They are dedicated to studying not only the causes of crime, but the social impact as well. It has only been relatively recently though that it has been recognized as a scientific discipline in its own right. Criminal justice has become a controversial topic, within criminology field throughout various time periods , specific advocates its connection to the media and society as a whole. The history of criminology has developed over time. Our modern system of criminal justice is the result of several evolutionary changes that society has undergone since the inception of the United States.
Retrieved from http://sociology.iresearchnet.com/sociology-of-crime-criminology/#what-is-the-nature-of-crime “When one is studying crime......disparities between theories.” Criminology Research Methods. Retrieved from
There are many different modes of criminological thinking and two of those are Cultural criminology and administrative criminology. Both of these concepts are vastly different to each other which Mike Presdee delves into in Cultural Criminology: The long and winding road (2004). According to Presdee (2004), administrative criminology “denies and rejects the importance of culture and lived experience in the commission of crime, preferring instead to concentrate on the pseudo-scientific analysis of criminal behaviour” (Presdee, 2004:276). Administrative criminology has been fabricated as overdetermined descriptive criminology which is disconnected from any sort of social or human interaction. Whereas Cultural criminology has “learned that ‘theory must learn from life” (Presdee, 2004:277).
Introduction Traditionally criminological theory and criminal justice practices have been focused on the criminal in an effort to reduce crime. The United States had over nine million crimes reported to law enforcement in 2016 (FBI, 2017). Such a large number of crimes lend to the notion that there must be many similarities in offenders and comparable incidents suitable for analysis that fall within accepted criminological theories to provide predictable concepts that could be utilized to reduce crime. This simply is not true. Crime and its causes are complex due to a number of various factors that may motivate offenders and furnish suitable opportunities.
Criminology developed as a natural result of the evolution of theoretical ideas about crime and practical approaches to its prevention in the 19th century (Kerner, 1998). With the emergence of the Enlightenment and rationalism scientists employed knowledge to discover causes of crime and tried to
Criminology & Public Policy, 12(2), 305-332. doi:10.1111/1745-9133.12024 (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Technological Innovations in Crime Prevention and Policing. A … (n.d.). Retrieved from
Positive criminology focuses on the criminal rather than the criminal law because the motivational and behavioural actions, especially springing from life situations, may explain criminal deviancy. The Positivist would argue, therefore, that the law and its implication would be secondary, if not irrelevant (Matza, 1964). Positivist theorists dispel the Classical theory of free will and use scientific determinism to study the criminal behaviour. Instead, positive criminology focuses on set of determinates and constraints that affect an individual and link them to criminal deviancy and behaviour. With free will, there is a improbable chance of totality, especially given that humans cannot control the sociological, neurological and environmental factors in their lives.
More broadly, Edwin Sutherland identified criminology as the study of law making, law breaking and the response to the law breaking. Criminology is the study of crime and criminals. But even this definition is of limited use – whilst we might recognize that criminals commit crime and criminologist study crime, what is needed today also, is the definition of crime to be understood, what criminology is?! Most dictionaries offer multiple definitions of the word ‘crime’, usually starting with the idea that it is a breach of criminal law, “an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and is legally prohibited” Now the point is, as per the ancient perception towards criminology is that crimes are committed by human and committed against human and criminology is the study of the same defined aspects of crime. But gradually with time, the definition has undergone some modifications; now the definition of crime is broader in its approach and includes the contemporary concept of crimes against environment as well.
Instead of just locking up criminals every time a law was broken, sociologists found that there needed to be effort put in place towards preventing crime. These attempts became known as environmental criminology: ways to limit crime in areas rather than simply punishing criminals. The concept of environmental criminology may be fairly new, but its ideas expand upon the original work done by professionals such as the ones at the Chicago School. When looking at the impoverished, these sociologists noticed that crime thrived and created many problems within neighborhoods. Such troubles continue to exist today all around the world.
Albert Cohen (1951) criticized this theory on the ground that it does not offer any single explanation regarding the cause of criminality. Criminology until recently was regarded as a specialized branch of study within the discipline of sociology. Wolfgang (1963) opines that criminology should be regarded as a separate autonomous discipline because it has accumulated its own set of organized data, theoretical conceptualization and above all a scientific method. 1.4 Gravity of Crime: The National Crime Records Bureau, New Delhi provides crime Statistics every year. The crime statistics of 2009 reveal that in all 66, 75,217 cognizable crimes comprising 21, 21,345 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 45, 53,872 Special and Laws (SLL) crimes were reported.