violence. From the U.S. Department of Education.
Law Enforcement Alliance of America
A conservative advocacy organization of about 100,000 law enforcement professionals,
crime victims, and citizens, the Alliance drafts and lobbies for bills providing greater protection for law enforcement personnel. Contact Carl Mica.
Law Topics from Cornell
Legal topics and links. Categories include enterprise law, intellectual property, taxation. From Cornell Law.
Legal Ethics Library from Cornell
State ethics codes, opinions, and narratives. From Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.
Legal Research Guide
The site is geared toward lawyers doing research, but has valuable information for anyone needing to navigate the twisted halls of court and legal records. There are articles and tipsheets as well as links to news, records, and databases.
Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator
More than 900,000 lawyers and law firms in the U.S. and elsewhere — not all of them. But search the entire country at once.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
Leads you through a step-by-step process for accessing more than 550 downloadable data collections about criminal justice.
National Association of Counties
NACO represents counties as a lobbyist, but provides research and recommendations on the best practices in county government. This makes it an essential resource for journalists. To assess your county property assessor, find out how NACO says it should be done.
National Center for Juvenile Justice
Collects data on juvenile crime, recommends other appropriate sources for juvenile crime data, and provides comparisons between states’ responses to juvenile crime.
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Site’s search database lets you view photos of missing children after entering specific characteristic data about the child.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Organization is staunchly anti-death penalty, and publishes a directory of other abolitionist groups and individuals.
National Conference of State Legislatures
Policy briefings on issues that come before state governments. Not only essential for statehouse reporters, NCSL is a good source of expertise for stories doing issues stories.
National Criminal Justice Reference Database
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 150,000 criminal justice publications, including Federal, State, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. Also check out the full-text collection in the NCJRS Virtual Library.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
A deep resource of information on criminal justice: corrections, courts, crime prevention, statistics, drugs, juveniles, law enforcement, research, victims. Maintains several mailing lists about police work. Some lists are open, and others are restricted to law officers. Topics include bike cops, cop fleet, high tech crime fighting, criminal justice, emergency management, Department of Justice announcements, law enforcement analysts, firearms instructors, and public safety communications.
National Incident-Based Reporting System
The replacement to the Uniform Crime Report will include 22 categories of crime, with information on each incident — not just aggregate data from each jurisdiction. This is an overview with links.
National Institute of Justice
NIJ is the research and development agency of the Department of Justice. Whatever your subject in crime and law enforcement, you’ll find that NIJ has done reports, has grant programs, and has experts you can interview. “NIJ was created by
Congress (via the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, as amended) to prevent and
reduce crime and to improve the criminal justice system by sponsoring research projects and development programs, developing new technologies to fight crime, evaluating the effectiveness of criminal justice programs, and identifying and recommending programs that have been successful or are promising. NIJ publishes materials that allow criminal justice research professionals, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to stay abreast of the latest Institute research and the results of program evaluations. As
a result of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (the Crime Act), NIJ has greatly expanded its initiative to include partnerships with other Federal agencies and private foundations, advances in technology, and a new international focus.”
National Rifle Association of America
The pro-gun position.
National Violence Prevention and Study Center
These experts, largely from the U.S. Secret Service, have done groundbreaking work on “targeted violence” — terrorism, workplace and school shootings, and terrorism. Few of the so-called experts on “profiling” or terrorism have studied the subjects, but these guys have.
NCES: Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2001
“This report presents data on crime at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general population from an array of sources….” From the National Center for Education Statistics.
New York state courts
New York decisions, judicial bios.
New York state crime statistics
Nolo
Self-help legal information. The lawyers hate these folks. Includes legal dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.
Nolo Trademark and Copyright Law
An introduction, from Nolo press, the self-help legal company.
Office for Victims of Crime
Part of the U.S. Department of Justice, “OVC was established by the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) in 1984 to oversee diverse programs that benefit victims of crime. OVC provides substantial funding to State victim assistance and compensation programs�the lifeline services that help victims heal. The agency also supports training designed to educate criminal justice and allied professionals regarding the rights and needs of crime victims.”
Official Directory of State Patrol & State Police
Directory of official state trooper and sheriff-related websites for all 50 U.S. states. Also includes links to police academies and associations, law enforcment history and news, memorials, recruiting sites.
PACER
The official dockets of most U.S. Federal courts (District, Bankruptcy and Appellate) are available on a dial-up, pay-per-use service called PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). Requires a computer and modem and communications software. Each court has a different modem number; all that is centralized is the billing. Most courts charge 60 cents a minute. The PACER Service Center on the Web is the Federal Judiciary’s centralized registration, billing, and technical support center for this service. Also see the U.S. Party/Case Index, which can be searched on the Web, for a fee. Many courts also now have links to RACER (Real-Time Access to Court Electronic Access), which gives copies of the court documents. See the court list.
PACER U.S. Party/Case Index
A new service, operated by PACER, allowing national or regional searches of court records by name and Social Security Number in the bankruptcy index, party name and nature of suit in the civil index, and party name in the criminal index. “Not all federal courts participate in the U.S. Party/Case Index.” The fee is 7 cents per page. A login and password are required. Billing is quarterly.
Partnerships Against Violence Network
Information about violence and youth-at-risk, representing data from seven different Federal agencies. Searchable. Designed to help states and local communities.
Securities Class Action Clearinghouse
Detailed information on securities cases. Offers an E-mail alert service. From Stanford University Law School.
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
More than 600 tables on criminal justice in the U.S., from more than 100 sources. Published in November each year. Prisons, juveniles, arrests, public attitudes, the criminal justice system. Now includes spreadsheets for most tables (scroll to the bottom of each chapter to see “tables.”)
Southern Poverty Law Center
An authority on hate crimes and discrimination, the SPLC monitors white supremacist and other hate groups, and researches the application of the death penalty.
State law info from Cornell
State-by-state info from Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.
State Legislatures
Links from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
State Legislatures
Links from the National Conference of State Legislatures to official legislative sites, and sites of individual legislators.
Supreme Court (via Cornell)
Cornell University’s searhable repository of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, party name tables, print citations, and case summaries.
Supreme Court bulletins from Cornell
U.S. Supreme Court opinions are distributed, in syllabus form, by Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute within hours of their release. Also has decisions from the New York Court of Appeals.
Supreme Court bulletins from Cornell
U.S. Supreme Court opinions are distributed, in syllabus form, by Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute within hours of their release. Also has New York Court of Appeals. Willamette University College of Law runs a http://www.willamette.edu/law
Supreme Court Opinions from GPO
Search Supreme Court opinions from 1937 to 1975, and 1992 to the present. Supreme Court opinions and related documents in WordPerfect 5.1, ASCII and Adobe Acrobat Portable Document (PDF) format. Uploaded daily.
The Crime Beat
Information on how to best cover the crime beat.
The Doe Network
Allows searches (by name, date, location, or keyword) for missing persons, unexplained disappearances, and unidentified victims’ cold cases. The site is maintained by volunteers but has useful information that might not be as readily available elsewhere.
The Sentencing Project
Studies the effects of incarceration, racial and economic disparity in sentencing, �three strikes� laws, �truth-in-sentencing,� prisoners� voting rights, and the political misuse of crime data.
The World Wide Web Virtual Library — law
A comprehensive Web library on law.
Thomas legislative information.
From the Library of Congress, full-text access to bills and resolutions under consideration in the current Congress and the two previous Congresses. Search bills and summaries, roll call votes, laws, the Congressional Record of statements in the Congress.
U.S. Federal & State Courts Finder
Search by federal district courts. From Emory University Law School.
U.S. Federal Courts List
An official list of links to federal courts.
U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library
U.S. and state laws, laws of other nations, treaties, etc.
U.S. Tax Court
Now you can search for tax cases involving individuals and companies at the U.S. Tax Court. You can look up an individual by name with “docket inquiry,” or see newest cases with “today’s opinions,” or see all the opinions from a particular time frame with “historical opinions.” Let’s say you want to see all the opinions from a certain month; the asterisk (*) wildcard can be used in the date field; to search for all opinions released in January 2002, enter 01/**/02 in the date field. You can’t see the documents online, but you can find a status and attorney’s names (click on “parties” when you see a case).
UN Crime and Justice Information Network
World crime stats from 1970.
Unclaimed Persons List
Sparely designed but fairly comprehensive database from San Bernardino, California, with records of unclaimed deceased persons throughout the United States. Searches can be done by US county or by name.
Understanding Crime Statistics
This new book (2001) from Investigative Reporters and Editors is a “reporter’s guide.” Written by Kurt Silver.
United Nations Crime Survey
World crime stats from 1970.
United States Code
Cornell University’s searchable U.S. laws.
Violence Policy Center
The anti-gun position.
West Legal Directory
More than 800,000 lawyers and law firms in the U.S. — not all, but many. If you know the name, you can find the lawyer anywhere in the U.S. Or search by area of practice.