Law and You > Criminal Laws > Criminology > What is Criminology?
The term criminology is used both in a general and special sense. In its broadest sense criminology is the study (not yet the complete science) which includes all the subject matter necessary to the understanding and prevention of crime and to the development of law, together with the punishment or treatment of delinquents and criminals. In its narrower sense, it is simply the study which attempts to explain crime, to find out ―how they get that away. Thus at its widest and most commonly accepted criminology means the study of crime, criminals and criminal justice. Similarly, it is the scientific study of crime, including its causes, responses by law enforcement, and methods of prevention. It is a sub-group of sociology, which is the scientific study of social behavior.
Definition of Criminology:
- The law Lexicon defines it as ” the study of crimes, their nature, the causes, detection, and prevention of crimes”.
- Dr. Kenny defines it as “the branch of criminal science which deals with crime-causation, analysis, and prevention of crimes”.
- Edwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey define it as “the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon” It includes the process of making of laws, of breaking of laws, and reacting towards breaking of laws.
Scope of Study of Criminology:
The definition of Criminology involves 2 main areas of research being: a) Etiology (research of possible causes of crime) and b) Phenomenology (Research of all forms of crime). Criminology can be further classified as follows:
Theoretical or Pure Criminology:
It includes criminal psychology, criminal anthropology, criminal sociology, criminal politics, prophylactic criminology, criminal psychiatry and penology
- Criminal Anthropology: Darwinism suggested that humans evolved from animals through a process of evolution. Applying this concept to criminology we can conclude that the criminals are less evolved than others and can’t control their urge to commit crimes. This idea, called atavism, says criminals come from a group of humans who regressed in evolutionary advancement. Cesare Lombroso, the father of anthropological Criminology suggested that criminals share certain regressive physical traits. Criminal Anthropology tries to answer questions such as what peculiar bodily characteristics has the criminal? What relation is there between race and criminality? etc.
- Criminal Sociology: It is the science of criminality as a social phenomenon. Its principal- concern is, to find out to what extent the causes of criminality have their origin in society (social etiology). In a wider sense, It is the study of the physical environment (geographical, climatological, and meteorological). In “Differential Association Theory” Dr. Sutherland suggests that criminal activities should be attributed to the association of the criminals with other offenders and the company they keep.
- Criminal Psychology: Criminal psychology is the study of the thoughts and behavior of criminals. It answers the question: why do criminals do what they do? It also studies the psychology of other persons connected to the crime as witnesses, judge, counsel, etc. and psychology of confession. criminal psychologists can act as profilers, helping agencies create a psychological profile to help apprehend suspects. Criminal psychology is based on the works of Alfred Binet, Prof. Jerman.
- Criminal Psycho-Neuro-pathology: When a crime is considered to be a disease, an abnormality among humans, then, Pathology of crime can be called the study of crime; the psychological and general aspects of it, by careful examination of the various constituents and factors of crime such as- disruption of existing social norms and values, mental illness, stress, disorganization in society, anti-social psychopathological mindsets, physical disorders, etc. Neurocriminology is an emerging sub-discipline of bio-criminology and criminology that applies brain imaging techniques and principles from neuroscience to understand, predict, and prevent crime. This branch of criminology is influenced by studies of Gluek and Sigmund Freud.
- Penology: It is the science of the origin and development of punishment, its significance, penal policies, and utility. Penology is the study of punishment in its relation to crime. It is a science which deals with the principles, methods, and quantum of punishment.
Applied Criminology or Pragmatic Criminology:
It includes the use of scientific methods of other sciences such as analysis, synthesis, comparative methods, statistical methods, experiments, and psychological methods.
- Applied Criminology: It is a science concerned with the application of the discipline of criminology to the ‘real world’ problems of crime and criminal justice. It is both critical and engaging and seeks to find solutions to particular issues of crime and justice, as well as to problematize suggested approaches.
- Criminalistics (police science): It is an applied science whose purpose is to trace the technique of crime and its detection i.e. collecting and analyzing physical evidence in criminal cases. This science is a combination of the psychology of crime and the criminal, and of chemistry, physics, knowledge of goods and materials, graphology, etc.
Is Criminology Science?
Whether criminology is a science or an art is a matter of debate. Science is a general term that describes the collection and organization of ideas and understanding them through a series of explanations, tests, and experimentations. Scientific knowledge is observable, objective, verifiable, ethically neutral, systematically explored, reliable, precise, accurate, abstractive, and predictable. Art exists as an expression before it can exist as an object.
A student of criminology has to study the reasons of crime, the process of investigation and prosecution in the Court of law bringing the facts of the case to light to enable the state machinery to decide upon the case, In the absence of such process, the criminals would go scot-free and no rule of law would prevail anywhere in the society. Thus criminology requires reasoning and systematic process which are important characteristics of science.
To call a phenomenon as a scientific phenomenon, it must be reasonably homogenous. Criminology as behavioral science or study faces an almost unsolvable difficultly because of the extreme diversity of types of behavior our legislators have seen fit to make punishable as crimes. Not all of these crimes express the same attitudes of mind, not even a universal consciously antisocial attitude. Not all are conflict behavior, or exploitative behavior, or either wholly rational or wholly emotional behavior. Facing this dilemma, criminologists have attempted various solutions. At the same time, we can say that criminology is not a pure science because the causes of a particular offence or act may differ and cannot be compartmentalized into just one category.