Most disciplines use language
in distinctive ways that may not be readily apparent. For example, in Criminal
Justice the term Juvenile is used to denote "a person subject to
juvenile court proceedings because the event or condition ...occured before
the person attained an age specified by statute." (Rush, G. The Dictionary
of Criminal Justice. Dushki, 1994. p. 187). In common vernacular,
the term juvenile is used to describe a young person or a person who is
acting in a youthful manner.
Familiarizing yourself with
language that is specific to a subject is important because:
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information will be indexed under
those terms.
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your project will be more acceptable
to scholars in the field.
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it will be easier for you to
understand criminal justice research and reports
There are two main resource tools
that are used for identifying and defining terms -- dictionaries and thesauri.
A list of
dictionaries
and thesauri at the University at Albany Libraries.
