1. Ask your professor or a librarian

• Make a Zoom appointment with me. 

2. Textbook or other books 

• Scan the table of contents or index (in the back of the book) for ideas and then skim over relevant parts of the book. 
• This is a great book for this: Juvenile Justice Sourcebook : Past, Present, and Future

3. Library databases

Find these on the library's Criminal Justice Guide, such as Criminal Justice Abstracts. 

Keep the search broad at this point, e.g., juvenile justice drugs, juvenile courts african americans.

4. The Web

• Look for sites that end in .gov (government sites) or start with these: 
  • Juvenile Justice (National Criminal Justice Research Program
  • Youth Involved with Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare (US Department of Health & Human Services)

Broad topic: drugs and the juvenile justice system

Narrower topics: Sentencing disparities and african american juveniles convicted of drug crimes

Drugs courts and mandated treatment programs

Gender differences in the prosecution of juvenile drug use

Use these questions to get you thinking of ways to narrow your topic. This will help you focus your thoughts and give you good terms to use as you search for information.

What is the group or population?

This can be gender, age, sexual orientation, minority groups, chronic violent offenders, or other groupings.

What is the place or context?

Think of specifics of place (urban, rural, suburban, inner city), institutions (prison, school, juvenile courts), etc

What is the problem(s)?

Isolate the specific problem, such as drug abuse, sexual exploitation, truancy, prostitution, poverty, "stop and frisk", violent crime, status offenses, etc.

What are the interventions or solutions or outcomes?

How is the problem being addressed (treatment programs, group counseling, community outreach, parental involvement)?

How is it measured?

Incarceration rate, disproportionate minority contact, etc