[ Criminology ]
Crime & Justice Research Alliance
Crime & Justice Research Alliance
The alliance, a partnership between the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Society of Criminology, connects reporters with criminal justice researchers and experts. It maintains a directory policymakers, practitioners and journalists can use to find sourcing on specific policy areas.
Criminal justice archives
The Journalist’s Resource, Harvard Kennedy School
The Journalist’s Resource publishes research roundups, tip sheets and explainers on criminal justice topics, including guidance on how reporters can vet studies and spot flawed research that officials cite to defend policy positions.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice
NCJRS holds one of the largest criminal justice libraries in the world, with more than 235,000 resources on corrections, courts, drugs, law enforcement, juvenile justice and crime victims. It’s a starting point for federally funded research and older studies not indexed elsewhere.
[ Gun Violence ]
Bridge the Divide on Firearm Policies
Bridge the Divide on Firearm Policies
Bridge the Divide on Firearm Policies advances bipartisan, evidence-based firearm policy solutions that aim to reduce gun violence while respecting Second Amendment rights. The initiative promotes research-driven, consensus-focused approaches designed to move polarized debates toward broadly supported public safety reforms.
Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting
Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting
The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting focuses on improving how gun violence and related criminal justice issues are covered in the news. PCGVR produces resources such as the Better Gun Violence Reporting Toolkit, supports programs that connect journalists with gun violence survivors and experts, hosts conferences and workshops, and leads interdisciplinary research into media practices and public health‑oriented storytelling.
The Trace
The Trace
The Trace provides reporting and data on gun violence and related criminal justice issues in the United States. You’ll find investigative stories, national and local coverage, and regular analysis of policy, law enforcement, community impact and the gun industry. The site also includes the Gun Violence Data Hub, where you can access data sets, reporting guides, fact sheets and expert help to support reporting and research.
Violence Prevention Project
Violence Prevention Project
The Violence Prevention Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that produces comprehensive databases on U.S. mass shooters and other homicide types to support rigorous analysis and reporting. It also shares research, publications and media resources that help explain patterns of violence and inform evidence‑based understanding and prevention.
Violence Reduction Center
Violence Reduction Center
The Violence Reduction Center (VRC) at the University of Maryland conducts and shares rigorous research on community violence, especially gun violence, and translates that evidence into accessible insights on what strategies work to reduce violence. It also offers practical guidance and training for policymakers and practitioners to apply evidence‑based anti‑violence approaches in real communities, with all its research and services provided free of charge.
[ Incarceration & Sentencing ]
Death Penalty Information Center
Death Penalty Information Center
Source for data on capital punishment in the United States, including execution records, death row demographics, exoneration counts and state-by-state policy tracking. Publishes annual reports and in-depth analyses on costs, arbitrariness, race and innocence.
Prison Journalism Project
Prison Journalism Project
The Prison Journalism Project trains incarcerated writers to be journalists and publishes their work, and also provides essential tools for mainstream journalists. The Prison Journalism Navigator offers a state-by-state guide to contacting people inside prison, and the site maintains a directory of active prison newspapers. Its incarceration data hub aggregates data sets from across the field.
Prison Policy Initiative
Prison Policy Initiative
The Prison Policy Initiative produces research on mass incarceration — from state-by-state incarceration rates to racial disparities in sentencing to the economics of prison labor.
The Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project
Publishes research on sentencing policy, racial disparities and incarceration trends, and offers an interactive state-by-state data tool for comparing incarceration rates, felony disenfranchisement numbers and other key indicators across jurisdictions.
Vera Institute of Justice
Vera Institute of Justice
Vera conducts and publishes research on policing, immigration detention, incarceration and alternatives to criminalization. The institute works directly with government agencies, making its reports valuable not only as journalism resources but as windows into how policy is actually made and measured inside the system.
[ Reporting Tools & Guidance ]
The Center for Just Journalism
The Center for Just Journalism
The Center for Just Journalism is a resource for journalists covering public safety issues, including crime, policing and incarceration. It connects reporters with research, data, expert guidance and best practices to help them tell accurate, context-rich stories that serve their communities. One key resource is Building a Better Beat: A New Approach to Public Safety Reporting.
Investigate This! Resources to Power Your Criminal Justice Reporting
The Marshall Project
The Marshall Project has “compiled guidance on key issues for anyone covering the legal system — from styles and standards to FOIA requests.”
The Language Project
The Marshall Project
Read about The Marshall Project’s style guide and how they use language around people who are incarcerated or accused of crime. Also highly recommended from The Marshall Project: What Words We Use — and Avoid — When Covering People and Incarceration
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
The RCFP is the leading free legal services organization for journalists in the U.S. iFOIA helps draft and track open records requests, the Open Government Guide covers every state’s sunshine laws and a free legal hotline (1-800-336-4243) connects reporters with attorneys when agencies push back on records requests.
Transforming Crime Coverage
Poynter
Transforming Crime Coverage is a Poynter Institute 24-week online training designed to help newsrooms rethink and improve how they report on crime by emphasizing ethical, context-rich public safety journalism rather than sensationalized crime incident coverage. Participants learn to develop newsroom policies, work responsibly with vulnerable sources, and shift reporting practices toward deeper context and community impact.
[ Research & Data ]
Brennan Center for Justice
Brennan Center for Justice
The Brennan Center publishes research on everything from incarceration trends to prosecutorial decision-making. Its Prosecutorial Performance Indicators project has produced public-facing dashboards on how prosecutors in multiple jurisdictions make charging decisions.
Council on Criminal Justice
Council on Criminal Justice
The Council on Criminal Justice is a nonpartisan organization that provides data-driven analysis and policy recommendations on crime and justice issues in the United States. It produces timely research and annual year-end crime trend updates that track national patterns, and inform public debate and policymaking.
Court Records Directory
CourtReference
CourtReference links to court information for all 50 states, plus D.C., and explains the kinds of cases each type of court handles. The site is useful for figuring out which court to check for a given case type, but most states don’t offer a statewide records search — reporters typically have to search county by county.
CSG Justice Center
Justice Center, The Council of State Governments
A bipartisan policy and research organization that works directly with state governments on criminal justice, behavioral health and reentry issues. The CSG Justice Center publishes accessible research and maintains newsletters on specific policy areas — a useful source for reporters covering state legislation, corrections budgets, and the intersection of mental health and criminal justice.
Jeff-alytics (Jeff Asher Substack)
Jeff-alytics
Jeff-alytics is a Substack newsletter and online platform by nationally recognized crime analyst Jeff Asher that delivers expert analysis on crime trends, criminal justice data, and how to interpret complex crime statistics with clarity and rigor. Through weekly posts and insights, readers gain a deeper understanding of national and local crime patterns, the nuances of crime reporting and data-driven perspectives that challenge simplistic narratives about crime and safety.
