This guide is intended to support the work of the Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC) at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. 

Start your research by consulting a few secondary sources (e.g., books, journal articles) to familiarize yourself with your topic and identify the relevant sources of law. Secondary sources provide substantive explanations of the law as well as citations to relevant primary law (i.e. statutes, regulations, and cases). 

Research guides discuss how to conduct topical research and frequently include many recommended secondary sources. They are a great starting point and web-based reference. This CFJC research guide has been designed to introduce you to the best resources we have and provide context and explanation of various aspects of your research, but you may need to consult others as your research progresses.

• Full list of PLRC Research Guides. 
  • The Pritzker Legal Research Center (PLRC) offers an expanding collection of research guides such as Case Dockets and Filings, Researching Cases, and Treatises by Topic.   
• University of Chicago Law Library's Juvenile Justice System Research Guide
• Loyola Law Library's Child Law Research Guide

Start your search for books by using NUsearch, the library catalog for Northwestern University, to see what books we have available in the campus library system. If you need additional books or if you are looking for a particular title that we don't own, you can search for the item in WorldCat and submit an interlibrary loan (ILL) request for it. Ask a librarian if you need any assistance submitting an ILL request. Use this Finding Books guide for more explanation on using NUsearch and ILL. 

Here are a few books to get you started:

• Juvenile Justice Administration in a Nutshell (Westlaw)
• Representing the Child Client (Lexis+)
• Rights of Juveniles (Westlaw)

Journal articles can be found through various subscription databases or in print. You can search for the title of the publication in NUsearch to see whether you can access it through an electronic database or can find it in print at one of our campus libraries. Use this Finding Articles guide for more explanation on finding law and non-law articles.

Here are a few articles to get you started:

• A More Just System of Juvenile Justice: Creating a New Standard of Accountability for Juveniles in Illinois 108 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 197 (2018)
• Breaking Free of the Prison Paradigm: Integrating Restorative Justice Techniques into Chicago's Juvenile Justice System, 104 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 635 (2014)
• Illinois Bar Journal articles on Juvenile Justice. Access to full-text articles is available through Hein Online