LibGuides: CRJ 3312: Juvenile Delinquency: Primary Sources

Primary Source Overview

A primary source is a record of a person, event, or occurrence created by an eyewitness or a participant's version of an event. Primary sources allow researchers to gain better insight into historical figures and events.
Primary sources emphasize the lack of intermediaries between the things or events being studied and reports of those things or events based on the belief that firsthand accounts are more accurate.
Examples of primary sources include diaries, letters, notes from lab experiments, photographs, blogs, e-mails, maps, scrapbooks, Facebook pages, poetry, artwork, birthday cards, office records, and artifacts.

Types of Primary Sources in Juvenile Justice

Primary sources relating to juvenile delinquency and justice include legal documents, statistical data, constitutions, cases, statutes, and regulations created by the three branches of government; photographs of a crime, testimonials, confessions, trial transcripts, physical evidence, and other artifacts found at a crime scene.

View the table below for specific examples:

Primary Sources in Criminal Justice
Legal and Government Sources statutes - federal, state court decisions case law agency publications crime scene evidence	Examples Texas State Statute Family Code, Title 3, Chapter 58 Supreme Court Decision In re Gault 387 U.S. 1 (1967) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection (OJJDP) OJJDP Annual Reports
Statistical Data statistics and or data collected firsthand by researchers, organizations, and/or institutions	Examples Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection (OJJDP) Statistical Briefing Book National Juvenile Court Data Archive (NCDA) Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics (EZAJCS)
Historical Documents records from early institutions & individuals who provide a view into past approaches and reforms to juvenile justice	Examples Briscoe Center for American History Donald Wayne Taylor Papers Southern Methodist University Texas Coalition for Juvenile Justice Records
Personal Accounts records created by individuals who directly experienced or were involved in an event or topic oral histories memoirs, diaries, journals letters and correspondence photographs and video	Examples University of Michigan Voices from Inside - Oral Histories Collection Alabama Department of Archives & History "Scottsboro Boys" Trial Materials

Primary Sources for Juvenile Justice

American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside
Open access collection of newspapers published within prisons by incarcerated people.
FBI Vault
Contains scanned FBI files and links for FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.
National Juvenile Court Data Archive
The National Juvenile Court Data Archive (Archive) houses the automated records of cases handled by courts with juvenile jurisdiction. The Archive was established by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, within the U.S. Department of Justice, to promote access to automated juvenile court data sets for juvenile justice research and policymaking efforts
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
This agency of the U.S. Department of Justice is considered a primary source.

Nexis Uni
Nexis Uni is your source for primary source documents pertaining to the law. It has court cases from all 50 states plus federal cases all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It also has legislative laws (statutes) from all the stated and federal government.

CRJ 3312: Juvenile Delinquency

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Primary Source Overview

Types of Primary Sources in Juvenile Justice

Primary Sources for Juvenile Justice