KENTUCKY CRIME PATHFINDER

Introduction & Scope
This pathfinder was produced to help library users locate relevant and authoritative information about crime especially in Kentucky. Find out about everything from feuds to crime rates and everything in between. Resources are listed by format.


Subject Headings
Kentucky--History
Murder—Kentucky
Kentucky State Police
Crime—Kentucky- statistics
Crimes and Criminals--Kentucky
Trials—Kentucky
Crime—Kentucky--Statistics
Kentucky—Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Browsing Areas
Browsing areas can help one find more information about a subject, rather than trying to search using card catalog. These areas are a good place to start for research about Kentucky.

Dewey classification- Start browsing at 364.00 and inclusive of 364. 97

Reference Sources
These almanacs and abstracts are standard Reference sources. They compile information from authoritative sources. They could be used for crime statistics for any state.

• United States. Bureau of the Census. Statistical abstract of the United States District of Columbia: Washington, U.S. Bureau of the Census; for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1878- This is a standard in Reference collections. It is exactly what it says- statistics of all the United States. The book contains a Subject Index as well as several appendices. It also supplies you with the online sources for each state. Statistics cover several years. You can see how things have changed from 2000 to 2008. This is an excellent source for state statistics.Ref 317.3 Unit
• Garwood, Alfred N and Alfred Garwood. Almanac of the 50 states Massachusetts: Burlington, VT : Information Publications, c1985- This book provides data from all 50 states covering 13 different subject categories. Two sections, one contains State Profiles and the other Comparative tables. The book is intended for one comprehensive easy to understand single volume on all the states. Statistics are gathered from federal government agencies along with data from the business sector. Searching is almost too simple. There is not an index but each state has eight pages all its own. Look up your state and find the subject you want to know about. In the comparative tables you find your subject and then see where your state ranks. Ref 317.3 Alma
• Rosen, Fred. The historical atlas of American crime New York (State): New York : Facts on File, c2005. --Facts on File always have wonderful resources and this is no disappointment. With 2 different indexes to search you are bound to locate the information you need. Use the general index or the geographical index. Use the geographical index to locate information about Kentucky. The book includes crime stats broken down by year, so you could see trends. Ref 364.973 Rose
• 2002 County and city extra : annual metro, city, and county data book District of Columbia: Lanham, MD : Bernan Press, c1992- This annual publication provides statistics for cities with a population of 25,000 or higher in the 2000 census. It is designed to meet the needs of libraries, business men and anyone wanting the most up to date information. There are several appendixes located in the back. There are 5 tables to search. The introduction explains all five tables and how to use them. You actually find how far down you want to go-State, County, City, Metropolitan area and find the statistics for that section. Ref 317.3 Two
• Hovey, Kendra A and Harold Hovey. CQ's state fact finder 2002 : rankings across America District of Columbia: Washington, D.C. : Congressional Quarterly, c1998. This book gives rankings across America. You can find out where Kentucky rates in crime compared to other states. Great for someone wanting to move to a lower crime rate state. Also compares important statistics for art, culture, and education. 317.3 Hove
• Gottesman, Ronald and Ronald Gottesman, Richard Brown. Violence in America :an encyclopedia / Ronald Gottesman, editor in chief ; Richard Maxwell Brown, consulting editor New York (State): New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, c1999. This 3 volume set is a good place to start investigating crime statistics in Kentucky. Short articles provide you with information to expand your subject. 303.609 Viol
• Altschiller, Donald. Hate crimes : a reference handbook California: Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c2005. Obtain unbiased, accurate information on Hate crimes in the United States. It provides a list of books and other print resources. Even covers the introduction of hate crimes on the web.

Kentucky Specific Books

• Kentucky. Department of Justice. Crime in Kentucky : crime report, Commonwealth of Kentucky Kentucky: [Frankfort, Ky. : Kentucky State Police, 1969- This is published by the KY department of Justice. Searching is performed by using the table of contents.
  364.1 Kent
• The Kentucky directory gold book Kentucky: Lexington, Ky. : Clark Publishing Inc., This annual publication is for locating people or information associated with Kentucky. It includes officials, organizations, and administrators. There are several ways to search. Ref 351.2 Kent
• Kentucky revised statutes, annotated. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill [1971-73; v. 1, 1973] This multivolume set contains all Kentucky Laws. It is updated frequently by inserting and pulling pages. Find what sentence a convicted criminal may get.
  Ref 345.22 Kent

Kentucky Crime – True Stories

• Coates, Harold Wilson, Stories of Kentucky Feuds Knoxville, Tenn Holmes-Darst coal Corp 1942 This resource gives history of the longtime accepted violence in Kentucky. This information gives you a background of the state. Feuds have been around a long time and Kentucky is famous for several. 364.256 Coat
• Ryan, Perry T. The last public execution in America Kentucky: Lexington, Ky.: Alexandria Printing, c1992. This is the story of Rainey Bethea. He was the last man to be hung in public. The Sheriff, Everett Thompson, died with pneumonia and his wife Florence took over his duties.364.66 Ryan
• Johnson, Lewis Franklin Famous Kentucky Tragedies and trials; a collection of important and interesting tragedies and criminal trials which have taken place in Kentucky Kentucky; Louisville.: Baldwin Law Book, c 1916
• McQueen, Keven. Murder in Kentucky: true crime stories from the Bluegrass Kentucky: Kuttawa, KY.: McClanahan Pub House, c 2005

Online Sources

• Kentucky. Department of Justice. Crime in Kentucky : crime report, Commonwealth of Kentucky Kentucky: [Frankfort, Ky. : Kentucky State Police, 1969-http://www.kentuckystatepolice.org/pdf/cik_2007.pdf This is the digital version of Crime in Kentucky. It is available in pdf format. Searching the online version is so much easier. Use the find feature of Adobe to save time. Also available in print- 364.1 Kent
• Kentucky State Police Crime in Kentucky Annual Report, 2004 http://www.thinkkentucky.com/edis/deskbook/files/CrimeCnty.pdf This is access to online crime statistics for the counties in Kentucky.
• Barbara Whitener, Kentucky Virtual Library Justice Crime http://www.kyvl.org/html/gia/sacrime.shtml This is a web site that gathers different statistics about crime in Kentucky. It was compiled by Barbara Whitener, University of Louisville. It is a part of the Kentucky Virtual Library. Every citizen in the state has access to this information. You will find discussions of trends in crime, annual reports on crime in Kentucky, articles about impact of jails, and crime stats broken down by number of offenses. It contains lots of information on crimes in Kentucky that has been compiled by an expert in the field.
• Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry http://kspsor.state.ky.us/ This site doesn’t give you statistics but gives you a place to find your own. If you want to know the number of sex offenders in a certain area you can search by zip code, or county. You can also figure out the number of offenders that are in compliance in your area. Web site does explain definitions and requirements for different types of registrants. By using this site you will know how often lifetime registrants register compared to 10 year registrants.
• United States Department of Justice http://www.usdoj.gov/ The main US Department of Justice site offers tons of information. There are links to crime stats for each state, victim assistance, crime and violence prevention.
• United States Department of Justice, Crime Victims Helphttp://www.usdoj.gov/whatwedo/whatwedo_hvc.html By delving deeper into the Department of Justice page I came upon a list of help resources for victims of crime.
• Bureau of Justice Statistics http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ By using the Bureau of Justice Statistics site you could compare the Kentucky stats to the whole country. I was not able to view this in a simple matter. They gather stats on crime characteristics and characteristics of victims.
• FBI Uniform Crime Reports in cooperation with the Disaster Center http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/kycrime.htm This site gives online access to all crime stats prior to 2007. It is hard to read without printing. It is a published Excel spreadsheet.
  
  Compiled by Alicia Harrington, Library Student, TWU. Online Resources were checked and current as of April 19, 2009.
  

Week 7 wrap up!

I keep getting further and further behind. So the last 3 weeks have been posted late. So I have no reason to expect everyone else to be on time. Any way, I am trying to plan the last week and a little get together for the staff for completing the exercises. Boy, it is hard. I hope we can all have a time to get together and discuss the program. It would be wonderful to see you guys face to face now that we have bared our souls.

I like the word exercises, because we exercised our minds. It makes it sound more like fun than lesson does. Lesson sounds academic.

Back to the drawing board here at work. There is a big surprise in week 9.

Week 7 Published!

I am really getting behind on my postings. I hope that everyone is enjoying the program. Last week there were the best responses. Thanks for building my spirits. At the end of the program we will all have a time to give feedback on the program. This will be a time to tell whether you thought it was too long, too short, yucky, or just plain great. I hope everyone will give some feedback. The program can only be as good as we make it and I am deeming this a success even before the end. You could say I have "High Hopes".

Thanks for making this journey with me and the other staff. I have learned so much from all of you and know that when we do this again it will be even better.