The study of crime, criminals, and the criminal law has been quite a fascination for one and all since the ancient times. And this same fascination explains why most people find the discipline of Criminology so captivating.

What is Criminology?

Criminology may be defined as a holistic study about causes leading to, occurrences of, and responses to, criminal incidences and criminal behaviour.

What do Criminologists Study?

Criminologists use their scientific rationales to analyse Crime and Criminal Behaviour from every plausible perspective, such as –

• Legal
• Sociological
• Psychological
• Biological
• Economic
• Political
• Historical
• Environmental/Ecological
• Anthropological
• Philosophical

What does a Criminologist Do?

Modern Criminologists have moved away from the discipline’s historical primary focus on explaining the behaviour of criminals. Today, Criminologists explore the causes and consequences of crime, from both individual and social prospects. A Criminologist conducts a criminological analysis of crime and criminal behaviour with the purpose of enhancing the proficiency of investigation, prosecution, correctional administration, as well as victim assistance.

The art of a criminological assessment is depicted by a comparative, wholistic understanding of the above-mentioned insights into the same criminal incidence under scrutiny, and/or criminal involved.

In present times, the study of crime involves more than an attempt to understand why people violate the law. In a more general sense, the discipline of Criminology includes a study of the sociology of law, which analyses why some acts and not others are defined as crimes; how an individual problem gradually turns into a menace for all of us; and a study of the social responses to crime, which examines why some people are processed through the system while others who commit the same acts are not. These areas of focus are not always distinctly separable. In other words, there is considerable overlap among all the considered aspects of crime, and there is no agreement on which areas should receive research priorities.

This is what calls for a highly purposive and strategized multi-disciplinary training for the efficient establishment of a Criminologist. Such widened comprehension of crime and criminals makes Criminologists qualified practitioners in various institutions of the criminal justice system of the country.

Why are Criminology and Criminologists Unparalleled?

Criminologists serve to direct the use of statutes and ordinances in the way they are intended and meant to be used, that is, to use the law as a point of leverage in ensuring cultural transparency and social accountability to the State machinery in place, and vice versa.

Criminology encompasses the broader spectrum of Police, Prosecution, Correction and Society. This interdisciplinary subject aims to nurture professionals who can stand firm as the unanimous consensus among the respective institutions of the criminal justice system, as well as the society at large.

Our schooling in Criminology begins with the recognition and appreciation of the three distinct functionaries of the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive; and extends on to the potential of citizens’ thoughtful engagement in not only crime prevention and management, but also in offender reformation and victim rehabilitation.

In practice thus, the novel approach of Criminology serves to uphold socio-legal integrity, which is the ultimate purpose of Justice.

P.S.: The reminder to add the effects of Environmental/Ecological factors on human behaviour and consequently on criminality in the first visual came from a colleague and fellow Criminologist, Shivalaxmi and hence a little update in this post.

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