LibGuides: Children and the Law: Non-Law Sources

Finding non-law sources

To fully represent your client, you may need to find information outside of the usual law sources, including statistics, policy positions, mental health guidelines, and other information not found on Lexis or Westlaw. Often times, advocacy groups such as the ones mentioned throughout this LibGuide will have helpful materials. Another place you can find non-law materials are in other Boston College Databases. This page collects some resources that may be helpful when doing this type of research.

National Organizations

National Center for State Courts Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Guide
This page collects a great number of online resources having to do with juvenile justice. Included in this list are materials that focus on mental health, juveniles tried as adults and juvenile court & case management.
Juvenile Law Center
A national public interest law firm working to challenge laws, policies, or practices that harm children or to enforce children’s rights. The Juvenile Law Center page includes a resources page with publications, fact sheets, and podcasts.
IJA/ABA Juvenile Justice Committee
This web page includes the Committee newsletter, IJA-ABA Juvenile Justice Standards, and links to other resources.
ACLU Juvenile Justice Page
This pages includes links to ACLU resources such as a page entitled End Juvenile Life Without Parole (includes links to court filings).
Annie E. Casey Foundation
"The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization, dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States." Under the category "Our Work" is information on the foundations juvenile justice initiatives.

Statistics

Boston College Databases

We have access to many non-legal databases through the main campus library. To see the complete list of databases we may have access to go to the BC University Libraries Databases page. If you are accessing these databases from off campus you may be prompted to log-in. If you do not have access , you can try again to access a particular database the next time you are on campus.

Some databases that might be particularly helpful:

Encyclopedia of Social Work">

This is the classic Encyclopedia of Social Work, published in collaboration with NASW, including authoritative articles on all aspects of the field.

ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center)

ERIC is a vast database of journal and non-journal education literature available since 1966.

Proquest Statistical Insight Complete Collection

ASI: an index of all statistics issued by the US government back to 1973 through CIS' American Statistics Index

PsycBOOKS

PsycBOOKS is a full-text database of books and chapters in the American Psychological Association’s array of quality electronic databases.

PsychiatryOnline

PsychiatryOnline is a powerful website that features DSM-5, DSM-IV-TR® and The American Journal of Psychiatry as the cornerstones of an unsurpassed collection of psychiatric references, including books, journals, and self-assessment tools.

PsycINFO 1840-current

Provides abstracts and citations to the scholarly literature in the behavioral sciences and mental health.

State Stats

Provides data from more than 80 different sources covering more than 15 years at the state level.

Statistical Abstract of the United States

Standard summary of statistics on the social, political and economic organization of the U.S. Includes data from governmental and private sources. Serves as a guide to other statistical sources.