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Criminology emerged in the early nineteenth century in response to a social demand to study the sources of antisocial behavior. There is no doubt that it is a new science, because until relatively recently society was not aware of its great contribution and value.
Furthermore, it is characterized as an interdisciplinary science, as it is based on other applied sciences. Its objects of study are delinquency, crime, the victim, criminals and social control.
definition of criminology
Criminology is a discipline in full expansion, both in the scientific dimension and in the applied field. Therefore, we define criminology as an interdisciplinary science, that is, it is the result of the confluence of knowledge and methodologies from other disciplines, such as Law, Sociology, Psychology, Psychiatry, Anthropology and Legal Medicine, among others.
One of the first discoveries made by criminology is that the crime is a real problem and of varying intensity, and may depend on human societies.
Another important conclusion is that the crime is a phenomenon constructed from the social reaction of rejection that causes between citizens. The truth is that, on the one hand, reality, and on the other, the social elaboration of crime, have behind them more than a hundred years of criminological research.
Based on these two premises, criminology is that science that studies criminal behavior, but also the social reaction to such behavior. In other words, it does not study just one aspect, but both.
objects of study
As for the object or objects of study of criminology, there are two clearly differentiated positions :
The first is reductionist, as it maintains that its object of study is the same as that of Criminal Law: crime. Those who defend this position, in fact, claim that criminology lacks an object of study of its own.
The second, and most followed today, maintains that there are five objects of study:
- The delinquency as a social phenomenon.
- The crime , as an individual action, but also as a collective action.
- The criminals, as actors who commit crimes.
- The victims as passive people who suffer the consequences of the offenses.
- The social control, as a reaction to the offense.
This second position, like the previous one, also received criticism. Critics claim that it is not possible to build an authentic science with such diverse pretensions.
Main purposes
Criminology has several purposes, among which the prevention and intervention of the criminal phenomenon stand out. It is intended, therefore, to achieve the control and reduction of criminal phenomena, as well as the reintegration of prisoners.
Criminology and criminalistics are not synonymous
Although today a large part of the lay community thinks that criminalistics and criminology are terms that refer to the same thing, this is not true.
As a science still in the consolidation phase, criminology has been disseminated largely through programs and television series that are far from reality. They tend to misuse the term criminology to refer to typical criminalistic functions, hence the confusion.
What differentiates criminology from criminalistics?
Criminalistics is the scientific discipline that determines the existence of a criminal act and is also responsible for collecting criminal evidence and evidence.
Criminology, in turn, tries to answer, through empirical research, questions about what social or individual factors influence the criminal behavior shown by people, how control systems influence the sustainability of criminal behavior, etc.
In addition, criminalistics also helps to identify those responsible for the crime and their degree of participation in it. Although, as we have seen, the two disciplines are different, it should be noted that they complement each other.
