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Political Sciences

This guide is designed to acquaint students in POL courses and majors in Political Science with basic information resources, concepts and research strategies used by professionals in the field.

Public Policy / Federal, State, Local Government

See also Burke Library list of discipline-specific databases

For example Education, Health, Environment, Business, etc.

Supreme Court Review. University of Chicago Law School. (1965-2009) Print.  KF 8748. S8  Fl. 2

Use Nexis-UNI Guided Search for Legal Codes, Court Cases, and Law Reviews

U.S. Government open data (data, tools, and resources to conduct research by topic)

Data.gov 

U.S. Census Bureau (Meta-site for data of all types)

Statistics By Topic

Crime and Criminal Justice

FBI Crime Reporting Program

produced from data received from over 18,000 city, university/college, county, state, tribal,
and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily participating in the program

Crime in the United States

Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics

Education

National Center for Educational Statistics

Health

National Center for Health Statistics

Immigration
Homeland Security https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics   

Core reports on immigrants by legal status. Also quantitative studies and research on immigration.

Supplemental Assistance, etc.

SNAP - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)

TANF - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (Office of the Administration for Children and Families)

     Laws, Policy, Data, Reports

Five must know subject headings for the SHC Discovery Library online system:

1. [topic] AND Law and legislation

example:  Immigration  Law and legislation

example:  Firearms  Law and legislation

2. [topic] AND Government policy

example:  Marijuana  Government policy United States

example:  Working poor Government policy

example:  Pollution Government policy

3. [topic] AND Political aspects

example:  Immigration  Political aspects

4. [topic] AND Public opinion

example:  Income inequality Public opinion

5. [topic] AND Statistics

example: Health insurance coverage Statistics

Poverty

Social conditions of the poor in the United States

Urban poor in the United States

Inner cities in the United States

Federal Entitlement Programs (The "Green Book")

Poverty data from the U.S. Census

Criminal Justice

National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)

Immigration

Health

Environment

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage

see also  Gay rights
                  Gay parents Legal status

In the Courts

Catholic Social Services vs. City of Philadelphia (at issue: religious grounds for refusing to place foster children in same-sex homes)

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 2020 U.S. LEXIS 961