National Criminal Justice Reference Service - Research Paper Example

History and General Overview of NCJRS The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) was established in 1972. It is a federally funded resource offering justice and drug-related information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide. The NCJRS Federal Sponsors include the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office of the Assistant Attorney General (OAAG), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the National Institute of Corrections (NIC).

It has such sections as About NCJRS, A-Z Publications/Products, Library/Abstracts, Search Q & A, Grants & Funding and Justice Events each with a distinct web link. (NCJRS Website) Its services and resources are available to anyone interested in crime, victim assistance, and public safety including policymakers, practitioners, researchers, educators, community leaders, and the general public. NCJRS offers a range of services and resources, balancing the information needs of the field with the technological means to receive and access support.

For instance, it offers extensive reference and referral services to help answer questions about crime and justice-related research, policy, and practice. Under the Search Questions & Answers section, one can access questions related to juvenile and criminal justice, victim assistance, substance abuse, and NCJRS services as found under the web link, https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/QA/SearchQA/aspx. (NCJRS Website) Further, it has an option for registering online to join the information network for receipt new publications, grants and funding opportunities, and other news and announcements.

This can be accessed under the web link, https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Secure/Registration/Register/aspx. After registration one receives Justinfo, a bi-weekly electronic newsletter that includes links to full text publications, notices of upcoming trainings and conferences, funding announcements, and other resources. This is found under the web link, https://www.ncjrs.gov/justinfo/dates.html. In addition, the one receives E-mail notifications on new publications and resources, periodic mailings of publications and invitations to subscribe to other topical listservs based on one’s interest areas.

The NCJRS also holds conferences and promotes the conferences of others, so people can use the NCJRS website to find out about events they may wish to attend. (NCJRS Website) The NCJRS sponsoring agencies publish hundreds of reports and other information products each year to share with the public. Most of the titles are available online for order through https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/AlphaList.aspx. It has an abstracts database which is one of the largest criminal justice libraries in the world and contains information from the 1970s to the present.

Available books, reports, articles, and audiovisual materials include congressional hearing transcripts, research findings, unpublished research, statistics, training materials and program descriptions. Topics covered in the materials in the abstracts database include juvenile justice, victims, law enforcement, courts, corrections, crime statistics, drugs and domestic preparedness. The NCJRS provides a subject-specific thesaurus and English