This database is freely available to the general public via the Internet.

The NCJRS (National Criminal Justice Reference Service) Abstracts Database contains more than 220,000 collection records for criminal justice, juvenile justice, and substance abuse resources housed in the NCJRS Virtual Library collection. This includes more than 60,000 online resources and all known Office of Justice Programs works.  Contains leads to citations plus abstracts (and, in some cases, links to full-text documents) to journal articles, books, and government publications. [Note: On October 1, 2014, the NCJRS Virtual Library began to focus primarily on the collection of informational materials and resources produced, funded, and/or sponsored by the bureaus and offices of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP). All materials housed in the NCJRS Virtual Library prior to October 2014 will remain searchable in the Abstracts Database and accessible through Virtual Library services. Due in part to these changes, NCJRS will be expanding the scope of the Virtual Library in other areas, including collaborative efforts with public and private libraries, consortia, and repositories designed to increase and expand access to both published and unpublished criminal justice information].

1972 to the present, with some coverage back to 1970. Updated irregularly.