Sociology & Criminal Justice

For immediate assistance with Sociology and Criminal Justice resources, please contact Holly Chambers, chambehe@potsdam.edu.

Also consult General Resource for Online Teaching, which covers other important resources, e.g. textbooks available through library subscription databases.

Library Databases

Complete A-Z list of library databases
Library Databases tagged for Sociology / Social Services
Library Databases tagged for Criminology

Search for an open educational resource

Open Textbooks - Criminal Justice

MERLOT
MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.
The National Academies Press (NAP)
This is a great resource that provides textbooks on law and justice studies.
OER Commons: Law
OER Commons provides a curated collection of textbooks and resources for ethics and law subjects.
Project Gutenberg - Crime Bookshelf (Nonfiction)
A collection of non-fiction books written about crime.

Open Textbook Collections - Sociology

BC OpenEd - Sociology Textbooks
Lumen Learning
A textbook that covers a variety of sociological topics including, Stratification, Inequality, and Social Class in the U.S., Deviance, Social Control, and Crime, Family, Aging, and Sexuality.
Free Sociology Textbooks
Introduction to Sociology, and Sociology of the Family.
MERLOT
A curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services related to sociological topics.
The National Academies Press (NAP)
Behavioral and sociological titles. National Academies Press books are available as freely downloadable PDFs.
OER Commons
A curated collection of Sociology textbooks and resources.
OpenStax
Introduction to Sociology 2e adheres to the scope and sequence of a typical, one-semester introductory sociology course. Includes a link to curated resources related to the book.
Open Textbook Library
Several sociological texts including, 'Understanding and Changing the Social World', and 'Social Problems: Continuity and Change'.
Project Gutenberg - Sociology Bookshelf
Project Gutenberg's list of Sociology books freely available online (generally older).
Sociological Landscapes - Theories, Realities and Trends
Open access peer reviewed edited volume.

Courses and Videos - Criminal Justice

Coursera
Every course on Coursera is taught by top instructors from the world’s best universities and educational institutions. Courses include recorded video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums.
Future Learn - Crimonology and Justice Courses
Explore the role of the state in regulating criminal behavior and the parts played by those in the criminal justice system or explore how the vast amounts of data generated today can help us understand and even predict how humans behave.
Future Learn - Law Courses
From international law and forensic science, to criminal justice and legal ethics: gain a better understanding of legal fields and process with our online law courses from the world's major universities.
MIT Open Courseware
Find courses on legal studies such as "Race, Crime, and Citizenship in American Law", and Trials in History."
Open Learn - Society, Politics, and Law
Produced by The Open University, a world leader in open and distance learning, all OpenLearn courses are free to study. We offer nearly 1000 free courses across 8 different subject areas. Our courses are available to start right away.
TED ED: Lessons Worth Sharing - Civics
Create and share lessons around any TED-Ed original, TED Talk or YouTube Video.

Courses and Videos - Sociology

Academic Earth
Click Open Courses link to see sociology courses
Coursera
Courses include recorded video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums.
Crash Course Series: Sociology
Nicole Sweeney covers introductory college level sciology. 44 videos.
EDU Sociology - YouTube Videos
A collection of educational videos posted on YouTube.
Films on Demand - Sociology
Browse the Films on Demand titles tagged as being related to sociology. Use the drop down menu to explore specific areas, e.g. African American Studies, Introduction to Sociology, Theory, etc.
Open Learn - Sociology
Search for free sociology courses, inter-actives, videos and more. British emphasis.
Open Yale - Sociology
Course in Foundations of Modern Social Theory. Recorded for Open Yale in 2009.
TED ED: Lessons Worth Sharing - Sociology
Create and share lessons around any TED-Ed original, TED Talk or YouTube Video. Sociology is defined broadly here.

Additional Resources - Criminal Justice

Films for Action
Films For Action is a community-powered learning library for people who want to change the world. Films For Action has cataloged over 1,500 of the best films and videos that can be watched free online. These films address social, environmental, and media-related issues.
Films on Demand - Criminal Justice and Law
Browse the Films on Demand titles tagged as being related to criminal justice and law. Use the drop down menu to explore specific areas, e.g. Criminal Justice System, Criminology, etc.
Frontline
Frontline is a public affairs series from PBS and includes many videos on criminal justice that are freely available online.
HathiTrust
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ)
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
Internet Archive: Digital Library
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
Juvenile Justice
A companion web site for the Frontline PBS program. Includes facts and statistics, a review of the "adult vs. child" debate, and four case studies (with video clips).
Memrise - Law
Uses images and audio to help memorize vocabulary. Interactive site that saves individual progress.
The Open Data Institute
The Open Data Institute works with companies and governments to build an open, trustworthy data ecosystem, where people can make better decisions using data and manage its harmful impacts.
Oxford Criminology and Justice Encyclopedia
Browse subjects such as Critical Criminology, Geography of Crime, International Crime, Juvenile Justice, Policing, Prevention/Public Policy, and Research Methods.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
An extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment, including parallels with the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
The International Criminal Court (ICC)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

Additional Resources - Sociology

Southern Poverty Law Center
documents on hate crimes and hat groups across the USA. Also includes resources on criminal justice and immigration issues.
HathiTrust
Can be useful for full text of materials out of copyright and many government documents. World wide but US emphasis.
The Sociological Cinema
The Sociological Cinema is an online resource to help sociology instructors incorporate videos into their classes.
Sociology Source
Resources and Ideas for Teaching Sociology from Nathan Palmer.
Statistics - Open Intro
A college-level textbook covering data basics, probability (optional), distributions, inference for means and proportions, and regression, including multiple and the basics of logistic regression.

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