The Redwood Highway

The Redwood Highway begins at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California--the beginning of the Redwood Highway North (Hwy. 101). To the immediate right or east of the Gate lies what remains of Alcatraz, now a national park; a short distance to the east-northeast is San Quentin; much farther north, past the Telecom Valley, MendoSonoma, Silicon, or Digital Coast, is Pelican Bay. Together these prisons represent the past, present, and future, respectively, of incarceration--California style. They also reflect and define the state of communities that rely on them to resolve their crime problems.

The Redwood Highway contains links from and about the world that deal with the nature, extent, control, and prevention of crime. It is devoted to helping us understand the nature of our crime problems as well as how our laws, punishments, and relatively meager prevention strategies have developed and can be changed. There are also links to the scientific study of crime, electronic and print publication, and the profession of criminology. It should be of interest to both professionals in the field and more casual web surfers. The Redwood Highway attempts to focus on quality links and is annotated. Links are usually updated every month or more frequently.

Our site first opened in mid-November, 1995.

Is it possible? Did a local city create a parking space in which it was both legal and illegal to park? Examine this photo of a parking space in front of the Rohnert Park, California, Post Office taken in February, 1998. Things hadn't changed as of February 23, 2003. However, some time during the month of April, 2003, as best we can estimate, the city painted the entire section green. Life has now changed in Rohnert Park.

Now the questions have to be posed in past tense. Would you have parked in a space with one half of the curb painted red and the other half painted green? Was it legal for anyone to park in the space? Was it illegal for anyone to park in this space? Even if you believed in a dreamworld of full enforcement of the law... Further, why did a city continue to have such a parking space after this photo had been here for over four years?

Our next task is to find out why the parking space paint was changed...

We are not responsible for what is found on the links contained in these web pages. Some documents may contain language or pictures that are offensive to some. Follow the links at your own risk.

To Expand or Collapse All blocks.

Sixth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1995 - 1997). In pdf or excel formats. The 2000 Global Report on Crime and Justice is available too. This site is now subsumed by The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

  • Criminal Justice Resources for:
  1. Sweden
  2. United Kingdom
  3. the Russian Federation
  4. Japan and the Japan Policy Research Institute (JPRI) Working Papers. Another Japanese (or other Asian) source is the Japan Documentation Center (JDC) of the Library of Congress.
  5. France
  6. Abridged [English] Version" of "Second Periodical Report on Crime and Crime Control in Germany"
  7. A Ministry of Justice, London survey on the attitudes of UK crime victims about punishing offenders. Victims are often less punitive in desires for offender sanctions than you might think.
  8. Scandinavian Research Council
  9. "Delinquent Behaviour in Nordic Capital Cities", 2007.
  10. Finland, "Homicide in Finland, 2002-2006", 2007.
  11. Mima Piispa et al., "Violence Against Women in Finland", 1997 - 2005.
These agencies and issues are probably self explanatory.

Legal Search and Reference

ACLU on Criminal Justice. This is a thoughtful web site dealing with core issues of the day.

ABA LawInfo.org. A consumer oriented site from the American Bar Association.

The Avalon Project. Yale University Law School's fledgling but provocative site that encourages comparative and historical thinking about law.

The Cornell University legal resource site.

The Harvard Law School has a wide ranges of programs, studies and reports of interest, both local and international.

Defense Counsel in Criminal Cases. The state of criminal defense from the Department of Justice, dated 2000.

Federal Grand Jury. Federal and state grand juries are explained. The Federal Judicial Center, the research arm of the federal court system. They have set a good example for other research units to follow at all levels of government by putting their research reports on-line. You'll need to have Adobe's free Acrobat software to read the files. Instructions on downloading the software are available at the FJC web site.

FindLaw is an excellent general law-related search site that also provides access to the Federal Register. See also the newly released FindLaw Constitutional Law Center, an resource on the United States Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court is an excellent subsection of FindLaw

GigaLaw.com is made by law professors and attorneys and provides law related information for technology and internet professionals. They mainly offer essays and articles on law, technology and related matters.

GPO Accessreplaced the old GPO Gate site, a complement to FindLaw.

Law.com. There's a lot of free stuff on this site about law for lawyers, students, and the public, but there are also obvious commercial aspirations. It includes the online and free version of American Lawyer and a dictionary of over 3000 legal terms. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Law Library of Congress, the "official" library of Congress, which among other things includes the digital resources of the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), Multinational Collections Database, and the Guide to Law Online.

A Legal Citation Guide. See others at the writing and publishing link. Nicely done. Thank you Cornell.

New and reviewed jurist books on law.

Political Campaign Finance Data

Up-to-date political campaign finance data are directly relevant to understanding how laws are formed and passed. Examine the links below to learn more about where candidate campaign contributions come from and how this relates to legal change:

The Spirit of Laws, Charles de Montesquieu, (1748, tr. Thomas Nugent 1752).

Thomas is the search engine for current federal legislation. United States Sentencing Commission. The key to sentence types and lengths in the federal system.

The U.S. Information Agency. Issues of Democracy, an electronic journal, contains internet sites on democracy and human rights themes. Here you will find the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, and descriptions and discussions of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. West's Legal Dictionary (listed above as FindLaw).

Courts and Court Decisions

Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions. Summaries of Internet-related court decisions. Select Internet Library in the menu and use the keyword search engine.

See the Native Tribal Justice Resource Center link (above).

The United States Federal Judiciary

Federal Rules of Evidence

The U.S. Supreme Court Justices Database. Described as a "multi-user, public database containing a wealth of information on individuals nominated (whether confirmed or not) to the U.S. Supreme Court," the databases and documentation were last updated on March 8, 2007. You can download excel spreadsheets, SPSS databases, etc.

Supreme Court Nominations. If you need to know how the process works this is the link for you.

US Supreme Court Opinions

Full-text US Supreme Court Decisions from 1937 to 1975! This includes 7,407 decisions, volumes 300 through 422, of the US Reports. The decisions can be accessed through keyword or case name search; available in ASCII format. Provided by the US Air Force FLITE (Federal Legal Information Through Electronics) system.

US Supreme Court Rules

US Court of Appeals First Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit

US Court of Appeals Third Circuit

US Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit

US Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

US Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit

US Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit

US Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit

US Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit

US Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit

US Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit

US Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit

California's Legal System

Some very informative links about law in California.

First, All U.S. State Constitutions and Web Sites

  • California Law: All 29 codes (penal, health & safety, fish & game, etc.) available online.
  • Current State of Senate
    • The Judicial Branch, State of California. This new site contains a vast amount of legal information about the California judicial system and links you with it. You can find, for example, the opinions of the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal, which are immediately updated, and the California Court System is shown in graphical form illustrating appellate and trial court systems.
    • California Attorney General's Office
    • Crime and Violence Prevention Center, also of the California Attorney General's Office, contains prevention materials on gangs, drugs, domestic violence, youth violence, child abuse, elder abuse and Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS).
    • California Judicial System--Constitutional authority, scope, budget
    • Supreme Court--Information on members, qualifications, jurisdiction
    • There are also links to the Courts of Appeal (membership, jurisdiction), Superior Courts (membership, jurisdiction), Municipal Courts (membership, jurisdiction), Judicial Council (membership, committees, activities), Commission on Judicial Appointments (constitutional authority, function), Commission on Judicial Performance (constitutional authority, function), California Judges Association (functions), State Bar of California (constitutional authority, admission, certification, judicial nominees), Map of California Appellate Court Districts (counties included in each of the six districts), The Judicial Council, the Administrative Office of the Courts, and others.
    • Another source of California judicial opinions
    • California statutes

Violence,Terrorism and Organized Crime

Developments in the areas of terrorism, violence and militias have increased in recent years, especially since 9/11, and before that the Oklahoma bombing, unresolved questions surrounding the explosion and crash of Flight 800 and sustained abortion clinic bombings. These links, and those found within them, may be helpful in understanding and interpreting these instances of violence. Is this the beginning of a tornado of violence that is about to befall the US or a continuation of past patterns of violence and terrorism?

  • John Hagedorn's Gang Research On-Line. This is an important and helpful important web site about gangs, young and old. The message here is fundamental and powerful. The site reviews gang research, popular media about gangs, gangs around the world, and related matters. Good job, John! One way to look at the site is through its Gangs by the Letters index. Another is to begin with basics, like how do you define a gang?

Someone once wrote that arson is the most neglected crime on earth; practice suggests that it is still neglected although the implied comparison might be questioned. See some of the above links under terrorism that deal with arson. In recent years there has been more attention to arson on the web, which is welcome.

The neglect of arson is reflected in the slow appearance of arson links on most web pages dealing with crime. Many of the links below deal with fire suppression or control. This is inevitable given the close relationship between suppression, control and determination of intentionally set fires.

General resources

Government Agencies: Federal, State & Local

International

Other organizations

"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun." Former President Bush, 10.18.2000, St. Louis, MO

It is easy to become disillusioned in the field of criminology and criminal justice. Thinking about crime is presently filled with pessimism and seems to inevitably end up with prison or the death penalty as a dead-end (no pun intended) solution for all crime problems. The sites below express in varying degrees calls for progressive change and have optimistic tones. Please forward other links you know about.

General Links

Restorative Justice Links

Other links

Theory and Methods

Web development information:

Please let us know if your school is not listed here!!

These are full-text, on-line journals, magazines, and some newsletters not elsewhere noted. This list is hardly comprehensive but most are free or were recently. Aside from price the major criteria for their inclusion here are interest and quality. Most journals coming "online" are merely advertisement for print journals and many make their materials available in pdf files. Over time many journals may become full-text online but they will probably charge the same fees they do now. Most of these are not noted here but can be found through any of the indexes of these listed below (e.g., the Association of Research Libraries or NewJour links, listed below).

When using these publications be sure to use appropriate citations (e.g., noted above) and follow copyright laws. Each listing is likely to have a copyright section that describes how the materials can be used or reproduced. The idea of on-line publication is still relatively new but longstanding rules related to reproduction and citation related to print journals still apply. As it pertains to music, this web site be of interest: Copyright Criminals: Music Sampling and Copyright Law.

Print journals are continuing to migrate to digital form and new ways of indexing and retrieving journals are redefining the industry. New journals are being created almost daily although in criminology this is proceeding very slowly. The world of publishing has changed in important ways during the past decade.

Hopefully libraries will be the big winners in this shift. However, that seems unlikely right now as libraries are hard hit by escalating costs of publication and huge markups by publishers. Some are arguing that scholars should return to the older model of relatively small scholarly journals controlled directly by professional organizations. We see evidence that this is happening--scholarly societies are recognizing that publishers are making a heap of money for not doing all that much that a scholarly society can do pretty well by itself.

Considering creating your own scholarly journal? Here is one link to a free, open access way to do it being used by the Critical Criminology section of the ASC. See the ALA's Scholarly Communication Toolkit.

As the Budapest Open Access Initiative notes, open access "is economically feasible, ...gives readers extraordinary power to find and make use of relevant literature, and...gives authors and their works vast and measurable new visibility, readership, and impact."

A few other listings/indexes:

Google Groups offers a simple way of finding groups and creating them.

These are e-mailing lists (listservs), other newsletters, and/or discussion groups, which might involve participating in ongoing discussions in the field. Most are free. Some members never get involved in discussion groups and only "lurk."

A recent center of discussion is Talk Left : self-described "Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news", which is worth checking out. It's a blog and you can subscribe or just lurk.

To subscribe to some listservs, send a message to the listserv address. Leave the subject area blank, and type in the specified information in the body. For example, to sign up for the mailing list of CJUST-L, address your e-mail to LISTSERV@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU. Leave the subject blank and type SUBSCRIBE CJUST-L <Your><Name> in the body without the < >s. (You may leave out your name if you wish.) Send the message.

If your browser supports the mailto: tag just click on the highlighted listserv addresses to send the message. Be sure to put CJUST-L <your name> (without the < >s) in the body of the message and leave the subject blank.

Please note: many listservs are changing rapidly because of upgraded software in this area. If you go through Google, for example, you bypass these procedures entirely.

  • CJUST-L on LISTSERV@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Criminal Justice Discussion List)--can be high volume <> subscribe cjust-l Your Name Now you can sign up and/or review the archives at their web site or send an e-mail message to correx-request@www.nicic.org with the word "subscribe" in the body. This is an open listserv.
  • H-Childhood on LISTSERV@h-net.msu.edu
    • In the body of the mail type
    • SUBSCRIBE H-Childhood firstname lastname, institution
  • HECNEWS-DIGEST Alcohol and other drug abuse preventionn in higher education. Fill in your name and e-mail address and click the submit button.
  • ACTION on majordomo@aclu.org
    (ACLU's Action List) subscribe action
  • JCENTRE on maiser@pfi.org
    (Prison Fellowship International list) subscribe jcentre
  • JUSTICE on majordomo@scn.org subscribe justice
  • JUSTLINKSon listserv@rol.org
    subscribe justlinks
  • LAWOBSERVER on listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu (A newsletter on law and computers) subscribe lawobserver
  • LEGALTEN on listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
    The purpose of LEGALTEN is to facilitate the implementation and use of rigorous evaluations at the inferface of the mental health system, the criminal justice system, and the courts. Questions contact Sharon Shea at shea@hsri.org
  • MANISSES - Information for the addiction, mental health, and children's sservices fields. Fill in your e-mail address and click thhe JOIN LIST button.
  • Various list archives on methods, statistics and related matters. There is also a link on how to subscribe to any of these listservs or mailing lists.
    • AMNESTY-L on majordomo@oil.ca
      News list of Amnesty International. subscribe amnesty-L
    • PRISON-L on listproc@lists.yale.edu
    • (Was a discussion list on prison issues and topics hosted by Yale University) SUBSCRIBE PRISON-L FirstName LastName
    • (List for probation practitioners in England) Go to their web site to add yourself.
    • CRIMPROF

      (Private list for professors of criminal law and criminal procedure) subscribe crimprof your name, your title, your institution

    • Justice Web List, a discussion forum (and much more) for criminal justice webmasters. To join the justice web list you must go to http://www.justinfo.net and register. Once you've joined you can then go to the Justice Web list. (A discussion list for criminal justice webmasters.) This list replaces the older CJHTML list.
    • DEATHPENALTY on LISTPROC@ASSOCDIR.WUACC.EDU

      (Capital punishment list) subscribe deathpenalty Your Name

    • JTO . Click the SUBSCRIBE button under the JTO Direct section. Substance abuse/gun violence information.
    • JUSTINFO on LISTPROC@ASPENSYS.COM

      (An electronic newsletter on new criminal justice publications, plus agency news) subscribe justinfo Your Name

    • JUVJUST on LISTPROC@ASPENSYS.COM

      (NCJRS Juvenile Justice news) subscribe juvjust Your Name

    • LACC on LACC-REQUEST@SUBURBIA.NET

      (Computer Crime, databases) subscribe lacc Your name

    • UNCJIN-L is now gone! (7/30/97) <> (It was the United Nations Criminal Justice Information Network)
    • EJINTVIO on LISTSERV@URIACC.URI.EDU

      (Electronic Journal of Intimate Violence (EJINTVIO)) subscribe EJINTVIO Your Name

    • FORENS-L on FORENS-REQUEST@ACC.FAU.EDU

      subscribe forens-l Your Name A forensics discussion group.

    • HECNEWS-DIGEST on majordormo@mail.edc.org. subscribe hecnews-digest. Alcohol & drug abuse prevention in higher ed.
    • HR-LAW on hr-law-request@lists.best.com

      (The Human Rights Law Mailing List is for law students studying international human rights or humanitarian law, or who are just interested in the subject.)

    • Yahoo Groups related to crime. Take the link to subscribe to over 20 categories of groups that discuss an incredibly wide selection of topics, from CSI to the death penalty and crime prevention; looked at another way, there are thousands of discussions that have crime as a topic.
    • SOCLAW-TALK on listserv@bucknell.edu

      subscribe soclaw-talk Your Name The sociology of law section of the American Sociological Association.

    • BAYLEFT on listserv@cmsa.berkeley.edu sub bayleft FirstName LastName (BAYLEFT is an e-mail list for news and events of interest to the San Francisco, CA Bay Area left. It is moderated.)
    • DAS-L on majordomo@udel.edu

      subscribe DAS-L your@email.address (Discussion of drug alcohol studies)

    • EVALTALK on listserv@bama.ua.edu (Discussion of evaluation research) subscribe EVALTALK firstname lastname
    • 3STRIKES on LISTSERV@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU

      subscribe 3strikes (Discussion of the three strikes law)

    • NetAction Notes on majordomo@manymedia.com

      subscribe netaction (Using the internet to advocate public policy change. Not a heavy traffic list.)

    • Copyright-Online-L on listserv@listserv.iupui.edu sub Copyright-Online-L <your name> or do the tutorial at Indiana University Online Copyright Tutorial.
    • DejaNews, now Google Groups (Beta) also connects you with newsgroups and discussion groups.

Here are some on-line zines for mass net audiences (these are not necessarily oriented to crime):

Miscellaneous stuff

  • Aerial Photographs and Atlases from Microsoft's Terraserver, the National Atlas of the United States, and a text version of the National Atlas of the United States. For people interested in aerial photographs, satellite images, or maps. Find what you want, but then you have to payfor it.
  • AncientScripts.com. A student of linguistics has put together this site as an introduction to writing systems. Kids will love the introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs or Cherokee syllabary and who knows what else.
  • Astronomy.com All content is free at the online version of Astronomy magazine. All kinds of information is here--star charts, space news, a beginner's section, feature articles, stuff for parents and teachers, photos, discussion forums, etc.
  • Audio tapes are available by mail through this link. Commercial links are minimized on these pages but this one is unusual in that it provides a much-needed resource for the elderly and disabled (among others), is cheap, and is simply not known about. I do not know the owners or the quality of service. There's a useful search engine, subject index and search engine.
  • Bach Digital. For music lovers. A rich, intelligent site that provides audio clips and images of original scores written by Bach (and others). Prepare to become worldly at this site.
  • Baseball Library. Self-advertised as the greatest collection of baseball history on the web. It is pretty impressive.
  • Bob Corey's Photography. A dozen photographs from The Other California from the late Bob Corey.
  • bugbios--another site for kids, or the kids in us. bugbios contains lots of information about insects from someone who knows kids and entymology. There are about ninety photos of insects and much more about insects.
  • The latest College Rankings from U.S. News and World Report. In Fads and Folibles in Modern Sociology, Sorokin called the obsession with quantitative information "Quantiphrenia"; here's the latest compilation of quantitative rankings of colleges and universities around the country. If you're feeling alone and want to know how your school is ranked relative to others (using who-knows-what arbitrary criteria with vague validity and reliability claims), maybe a look at rankings will help! If you're a student or parent looking for a school, try to find a very recent graduate or two from the school who is with it along with other information. Also, check out your local digital library's admonitions about the problems of interpreting all the numbers.
  • The EndofFree, a web site that documents the end of the web as a medium for the distribution of information freely and for free, or something like that. It includes an archive.
  • Jimmy Carter, the former president and now nobel peace prize winner.
  • California: Vital Statistics Data Tables. California Department of Health Services site with data on births, deaths, marriages, and divorces in the Golden State from 1990 to 1998, for 1994-1998 the tables compare California vital statistics to the nation or by county. There is also a link to a listing of publications of data by the department. Keep it coming, California.
  • The Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval. A site set up to permit information retrieval of varied databases. A not-so-user friendly interface but maybe you can make sense of it.
  • Craig's list, frequently updated, which taps into the life of the San Francisco Bay Area and now much of the world. There are leads on housing, jobs, events, people and much more.
  • E-Conflict World Encyclopedia. An online encyclopedia with maps, weather, geography, and other information for any country. For kids there are audio versions of the national anthems and images of the flags for each country.
  • Everyrule.com, games and rules for games for kids and adults.
  • Feminist Theory Website
  • Free software of all types for all platforms are available a variety of locations. Some sites, like http://www.shareware.com and ZDNet check for viruses.
  • Guinness World Records. The real thing online.
  • Internet Scout's Weblog.
  • Jazz Roots: Early Jazz History.
  • Little Explorers Picture Dictionary for kids.
  • Live cams from around the world by Web Voyeur.
  • Macau: A Selection of Cartographic Images. There is a real pirate's map here.
  • Mapquest, which provides driving directions to where you may want to go. Expedia.com is also helpful.
  • The Megalithic Portal. Megaliths, like Stonehenge, in the world, especially the UK and Ireland.
  • MovieLens. This is a "free personalized movie recommendation service" from the University of Minnesota. Enjoy.
  • Price's List of Lists (lists/ranks of everything conceivable, including crime in cities; maybe they'll rank megalinks of criminology some day!).
  • The Psychedelic 60's: Literary Tradition and Social Change. An exhibition of the 1960's in all its glory. Actually an annotated bibliography.
  • Recalls.gov. Recalls of a wide range of goods. Sign up for a newsletter that lets you know when they occur.
  • Speechtips.com. Constructive advice on giving a speech for many occasions.
  • University of California History Digital Archives A digital archive of the history of each University of California campus, along with other information.
  • Webopedia. A dictionary of terms related to computers and the internet.
  • This Women's Studies site is worth a visit.
  • The Works of Edgar Allen Poe. Almost all the poetry and short stories of Poe. A clean and efficient site. Prepare yourself for the Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, plus a lot of lesser known pieces.
  • The World Population Clock. As of 6.18.12, for example, the number is 7,020,741,058.
  • Finally, the local weather (i.e., Santa Rosa, California). Most larger neighboring cities are available.
  • A memorial page for the late Edwin M. Lemert, a Dean of deviance and father of diversion in America. Among other things, John Laub's interview with Ed Lemert is reprinted here with permission. Don't miss the latest authoritative work on Ed's publications co-authored by Ed's nephew Charles and Mike Winters.
  • Cecil Greek's Criminal Justice Page appears to no longer exist.
  • SOCIOSITE (The Social Science Information System at the University of Amsterdam) "Making sense of the Internet for social scientists." This site is more inclusive than crime. It seems to do a good job of including significant sites and is annotated.
  • Institut für Kriminologie der Universität Tübingen. This site is mostly in German but some is in English. You could use Google's translator to make your way through the site. In the next year or so they hope to have a version in English.
  • NOTE: Much of the early, provocative work in the field that brought together large collections of web sites on criminology and criminology have disappeared or been replaced or taken over by commercial interests (often advocating distance learning) or publishers' web sites plugging authors of criminological books.

You have reached the end of The Redwood Highway, which begins in Northern California. We hope you enjoyed your visit. Some of our links are updated regularly while others. Come back soon!