Criminology is the scientific study of criminal behavior, including the making of laws, breaking of laws, and society's reaction to crime. It draws from various disciplines like sociology, psychology, and political science to understand the causes of crime and develop effective crime prevention strategies. While related to criminal justice, criminology focuses more on understanding crime rather than responding to it. For criminology to be considered a science, it must apply scientific principles like gathering data, creating testable theories, and using social science research methods. Criminologists study all aspects of crime to help address this social problem.

1. What isCriminology?

2. What isCRIMINOLOGY?
• 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 isCRIMINOLOGY?
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 ofCriminology
Criminology continues to bring together, 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 OtherRelated
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 OtherRelated
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. CriminologyDistinguished fromOther Related
Disciplines
Criminology: Studies Criminal behavior
Sociology and Deviance: Studies behavior that
departs from social norms

11. Criminology Distinguished from OtherRelated
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 aScience?
• 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 becomea 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 connected 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 ofCriminology
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 ofCriminology
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. TheCriminologist
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 aCriminologist?
•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 CriminologyPractitioner?
•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.