Broad Topic to Narrower Topics
Criminal Justice Reform
Prison Release System
Pretrial detention
Cash Bail
Money Bail
Bail credit
Presumption of innocence
Racial disparities
Sentencing Disparities
Use the Boolean Operators when searching the databases.
When searching a database consider using the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to join the terms in your search. When linking terms with Boolean Operators you are building an equation. In other words you are telling the database how your search terms should relate to one another.
Let's look at each operator one at a time...
AND : If you join your terms with AND, then all of your terms must be in each record of your results list. Joining terms with AND will narrow your search results.
As in: Automobile Theft AND Atlanta
Each record within your results list will include BOTH terms.
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OR : If you join your terms with OR, then either of your terms or both terms will be included in your results list. Joining terms with OR will broaden your search results.
As in: Fear OR Phobia ; College OR University
Make sure the terms you link with OR are related - think, synonyms.
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NOT : If you join your terms with NOT, then one of your terms will be excluded from your results list.
As in: College Students AND Drinking patterns NOT Binge
This search will return records that have both College Students AND Drinking Patterns however if the term Binge appears in the record it will be excluded from your results list.
To get background information on your topic, try searching GIL, the catalog for an encyclopedia for criminal justice or something specifically on your topic.
