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Government Resources: Law & Courts

This guide will assist you in locating government document tools to assist in your research needs.

Legal Statistics

  • Bureau of Justice Statistics
    Collection of statistics about U.S. crime, victims, law enforcement, criminals, corrections, courts, police, jails, and prisons.
  • Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
    From the Bureau of Justice Statistics, this resource is used to locate statistics on the criminal justice and corrections systems. Data gathered from over 100 sources.

Selected Legal Websites

  • Bureau of Justice Assistance
    Supports innovative programs that strengthen the nation’s criminal justice system by assisting state and local governments in combating violent crime and drug abuse.
  • Federal Judicial Center
  • The education and research agency for the federal court system.
  • FedLaw
    Legal/regulatory resources guide.
  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service
    Provides summaries of criminal justice literature: government reports, journal articles, books, and more.
  • National Security Council
    Is the President's principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials.
  • Public and Private Laws
    Public and private laws are also known as slip laws. A slip law is an official publication of the law and is competent evidence admissible in all state and Federal courts and tribunals of the United States. Public laws affect society as a whole, while private laws affect an individual, family, or small group.
  • Supreme Court Decisions
  • Provides database of Supreme Court decisions since 1893. Browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title and full-text keyword.
  • U.S. Courts
    Information on the federal court system including its organization, administration, and operation. Includes map with geographic boundaries of US Courts of Appeals and US District Courts. Also called “Federal Judiciary.”
  • Uniform Crime Report