For topic ideas try looking at:
Relevant current events (see related news feeds on Home page of this guide)
Class discussions or readings
Presentations at relevant conferences
Articles in discipline related journals or trade publications
Assignment Calculators/Planners & Understanding Your Assignment
Image from Giorgio Montersino via Flickr
Concept (or Mind) Mapping Tools
The following electronic resources are useful for getting background information on topics of interest and keywords to use in your search for scholarly articles.
Browse by topic or conduct a "Quick search" for a broad term. The results should give you related issues to consider focusing your research on, and you can link to reports on these issues that include overviews, outlook, chronology, maps/graphs, etc.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Included in its "Social Science" and "Law" sections, this database provides us with the Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice; Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources; Policing in America; World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Correctional Systems; The U.S. Justice System: An Encyclopedia; West's Encyclopedia of American Law.
Provides the following reference resources: The Oxford Companion to American Law; A Dictionary of Law Enforcement; The Oxford Dictionary of Law; The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States; The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions; Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Click on "Subjects & Books" for a complete listing.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context
Featuring viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites on hot social issues.
Includes the following reference titles:Encyc of Activism & Social Justice; Encyc of Community Corrections; Encyc of Crime & Punishment; 21st Century Criminology Ref Handbook; Encyc of Interpersonal Violence; Encyc of Juvenile Justice; Encyc of Law & Society; Encyc of Law Enforcement; Encyc of Murder & Violent Crime; Encyc of Prisons & Correctional Facilities; Encyclopedia of Psychology & Law; Encyc of Race & Crime; and more!