Criminology & Criminal Justice

The North Carolina Department of Justice has four primary missions: to provide legal representation to state agencies;assist local law enforcement in fighting crime and prosecuting cases; provide training and standards for law enforcement; and protect North Carolina consumers.

The mission of North Carolina's Department of Public Safety is to safeguard and preserve the lives and property of the people of North Carolina through prevention, protection, and preparation with integrity and honor.

The mission of the United States Department of Justice is, "To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those impartial administration of justice for all Americans."

The FBI is an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities. It is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice and a full member of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The FBI has the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes assigned to it and to provide other law enforcement agencies with cooperative services, such as fingerprint identification, laboratory examinations, and training. The FBI also gathers, shares, and analyzes intelligence, both to support its own investigations and those of its partners and to better understand and combat the security threats facing the United States.

The FBI also provides many helpful reports and publications that are used by criminal justice researchers, professionals, and students.

The National Institute of Justice’s CrimeSolutions.gov is comprised of two components — a web-based clearinghouse of programs and practices and a process for identifying and rating those programs and practices

The Justice Information Resource Network (JIRN) is a national non-profit and resource center for researchers, analysts, journalists, and practitioners of justice research.

The World Prison Brief (WPB) is a unique database that provides free access to information about prison systems throughout the world. Country information is updated on a monthly basis, using data largely derived from governmental or other official sources.

The World Criminological Directory covers almost 500 institutes in some 90 countries, including academic institutions, governmental institutes, NGOs, private institutes, and international organizations. The information that is provided on the institutes includes contact details, web page links, names of directors and staff, activities and projects, sources of funding, and periodicals issued.

The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP), housed within the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University, seeks to make scientific research a key component in decisions about crime and justice policies. The CEBCP carries out this mission by advancing rigorous studies in criminal justice and criminology through research-practice collaborations, and proactively serving as an informational and translational link to practitioners and the policy community.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Pew conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.