International Relations *

Below are links to databases and electronic resources that support the study of international crime and corruption and related areas of research.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY DATABASES

Databases that offer multidisciplinary coverage of crime and corruption literature from scholarly and non-scholarly sources.

• Credo Reference -- comprehensive collection of highly-specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks across all subject areas. Good place to go for succinct definitions, explanations, and analysis of concepts, theories, or topics.
• Google Scholar -- the scholarly part of the Google empire. To set up Google Scholar with access to full-text journals and databases, go here.
• JSTOR -- a multidisciplinary archive of scholarly journal articles covering most major disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Useful for identifying historical research on a topic.
• Policy Commons -- platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The database provides advanced searching across millions of pages of books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications, including archived reports from more than 200 defunct think tanks. Coverage is international in scope.
• ProQuest Multiple -- comprehensive, multidisciplinary database of newspaper, magazine, and scholarly journal articles updated daily. Content is more focused and manageable in locating relevant research than Google Scholar.

SPECIALIZED RESEARCH RESOURCES

Key Databases

• Columbia International Affairs Online [CIAO] -- provides the full text of a wide range of scholarship books, working papers from universities and research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.
• Criminal Justice Database -- a comprehensive database supporting research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as litigation and crime trends. In addition to scholarly journals, it includes correctional and law enforcement trade publications, crime reports, and other material relevant for researchers or those preparing for careers in criminal justice.
• HeinOnline Law Journal Library -- full text access to digitized content of more than 2,600 law and law-related periodicals that cover criminal justice, political science, technology, human rights, and more. Coverage for all journals is from first issue and volume through the current issue or volume for most titles.
• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals -- a multilingual index to articles and book reviews published worldwide. The database covers international (public and private), comparative, and municipal law of countries other than the United States, Canada,  Australia, and within the United Kingdom.
• Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies – provides access to studies that investigate global trends in mass incarceration, and the detailed prison infrastructure of specific countries. Contents are organized around a selection of key historical and contemporary events and themes, bringing together archival and reference materials, court cases, first-hand accounts, videos, Supreme Court audio files, research on rehabilitation, training materials and artistic works.
• Public Affairs Information Services [PAIS] -- indexes selective subjects and bibliographic access to periodicals, books, hearings, reports, gray literature, government publications, Internet resources, and other publications from 120 countries. Includes historical coverage from 1915 to the present.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts -- provides indexing of the international journal literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration and policy. Over 1,700 titles are monitored for coverage and, of these, 67% are published outside of the United States.

Related Research Resources

• AccessUN -- indexes the majority of United Nations documents and publications. Articles appearing in UN periodicals are individually indexed as well as bilateral and multilateral treaties in the UN Treaty Series.
• Anti-corruption Authorities -- a platform created by the World Bank, in collaboration with the United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the U.S. State Department and the European Commission, that aims to gather more systematic knowledge on the structure and experience of Anti-corruption Authorities, increase awareness of the challenges faced by these bodies, and identify mechanisms that can help to overcome the challenges of reducing and preventing corruption and establish initial criteria by which effectiveness can be monitored. The site includes country profiles, basic data, cross-country analysis, case studies, and publication database provides access to a collection of research papers, technical reports, journal articles, conference papers, presentations, books, fact sheets and brochures that touch on Anti-corruption Authorities related issues. Currently contains little information after 2015.
• European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control -- affiliated with the United Nations, this is the European regional institute in the United Nations Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention program network. HEUNI functions under the auspices of the Finnish Ministry of Justice as an independent research and policy-making institute. The current focus is to strengthen the criminal justice responses to identification of human trafficking and similar crimes (such as forced marriage, exploitation of children and young people, labor exploitation); strengthen the understanding of and the responses to economic crime and corporate crime; and enhance the skills of businesses and public procurement agencies to identify and prevent exploitation in supply chains.
• ICC Legal Tools Database -- purports to be the leading information services on international criminal law. The International Criminal Court database provides free online access to more than 100,000 legal sources relevant to core international crimes cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, or aggression. Documents can be freely read, printed or downloaded and most are full-text searchable. The ICC Legal Tools Project has been continuously active since 2003 with an increase in the content every year.
• International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) – an inter-governmental organization consisting of 195 member countries that provides a range of expertise and services to its membership. The organization manages nineteen police databases with information on crimes and criminals (from names and fingerprints to stolen passports), accessible in real-time to countries; it offers investigative support such as forensics, analysis, and assistance in locating fugitives around the world; and, INTERPOL supports national efforts in combating crimes across three global areas considered most pressing today: terrorism, cybercrime, and organized crime.
• International Crimes Database -- hosted and maintained by the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague and supported by the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, the site offers a comprehensive database on international crimes adjudicated by national and international and internationalized courts. In addition to case law on international crimes, the website incorporates general background information about international crimes, scholarly as well as news articles, working papers, and relevant links to other useful databases and websites on this topic.
• OECD iLibrary -- provides full-text access to books, journals, and statistical resources of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, including content on international crime and corruption.
• Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project -- a non-profit media organization providing an investigative reporting platform for the OCCRP Network. OCCRP dedicated to improving reporting and newsroom management around the world. We now by connecting 45 non-profit investigative centers in 34 countries and journalists and several major regional news organizations across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
• Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS) -- a platform that provides researchers with information, including about positive initiatives and good practices, on issues related to tolerance and non-discrimination within each participating country of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The system includes country pages providing information on national initiatives, legislation, specialized bodies, and statistics; thematic pages with information related to different key issues, such as, racism and hate crimes; access to international standards and instruments; and, information from intergovernmental organizations, including country reports and annual reports.
• Transparency International -- a global coalition committed to stopping corruption and promoting transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society. The site includes country information, links to resources, and produces the annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys" and the Global Corruption Barometer, a comprehensive survey tracking worldwide public opinion on corruption since 2003.
• TRIAL International -- a non-governmental organization fighting impunity for international crimes and supporting victims in their quest for justice. The site includes the Trial Watch Database, which offers open access to numerous procedures concerning international crimes before national or international tribunals. It can be searched by keyword, country, topic, cases, or judicial body. Also included are links to various reports and publications.
• U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center -- an open access multidisciplinary search portal of publications and other resources focused on international corruption sponsored by the Christian Michelsen Institute for Science and Intellectual Freedoman independent development research institute in Norway.
• United Nations Digital Library -- search engine for locating official UN documents, speeches, voting records, and open access materials. To access materials that are not available from the Digital Library, search the Libraries' UN iLibrary database.
• United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute -- the mission of UNICRI is to advance justice and the rule of law in support of peace and sustainable development. Current strategic priorities include preventing and countering violent extremism; countering organized crime and fighting all forms of trafficking and illicit financial flows; reinforcing the rule of law in post-conflict countries; security through research, technology and innovation; threat response and risk mitigation and security governance; and, preventing crime through the protection and empowerment of vulnerable groups.
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime -- has a mission to help make the world safer from drugs, organized crime, corruption and terrorism. Among its activities, the body supports implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption, the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument, by delivering technical assistance in various corruption-related thematic areas, such as prevention, education, asset recovery, and integrity in the criminal justice system, assisting countries in the areas of crime prevention, criminal justice, and transnational cybercrime, collecting, analyzing, and reporting data on drug trafficking trends, and combating human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants. Site also includes statistics on drugs, crime and criminal justice at the international level. The site also includes the following databases and information portals dedicated to various areas of UNODC's mandates.
  • Country Profiles Database under the UN Convention against Corruption -- provides access to the outcome documents of the Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, namely full country reports and executive summaries. The Database also contains other country-based information on the implementation of the Convention.
  • Electronic Legal Resources on International Terrorism -- a website providing a comprehensive and legal information on the steps taken by the international community and individual countries in the fight against international terrorism.
  • Global Judicial Integrity Network Resources -- a unique online resource database, containing hundreds of searchable research and analysis papers, policy documents, legal documents, codes of judicial conduct, guidelines and standards. It also provides an abundance of resource materials, including training materials and other tools.
  • Global Report on Trafficking in Persons -- mandated by the General Assembly through the 2010 United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, the most recent report published in 2020 covers 148 countries and provides an overview of patterns and flows of trafficking in persons at global, regional, and national levels, based primarily on trafficking cases detected between 2016 and 2019. As UNODC has been systematically collecting data on trafficking in persons for more than a decade, trend information is presented for a broad range of indicators. Other reports published in 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, and 2009 are also available.
  • International Money-Laundering Information Network -- established in 1998, this is a network assisting governments, organizations, and individuals in the fight against money laundering. IMoLIN has been developed with the cooperation of the world's leading anti-money laundering organizations. Included is an electronic library of documents and a database on legislation and regulation throughout the world (AMLID). Note that access to some sections of AMLID is restricted to government officials. Access is available on application to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
  • SHERLOC Bibliography Database -- a database of publications relating to organized crime and terrorism. It is searchable by keyword, crime type, cross-cutting issues and the country or region to which the publication relates. Full-text access to publications is provided via attachment or web link, where available.
  • SHERLOC Case Law Database -- contains summaries of cases of fifteen different crime types relating to organized crime and terrorism. Each entry contains a summary of the facts of the case and related judicial proceedings. Information about law enforcement investigations and international cooperation, as well as commentary on cases, is also included, where relevant. Original judicial decisions are attached to each entry or provided as links.
  • SHERLOC Database of Legislation -- contains laws and provisions implementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto, as well as the international legal framework against terrorism. The database is searchable by keyword, country, provision of UNTOC and Protocols thereto, crime type and cross-cutting issue.
  • SHERLOC Strategies Database -- a database of national and regional strategies for preventing and combating 15 crime types related to organized crime and terrorism. It is searchable by keyword, country, and crime type.
  • SHERLOC Treaties Database -- a database of bilateral and multilateral treaties concerning organized crime and terrorism. It contains the full text and ratification status of each instrument and is searchable by keyword, topic and parties.
  • Tools and Resources for Anti-Corruption Knowledge Platform (TRACK) -- provides online access to laws, jurisprudence and information on anti-corruption authorities from all over the world, indexed and searchable according to each provision of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. It also provides a wide range of additional anti-corruption resources.
• World Legal Information Institute -- an open access collection of world legal materials arranged country by country of legal information, including constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and related legal material from around the globe. Good source of country-specific information concerning crime and corruption.

GROUP PERSPECTIVE

Databases that offer the opportunity to understand and contemplate the implications of crime and corruption through the eyes of people who may be most impacted by those decisions.

• AgeLine -- focuses exclusively on issues of aging and the population of people aged 50 years and older from individual, national, and global perspectives. Contents cover the social, psychological, economic, policy, and health care aspects of aging derived from journal articles, books and chapters, research reports, and dissertations. Key database for locating research on the specific vulnerabilities of older people to crimes.
• Child Development and Adolescent Studies -- provides citations to current and historical social and behavioral sciences literature related to growth and development of children through the age of 21, including from scholarly journals, technical reports, books, book chapters, and theses and dissertations. Key database for locating studies about the effect of international crime on children, including sex trafficking and related crimes.
• Women’s Studies International -- an interdisciplinary database that covers issues in women's studies including feminist theory and history and the areas of sociology, history, political science and economy, public policy, international relations, arts and humanities, business and education. Key database for locating studies about the effect of international crime and government corruption on women.

DATA AND STATISTICS--COMPREHENSIVE

• Google Dataset Search -- facilitates searching approximately 25 million datasets provided by government, public, and private groups. Users can filter results based on the type of data desired [e.g., images or text]. Data availability is based on the original source being formatted using schema.org standards, an open discovery standard for data on the web.
• National Statistical Offices -- a directory of country-specific statistical agencies maintained and updated by the United Nations Statistics Division. Also included is a list of countries and organizations which includes a brief history of the country's statistical system, legal basis, the statistical program and much more.
• UNData -- searchable statistical database provided by the United Nations Statistics Division that provides access to current statistics. The database covers a number of different areas such as employment, industry, and trade. A single interface facilitates the creation of customizable tables and the use of various filters and search options to sort and locate specific statistical information.

DATA AND STATISTICS--SPECIALIZED

• Hate Crime Reporting Data -- an initiative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), this site provides statistics–broken down by hate crime bias, type of crime, and country–on criminal acts motivated by bias or prejudice towards particular groups of people. The data comprise statistics recorded by police, as well as country-specific information about hate crime legislation, data collection, and victim support initiatives. Hate incidents submitted by civil society and intergovernmental organizations include descriptions of thousands of hate incidents, many of which would otherwise go unreported.
• International Crime Victim Survey Series -- a project set up to fill the gap in adequate recording of offenses by the police for purposes of comparing crime rates in different nations and to provide a crime index independent of police statistics as an alternative standardized measure. The ICVS is the most far-reaching program of standardized sample surveys to look at a householders' experience with crime, policing, crime prevention, and feelings of insecurity in a large number of nations. Access provided by Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Statistics -- provides detailed data on crime and criminal justice and drugs from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Member States regularly submit to UNODC statistics on drugs and crime and criminal justice. Other data are collected through national surveys implemented by UNODC in cooperation with national governments or are compiled from scientific literature. Site includes historical crime data from 1970 to approximately 2002, reports on world crime trends, and special data collections.
• United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems -- goal of the United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends is to collect data on the incidence of reported crime and the operations of criminal justice systems with a view to improving the analysis and dissemination of that information globally. The survey results provide an overview of trends and interrelationships between various parts of the criminal justice system to promote informed decision-making in administration, nationally and internationally.
• World Justice Project Rules of Law Index -- measures rule of law adherence in 113 countries and jurisdictions worldwide based on more than 110,000 household and 3,000 expert surveys. Featuring primary data, the Index measures countries’ rule of law performance across eight factors: Constraints on Government Powers, Absence of Corruption, Open Government, Fundamental Rights, Order and Security, Regulatory Enforcement, Civil Justice, and Criminal Justice.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites