Web Tips

If you're looking for crime stats for a story, here are some places to start your search.

• Criminal Justice Journalists - Information Center: This crime reporters' group is, naturally, a logical stop on your hunt. Its list of links is categorized well and there's an excellent guide to covering guns (more of such guides would make the site even more useful). You can also sign up for the "Cops & Courts Reporters" discussion list where you will find like-minded journalists.
  
• Crime.org: This site links directly to various sources of crime statistics. It includes links to stats about cities, campus crime stats, National Archive of Criminal Justice Data and international data from the United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network
  
• Bureau of Justice Statistics: This U.S. Department of Justice site allows you to construct thousands of customized tables on crime stats from around the U.S.
  
• The Journalist's Toolbox - Crime: The crime section of the giant Journalist's Toolbox site (run by Mike Reilly, a former Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune journalist) offers dozens of annotated links.
  
• CJR.org - resource guides: Columbia Journalism Review has two guides to covering criminal justice that are in PDF format: 2000 & 1999.
  
• Poynter.org  - Crime Resources: This list of resources, compiled by Poynter's own David Shedden, includes some suggested - gasp! - books for journalists. 

I regularly run tips from readers about sites they find particularly useful in their work. Got one for me? Please e-mail a SHORT tip, including your name, affiliation, city, and phone number to poynter@sree.net.

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