Library Research Guide for Forensic Psychology
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Forensic psychology is a cross-disciplinary subject, encompassing aspects of psychology, criminology and law. Researching forensic psychology literature requires a familiarity with resources in each of these areas, but especially psychology and law. Psychology students should know how to search the library catalog CUNY+, how to search the PsycINFO database, and how to search for law review articles using Lexis Nexis Universe and/or the Index to Legal Periodicals. Students should also be familiar with the most important forensic psychology reference books.
For a longer list of library resources for forensic psychology, see Forensic Psychology: A Guide to the Lloyd Sealy Library Resources
Some general psychology
reference books
American Psychiatric Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: APA. Reference Desk BF 76.7.P83 2001.
Some Forensic Psychology Reference Books
American Psychiatric Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: APA. Reference Desk BF 76.7.P83 2001.
Weiner, I. (Ed.). (2003). Handbook of psychology.
NY: Wiley.
12 volumes. Impressive general psychology
reference source, particularly notable as volume 11 is devoted
entirely to forensic psychology. Reference BF121 .H1955
2003 (2nd copy of volume 11 is kept at the Reserve Desk
BF121 .H1955 2003).
Some Forensic Psychology Reference Books
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV. Washington, DC: APA.
The DSM-IV was composed by the American Psychiatric Association to provide a consistent and uniform classification of mental disorders. It is the standard and the most common classification system used for describing mental disorders, and describes the identifying symptoms of each.
Kept at Reference Desk on upper floor of library. Another copy behind reserve desk on lower floor, at call number RC455.2.C4D54
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV TR. Washington, DC: APA.
This edition revises the text of the DSMV IV, but not the actual classification of disorders.
Kept at reference desk on upper floor of library. Library also subscribes to electronic version. Reference Desk RC455.2.C4D54
Bluglass, R. and Bowden, P. (Eds.). (1990). Principles and practice of forensic psychiatry. London: Churchill Livingstone.
Written by a team of 141 experts attempting to provide an overview of “the principles and practices of forensic psychiatry” to “professionals dealing with mental disorder and law and crime”. There are 1600 pages with an 84 page bibliography, and an index of legal cases from 9 different countries, but most are from England. Of particular interest is the story of Daniel McNaughton, with a description of the murder and trial that led to the development of the McNaughton rules (pages 85-88, with many more references throughout the book). This work includes chapters on aspects of forensic psychiatry in a number of different countries, and so it is a good source for anyone interested in practices outside the United States. The one drawback to this work is that the legal emphasis is very much on the English system.
Reference RA1151.P673 1990
Ribner, N. (Ed.), (2002). Handbook of juvenile forensic psychology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Concerned mainly with interaction of juveniles with the criminal justice system, considering the juvenile as an offender, but it also has sections on family courts, custody, gangs, and relationships with the police. There are six sections: juveniles in the justice system, understanding incarcerated juveniles, assessing juveniles in the justice system, treating juveniles in the justice system, juveniles in family court and juveniles in dependency court. Reference RA1148 .C35 2002
Weiner, I. (Ed.). (2003). Handbook of psychology: Volume 11: Forensic psychology. NY: Wiley.
Reference BF121 .H1955 2003 (2nd copy of volume 11 is kept at the Reserve Desk BF121 .H1955 2003).
Weiner, I and Hess, A. (Eds). (2006). Handbook of forensic psychology. 3nd ed. NY: Wiley.
Good starting point for information on forensic psychology topics. It has over 900 pages with 28 chapters written by different experts, inlcuding John Jay College faculty. Most aspects of the field are covered, ranging from a history of the discipline to practical applications and professional practice. There are extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter. Highly recommended.
Reference RA1148.H36 2006
Dictionaries
Garner, B. (Ed.). (1999). Black's law dictionary.
7th ed. St. Paul, MN: West.
The first edition of this classic work was published in 1891. Kept at reference desk on upper floor of library.
Kaplan, H. (1991). Comprehensive glossary of psychiatry and psychology. Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins. Contains short dictionary-style definitions.
Reference RC437.K36 1991
Mason, J. (1987). Butterworths medico-legal encyclopedia. Butterworths, London.
Most entries in this small one volume encyclopedia are about a half page long, with good short bibliographies. Most of the legal references are to English law, but mention is made of significant U.S. situations. Reference law KD3395.A68M37 1987
The first edition of this classic work was published in 1891. Kept at reference desk on upper floor of library.
Kaplan, H. (1991). Comprehensive glossary of psychiatry and psychology. Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins. Contains short dictionary-style definitions.
Reference RC437.K36 1991
Mason, J. (1987). Butterworths medico-legal encyclopedia. Butterworths, London.
Most entries in this small one volume encyclopedia are about a half page long, with good short bibliographies. Most of the legal references are to English law, but mention is made of significant U.S. situations. Reference law KD3395.A68M37 1987
Sloane, R. (1987). Sloane-Dorland annotated medical-legal
dictionary. NY: West.
A good dictionary linking law and medicine. Entries cite relevant cases, and provide quotations from them. However, the emphasis is on medicine rather than psychology. Includes a good entry on polygraphs. Reference RA1017.S56 1987
A good dictionary linking law and medicine. Entries cite relevant cases, and provide quotations from them. However, the emphasis is on medicine rather than psychology. Includes a good entry on polygraphs. Reference RA1017.S56 1987
Interviewing and
tests
American Psychiatric Association. (2002). Quick
reference to the practice guidelines for the treatment of psychiatric
disorders. Washington, D.C., The Association.. Reserve
Desk RC 480.5 .A495 2002 Suppl.
Buros, O., ed. Mental measurements yearbook. 16th ed. Highland Park, NJ: Mental Measurements Yearbook, 2004. (For published tests). Library also subscribes to electronic version. Reference LB1131 .B9.
Fernández Ballesteros, R. (2003). Encyclopedia of psychological assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Reference BF176.E53 2003
Goldman, B. (Ed.). (1970-2003). Directory of unpublished experimental mental measures. NY: Human Sciences Press. Reference BF431 .G625
Othmer, Ekkehard. (1994). Clinical nnterview using DSM-IV. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association. Reserve Desk RC 480.7 .O743 1994
For more resources, see Psychological Tests: A Guide to the Lloyd Sealy Library resources.Researching and writing about
psychology
Bell, P. (2001). Evaluating, doing and writing research in
psychology: A step-by-step guide for students. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage. Reference BF 78.B45 2001 Leong, F. and Austin, J. (Ed.s). (1996). Psychology research handbook: A guide for graduate students and research assistants. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Reference BF 76.5.P795 1996.
Reed, J. (2003). Library use: Handbook for psychology. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Reference BF76.8.R43 2003.
Rosnow, R. & Rosnow, M. (1998). Writing papers in psychology: A student guide. 4th ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Reference BF 76.7.R67 1998
Sternberg, R. (2000). Guide to publishing in psychology journals. NY: Cambridge University Press. Reference BF 76.8.G85 2000
Career guides
American Psychological Association. Graduate study in psychology.
Washington, DC: APA. Published every year. Reference BF77.G73Morgan, B. (2002). Majoring in psych? Career options for psychology undergraduates. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Reference BF 76.M67 2002.
Woods, P. (1987). Is psychology the major for you?: planning for your undergraduate years. Reference BF 76 .I8 1987.
Browsing the shelves in the reference area, in the stacks (for circulating books) and in the journal area of the library will give you an idea as to the scope of the literature available. Browse the shelves indicated by the following call numbers:
Browse the Reference Area (on second floor) book shelves at BF to find general psychology handbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries. These are very useful for definitions and overviews of psychological terms and topics.BF = psychology
RA 1148 = forensic psychology
RC 435 to RC 569 = psychiatry
For specific books, and books on specific topics, search CUNY+, the library catalog. Use CUNY+ to identify books, theses, and journals owned by the CUNY libraries. You can select to search just John Jay, or search all of the CUNY libraries. John Jay students may use and borrow materials from other CUNY libraries. How to search CUNY+
We collect PhD thesis from many universities, including CUNY. Most, but not all, are shelved in the stacks on the lower floor of the library at call number starting with LD 1. Others are shelved according to the subject matter. Search CUNY+, the library catalog, to identify thesis on specific topics. Use keyword searches, with thesis as on of your keywords:
thesis and productivity thesis and case stud* The asterisk * truncates the keyword - stud* retrieves study and studies.
thesis and personality thesis and attitude*
Masters theses in all areas written at John Jay are shelved in both the lower Stacks and in Special Collections under the call number LD 2602 .J3
The Dissertation Abstracts database indexes PhD dissertations from across North America, and contains some full text from the more recent ones.
Dissertations: Current Research@ contains the full text of CUNY dissertations.
To identify articles written on a particular topic, use an index. Most indexes (including PsycINFO, the most important index to psychology literature) are now available in electronic form. For a complete list of indexes available in electronic form through the Lloyd Sealy Library, click here. For information about how to access these databases from computers outside the college, click here. The indexes most relevant to forensic psychology majors are the following:
Indexes to psychology journals
PsycINFO
PsycINFO is the most important and most comprehensive index to the psychological literature. PsycINFO indexes and abstracts articles from over 1,800 journals, in addition to book chapters, books, dissertations, & research reports. Coverage is 1887 to present, and for books 1987 to present. [the print version of this index is called Psychological Abstracts, and on CD-ROM it is called PsycLit - it's the same database, just sold in different formats from different vendors]. Click here to access the PsycINFO database (EBSCOhost interface).
Guide to searching PsycINFO (using EBSCOhost interface), from the American Psychological Association.
Schedule of classes on using PsycINFO given at the Lloyd Sealy Library.
PsycARTICLES
Contains more than 30,000 full-text articles from 43 journals published by the American Psychological Association and allied organizations; 1988- . The search interface is not as good as that of PsycINFO. Usually, it is better to search PsycINFO rather than PsycARTICLES - the Lloyd Sealy library has set up links from the article records in our PsycINFO to the article fulltext in PsycARTICLES.
Click here to access PsycARTICLES
Indexes to medical journals
MEDLINE
Indexes and abstracts over 11 million articles published in medical and biomedical journals. The index is produced by the National Library of Medicine, and can be access free on the web, through the PubMed interface. CUNY also subscribes to Medline throught the EBSCOhost interface. One advatange of using EBSCOhost is that is allows us to link to the full text of those journals that we subscribe to. Note - John Jay owns very few medical journals - New York Academy of Medicine library is probably your best option for accessing the articles once you have identified them.
Infotrac Health Reference Center
Indexes, abstracts and contains the full text of medical reference materials and articles from medical journals. This is a much smaller index than MEDLINE, and indexes relatively few journals compared to MEDLINE. The advantage of using this database is that many articles are full text. Click here to access Infotrac Health Reference Center.
Indexes to criminology journals
(1977-present) - indexes articles from criminal justice journals,
and some books. Click here to access Criminal
Justice Abstracts. Criminal Justice Abstracts
NCJRS Database
[National Criminal Justice Reference Service] (1972-present). Governmentally-sponsored database which covers the professional literature in criminal justice including books, journal and magazine articles, government documents and many unique reports not found elsewhere. Database now divided into full-text and abstracts sections. Click here to access NCJRS Database on the World Wide Web, or click here to access the NCJRS Abstracts Database via CSA interface.
Indexes to law review articles
LEXIS/NEXIS Universe
Articles from law reviews can be searched and the full text retrieved in the Legal Research module of LEXIS/NEXIS Universe. This database also contains the FULL TEXT of articles from thousands of newspapers, magazines, and journals, as well as FULL TEXT of federal and state laws and cases. Best way of searching is from the guided search screens. Use quotation marks to indicate a phrase. Note: articles are not indexed under subject headings. Click here to access LEXIS/NEXIS Universe.
Hein Online
Full text of law review articles can be searched and retrieved. Note: articles are not indexed under subject headings. Click here to access Hein Online.
Index to Legal Periodicals
Indexes articles in legal journals published from 1981 to the present. Articles are indexed using subject headings, so it is easier to identify relevant articles using this database, than by searching either Lexis/Nexis Universe and/or Hein Online. Click here to access Index to Legal Periodicals.
Finding out if John Jay
owns a journal:
There are two places to check to find out if we own a journal:1. Search the library catalog, Cuny+ to see if we own the journal in print format. Search using the browse title option, e.g psychological bulletin.
2. Check the List of Full Text Electronic Journals to see if we have access to the journal in electronic format.
If John Jay does
not own a journal or book that you have identified:
Search the full CUNY+ library catalog to see if any CUNY library owns it. John Jay College students can use and borrow materials from other CUNY libraries.
For medical journals, the best resource is probably the New York Academy of Medicine, which is open to the public 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Before you go,search the NYAM catalog to see if they own the journal you want.
Search the Worldcat database to identify which libraries in the city own the book/journal. John Jay reference librarians can give you a "metro pass" allowing you to access a specific item at some private libraries, such as Columbia, Fordham, NYU.
Interlibrary loan service is available to graduate students and faculty. Warning - this takes time - about a week for articles and 3 weeks or more for books. Forms are available at the reference desk and online.
The Psychology Department at John Jay College.
Links to forensic psychology web sites, chosen by the librarians at the Lloyd Sealy Libary.
CUNY Information Competency Tutorials Explain how to effectively do library research, including how to search the library catalog and other databases.
Help with research from reference librarians at the Lloyd Sealy Library.
| Library liaison for
psychology: Ellen Sexton Email: esexton@jjay.cuny.edu Phone: 212 237 8258 Last updated: November 2005 |
© 2003 - Lloyd Sealy Library John Jay College of Criminal Justice 899 Tenth Ave, New York, NY 10010 http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu |