A database is library-speak for a collection of electronic data. This is primarily articles: magazine articles, newspaper articles, journal articles. It also may include raw data (crime stats), photos, videos, audio, book chapters, encyclopedias, and more.
Academic Search Elite (found under EBSCOhost)
Academic Search Elite covers all academic topics: a bit of sociology, science, history, and criminal justice.
LexisNexis is a source for news, business, medicine and law. For criminal justice, the law section will be the most useful. The default search under law is citations, which probably isn't the best place to start. Instead look for the links to Cases, Law Reviews and Landmark Cases under the search boxes. Landmark Cases is a simple way to find the history of major decisions organized by topic. Law Reviews includes many criminal justice journal articles includes Journal of International Criminal Justice, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology and Harvard Law Review.
If you are just starting out and you aren't sure about your terms, Credo Reference is a good place to try. Credo has special law encyclopedias to explain terms like mens rea and actus reus.
National Institute of Justice (.gov website)
Search for information collected by the U.S. Government on a variety of criminal justice topics.
