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Criminology

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Major research projects are easier to tackle if you break them up into steps (like those suggested below) and give each step a mini deadline. This way, the big deadline doesn't creep up on you. Try an assignment calculator if you are having trouble setting your own deadlines.

The Research Process: Step 1 - Define your topic; Step 2 - Narrow the topic; Step 3 - Gather background information; Step 4 - Create a research question; Step 5 - Develop a working thesis statement; Step 6 - Find and evaluate information; Step 7 - Cite sources; Step 8 - Write the paper

Selecting and Using Keywords 

Topic & Keywords

First, identify the key terms in your research topic or question, for example: Is restorative justice an effective method for rehabilitation?

Then, brainstorm synonyms for the keywords or phrases that can be used in a search engine:

Other phrases that you could use for "restorative justice" could be "transformative justice", "reparative justice", or "circle justice".

Another keyword or phrase that you could use for rehabilitation could be "social reintegration".

Only use words that add value to the search (don't type in full phrases or questions that include words like "are" or "the").

Search tips:

  • “Truncating” words can help expand your search. Place an asterisk at the end of the root of the word so that the search engine will retrieve documents that contain any words that begin with that spelling:  crim* will find crime + criminal + criminology + any plural forms
  • "Phrase searching" is when you place multi-word concepts, such as “criminal justice system”, within quotation marks to search the words as one phrase
  • You can use three words called Boolean Operators to connect or exclude your keywords: AND, OR, NOT

For this example, you could type the following into a search box:

("restorative justice" OR "transformative justice" OR "reparative justice" OR "circle justice") AND (rehabilitation OR "social reintegration")

Different search engines have different rules for how operators are used in their searches. The tips here work in OCtopus and some other database's search engines. Check the help section of the database for more information. Here are the search tips for QuickLaw (link will open in a new window).

Step-by-Step Legal Research Process

The step-by-step legal research process below is from The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide published by the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII). The links will open in new a window on the CanLII website.

Plan and organize your research

See more steps from the Canadian Legal Research & Writing Guide

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