What is criminology?

1. What is Criminology?
Lesson 1
ADJ 201-63

2. What is CRIMINOLOGY?
• Etymological Definition -Criminology (from Latin crīmen,"accusation";
and Greek -λογία, -logia)is the scientific approach to studying criminal
behavior.
• The term was coined in 1885 by Raffaele Garofalo, an Italian law
professor.

3. What is CRIMINOLOGY?
Classic Definition – According to Edwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey:
Criminology is a body of knowledge regarding crime as a social
phenomenon.
It includes within its scope the processes of making laws, of breaking of
laws, and of reaction toward the breaking of laws.

4. Objectives of Criminology
The development of a body of general and verified principles and of
other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime, and its
control and prevention, and the treatment of the offenders.

5. Nature of Criminology
Criminology continues to bring together in a very amorphous manner
people who do the following kinds of work:
1. Academicians (often sociologists) who teach students a subject
called criminology, including those criminologists who also do
research and write on the subject;
2. Teachers who train other people for professional roles in crime
control and criminal justice work;

6. Nature of Criminology (cont’d)
1. Those who are involved in policy research within the criminal justice
system; and
2. Those who apply criminology that is all the people who are
employed in criminal justice agencies ,ranging from policemen to
lawyers to prison wardens to correctional workers.
3. Even this list of broad groupings does not exhaust the possibilities
as criminology and criminal justice increasingly play prominent roles
in the further development of society.

7. Criminology Distinguished from Other Related Disciplines Criminology:
An Interdisciplinary Science. It involves two or more academic fields,
namely:
1. Sociology
2. Criminal justice,
3. Political science,
4. Psychology,
5. Economics,
6. Natural Sciences

8. Criminology Distinguished from Other Related
Disciplines
• Criminology explains the origin,
extent, and nature of crime in
society.
• Criminologists identify the
nature, extent and causes of
crime.
Criminal Justice refers to the
agencies of social control.
Criminal justice scholars seek
more effective methods of crime
control and offender rehabilitation
and deterrence.

9. Criminology Distinguished from Other Related
Disciplines
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Overlapping Area of Concern. Criminal justice experts cannot begin to
design effective programs of crime prevention or rehabilitation without
understanding the nature and cause of crime.
They require accurate criminal statistics and data to test the
effectiveness of crime control and prevention programs.

10. Criminology Distinguished from Other Related
Disciplines
Criminology: Studies Criminal behavior
Sociology and Deviance: Studies behavior that departs from
social norms
NOTE: Not all crimes are deviant or unusual acts and not all
deviant acts are illegal.

11. Criminology Distinguished from Other Related
Disciplines
Criminology and Deviance
Overlapping Area of Concern. There is a thin line that distinguishes
criminal act from deviant act. For example, when does sexually
oriented material cross the line from merely suggestive to obscene and
therefore illegal?

12. Is Criminology a Science?
• There is at present a continuing argument whether criminology is a
science or not. Edwin H. Sutherland and Donald Cressy, both
American Criminologists, argued that criminology is not a science but
it has hopes of becoming a science.
• However, George L. Wilker said that criminology cannot possibly
become a science due to lack of universal proposition of crime and
scientific studies of criminal behavior is impossible.

13. So How Criminology become a Science?
Criminology is a science in itself when applied to law enforcement and
prevention of crimes under the following nature:
1. It is an applied science - in the study of the causes of crimes,
anthropology, zoology, psychology, sociology and other natural
sciences may be applied. While in crime detection, chemistry,
medicine, physics, mathematics, ballistics, photography, legal
medicine, question documents examination may be utilized.
2. 2. It is a social science - in as much as crime is a social creation and
that it exists in a society being a social phenomenon, its study must
be considered a part of social science.

14. 3. It is dynamic- criminology changes as social conditions changes. It is
concomitant with the advancement of other sciences that have been
applied to it.
4. It is nationalistic - the study of crimes must be in relation with
existing criminal law within a territory or country. Finally, the question
as to whether an act is a crime is dependent on the criminal law of a
country.

15. The Scope of Criminology
1. Study of the causes of crimes and development of
criminals.
2. Study of the origin and development of criminal laws.
3. Study of the different factors that enhances as:
a. criminal sociology- study the effects of social conditions on crime
and criminals including the machinery of justice and the evolution
of criminal law and punishment.
b. criminal psychiatry- study of human mind in relation to
criminality.

16. The Scope of Criminology (cont’d)
c. criminal ecology- the study of criminality in relation to spatial
distribution on a community.
d. criminal demography- study of the relationship between
criminology and population
e. criminal epidemiology- study of the relationship between
environment and criminality.
f. Criminal physical anthropology- study of criminality in relation to
physical constitution of humans.
g. Victimology- study of the role of the victim in the commission crime.

17. The Scope of Criminology (Cont’d)
4. Study of the various process and measures adopted by society
violation of criminal laws:
a. the detection and investigation of crimes,
b. the arrest and apprehension of criminals,
c. the prosecution and conviction of the criminal in a judicial proceeding,
d. the enforcement of laws, decrees and regulations,
e. the administration of the police and other law enforcement agencies,
f. maintenance of recreational facilities and other agencies and strategies
that prevent the development of crimes and criminal behavior.

18. Three Divisions of Criminology
Criminal Etiology- it is an attempt at scientific analysis of the
causes of the crime.
Sociology of Law- which is an attempt at scientific analysis of
the conditions which penal/criminal laws has developed as a
process of formal and social control.
Penology- which is concerned with the control and prevention
of crime and the treatment of offenders.

19. The Criminologist
Criminologists are interested as how criminal laws are created, who has
the power to create them, what are the purpose of such laws, how
they are enforced and violated.
Criminologists study the kinds of sanctions or incentives that can best
protect the environment. The criminologists study the relationship
between ideology and power in the making, enforcing, and breaking of
laws.

20. Criminologist, defined:
A Criminologist is a person who studies the causes of
crimes, its treatment and prevention using scientific
methods.
• Criminologists use scientific principles--
• Gather data
• Create theories
• Employ established method of social science inquiry
• Experimental designs
• Sophisticated data analyses

21. Is a Police Officer considered a Criminologist?
• Generally speaking, a police officer is a
• criminology practitioner not a criminologist, because
he is focused only in the enforcement of the law,
which is only one aspect in the work of a
criminologist.

22. What is a Criminology Practitioner?
• A criminology practitioner is any person who is a
consumer of the knowledge and research of
criminologists, applied in the prevention, control and
treatment of a crime.
• Examples: any member of any law enforcement
agency of the government, crime laboratory
technicians, correctional officers, and other workers
of the criminal justice system.