There are a large number of academic and practice-related journals which could contain articles that may be of interest to criminal justice practitioners from many disciplines.  However the majority of these journals require some form of paid subscription, which can make accessing journal articles outside of the academic sphere a difficult and sometimes expensive task.  In addition, it can sometimes be a time-consuming exercise to assess which journals or articles may be of most use.

 

A key factor in best practice is keeping up-to-date with relevant research.  For this reason it has been decided to facilitate access to a number of key journals that have both social work and wider criminal justice relevance.  Each journal has been given a rating from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest.  These ratings refer to the level of practice relevance each journal has, based upon factors such as general article quality, broadness of peer-review and relevance to the Scottish context.  For example, a journal published by a specialist group and with a primarily theoretical focus would rate 1, while a journal published by a national organisation containing practice-focussed research conducted in the U.K. would rate 5.  Only those journals rated 3 or above will be included in the main list, while those rated 2 or below will be on a separate list for those who may have a more academic interest in a particular subject.  It is not proposed that these lists be exhaustive; however, if there is a journal you feel should be on one of the lists then please get in touch.

 

Those journals are listed alphabetically at the links to the upper left of this page.  Along with brief details of each journal, a relevant article from a recent issue of that journal is also available; as these articles are renewed, older articles will be archived and can be made available on request.  A link is also provided to a facility that will allow you to search for other articles in that journal.  Due to copyright issues it is not possible to make all articles freely available online.  However, registered members of the CJSW website will be able to access a limited number of articles providing they are practitioners currently working in Scotland.  In addition, where the Centre has access to a journal (either electronically or in hard copy), access to other articles will be facilitated where possible.