CJUS316 - Police, Community & Society: Literature Review Resources

A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research (scholarship) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably. (from Purdue OWL)

A literature review should include:

1. Introduction- overview or forecast of the topic
2. Body- analysis and synthesis and evaluation of the materials being reviewed
3. Conclusion- summary of key findings

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