SEARCH
Search Help
Basic Search Help
To perform a keyword search across the entire site, type the word or words that describe your topic into the Site Search text box located in the upper right corner of NCJRS Web pages. Select "Go" or press Enter. Enclose phrases in quotes. For example:
gangs
"drug court"
Results will be sorted by content type. Ten records for each content type will be displayed in the initial return listing. To view more records, click on the "See All..." link for the content type you wish to view, e.g., Publications (Full Text), Publications (Abstracts Only), Federal Justice Web Pages, Q&A, Related Links, or Conferences.
View the Number of Results at a Glance
The number of results per content type is shown on the right of the search results page. Click on these links to view all of the records for the specific content types.
Order Select Publications Online
A shopping cart image 
appears for items available for online ordering. An "order photocopy" 
image appears for results that are not available for hardcopy ordering, but may be ordered through NCJRS photocopy services.
Advanced Search Help
Advanced Search is accessed next to the Site Search text box located in the upper right corner of NCJRS Web pages. Perform a keyword search across the entire site by following these steps:
- Select the content type.
- Select from an Any, All, or Phrase search.
- Enter a keyword(s)
- Select “Go” or press enter.
Results will be sorted by content type. Ten records for each content type will be displayed in the initial return listing. To view more records, click on the "See All..." link for the content type you wish to view, e.g., Publications (Full Text), Publications (Abstracts Only), CrimeSolutions.gov Programs, Federal Justice Web Pages, Q&A, Related Links, or Conferences.
View the Number of Results at a Glance
The number of results per content type is shown on the right of the search results page. Click on these links to view all of the records for the specific content types.
Order Select Publications Online
A shopping cart image appears for items available for online ordering.
appears for results that are not available for hardcopy ordering, but may be ordered through NCJRS photocopy services.
Hints on Searching the NCJRS Website
The basic search performs a search of the entire NCJRS website including more than 3,500 Full Text Publications, more than 215,000 summaries of publications from the NCJRS Abstracts Database, related links, over 500 questions and answers from the NCJRS knowledge base, conferences, and Federal Justice Web pages including the agencies of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, and National Institute of Corrections.
Search the Justice Events Calendar
To search for an event, visit the Justice Events search page and select the criteria that you would like to search by. Options include searching by date, sponsoring organization, classification (or topic), location (within the United States and internationally), and a keyword search. Once you have selected your criteria, click the search button to get your results. For more tips on searching for events, visit the Justice Events help page.
Search the NCJRS Abstracts Database
Use the NCJRS Abstracts Database Online Tutorial to learn more about how to search the Database. Specific information on Field Searches, General Search capabilities, Limiting searches by date, search types, displaying or downloading your results, how results are found and additional search techniques are available.
Choosing a Query Type: All, Any, or Phrase Searching
All, Any, and Phrase searching are variations of Boolean search commands and perform similar to traditional And, Or, and Phrase searching.
An All search will connect the search terms using Boolean And. Records returned using this Search Type will contain each of the search terms entered. For example: an All Search for domestic violence will locate records that contain both of the words domestic and violence.
An Any search will connect the search terms using Boolean Or. Records returned using this Search Type will contain at least one of the search terms entered. For example: an Any Search for domestic violence will locate records that contain either of the words domestic or violence.
A Phrase search will connect the search terms in the exact order that they are entered in the search box, similar to using “quotation marks.” Records returned using this Search Type will contain the search terms in the exact order that they are entered. For example: a Phrase Search for domestic violence will locate records that contain the words domestic violence in this exact order.
To search on a word root with a variety of endings, use the *. For example, correction* will find the words correction, corrections, or correctional. Also use the * to allow for plurals: for example, type juvenile* to find the words juvenile or juveniles.
If You Find Too Much- Make your wording more specific. Remember that all of the publications on the Site deal with criminal justice, so including words like crime or justice in your search will bring back too much.
- Choose an All or a Phrase search instead of an Any search by using the Advanced Search. An All search will find all of the terms you type in, while an Any search may find documents which contain only some of the terms you typed, or may find words that are related but not exactly what you typed.
- Change one of the terms to a broader term. For example, replace juvenile gangs with gangs.
- Choose an Any search instead of an All or Phrase search by using the Advanced Search. An Any search will find documents which contain any of the terms you typed.
- Try to think of synonyms or related words and combine them in an Any search.
- Publications (Full Text)
- Publications (Abstracts Only)
- Crimesolutions.gov Programs
- Related Links
- Q&A
- Conferences
- Federal Justice Web Pages
