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SW 556 - Forensic Social Work: Home

Last Updated: Feb 11, 2025 8:48 AM

Welcome to the SW556 Library Guide

SW556 Class Banner

This guide was put together for students in Dr. Applegarth's class SW556: Forensic Social Work. Please use the resources below to help you find the different pieces of information:

  • Helpful definitions to get yourself acquainted with the types of information you need.
  • Links to databases where you can search for your chosen case law, or explore to find one to use as your topic.
  • A video that demonstrates how to find scholarly articles within the UB Libraries OneSearch function. There are also search strategies you can employ.
  • Links to databases where you can find scholarly articles beyond the UB libraries.

On the second page/tab, you can find my contact information as well as the chat window if you need assistance from a librarian during odd hours or ASAP.

Remember, within your project you will use complementary sources to answer the following:

  1. The problem/area of practice, including why it is important to social workers.
  2. Linkages to forensic social work – how do social workers interact with the problem/population?
  3. Current policy overview, including a brief history of recent legislation, to include your case law/legislation/policy.
  4. Assessment methods and models within this problem/population.
  5. Intervention methods/models within this problem/population.
  6. How your case law/legislation/policy was influential to the field of Forensic Social Work.

Definitions

What is Case Law? - The body of law created by court decisions, guiding how similar casesshould be handled in the future. Case law shows how legal framework is applied in real-life situations.

At the Macro Level - The bigger and broader picture, focusing on systemic changes through policy interventions that affect entire communities or populations. This is essentially the legislation at the local, state, or federal level.
ex)

At the Micro Level - The smaller picture, focusing on individual cases where the policy was used in a ruling.

Helpful Databases

Remember: You can search in multiple EBSCOhost databases at a time. You may also want to create an account and sign in to save articles.

Helpful Resources from the Web

Google Scholar - You are probably familiar with it by now, but it might be just as helpful (if not more) than some of the databases on the library website.

Google Books - Another Google product that will search your keywords within the text of a book itself. If you can't read it on the site, you can check to see if the library owns a copy and if not, you can request it.

Case Law, Legistlation, and Policy Databases

Getting Scholarly Articles from the UB Libraries - OneSearch

Search Strategies to use within OneSearch:

  • Use the specific keywords for your case law/policy/legislation
    • If any of your keywords are two or more words, put quotation marks around it to search it as a phrase (ex. "Jennifer's Law")
    • Combine different keywords with the word AND
    • If you have any synonyms, use the word OR in between them
  • Limit your results on the left-hand side
    • You might want to use:
      • Available Online
      • Peer-reviewed Journals
      • Open Access
      • Change the publication date the year your policy or law was created or decided and search until the present
      • Content type