Criminology at a Glance

Criminology Comes from Latin, Namely Crimen and Logos. Crimen Means Crime, while Logos Means Science.

Thus, literally, criminology is the science of crime, or more precisely, criminology studies all aspects of crime. The word “criminology” was first used by the French anthropologist Paul Topinard (1830-1911), who researched with a physical anthropology approach how body shape influences someone to commit crimes.

However, discussions regarding crime issues were studied earlier, such as in works written by Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Criminology can be classified as a relatively new discipline, but discussions about crime have existed for at least 250 years. Criminology comes from Latin, namely crimen and logos. Crimen means crime, while logos means science. Thus, literally, criminology is the science of crime, or more precisely, criminology studies all aspects of crime. The word “criminology” was first used by the French anthropologist Paul Topinard (1830-1911), who researched with a physical anthropology approach how body shape influences someone to commit crimes. However, discussions regarding crime issues were studied earlier, such as in works written by Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Criminology can be classified as a relatively new discipline, but discussions about crime have existed for at least 250 years.

Criminology can be defined as the systematic study of the nature, types, causes, and control of criminal behavior, deviance, delinquency, and legal violations. Criminology is an applied social science where criminologists work to build knowledge about crime and its control based on empirical research. This research forms the basis for understanding, explanation, prediction, prevention, and policy within the criminal justice system.

Edwin Sutherland, in Principles of Criminology (first published in 1934), explained that criminology studies three things: the causes of crime (etiology of crime), law formation (sociology of law), and the control, prevention, and treatment of legal offenders (penology).

Although heavily influenced by sociology, criminology is also rooted in a number of other disciplines, such as anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, philosophy, political science, psychiatry, and psychology. Each discipline develops different thoughts, perspectives, and methods to study and analyze the causes of crime with various policy implications.

Criminology is a highly flexible discipline, not only because of its multidisciplinary nature, but also because crime can manifest in different social and legal contexts, in different places and at different times.

Criminology provides a holistic understanding of crime. By basing itself on scientific methods, knowledge about crime is not based merely on common sense. Therefore, studying criminology means viewing the phenomenon of crime with a true understanding. This is reasonable because often, the understanding of crime still contains a number of incorrect and unfounded assumptions.

Furthermore, studying criminology can be used as a basis for public policy making (criminal policy) or making appropriate decisions to respond to crime phenomena. The development of contemporary criminology is even marked by the emergence of public criminology, which aims to remove barriers between academics and the wider public. Scientific recommendations from criminologists are used as the basis for policy formation that prioritizes social justice and respect for human rights.

Criminological studies can be grouped into four aspects of discussion: crime, offenders, victims of crime, and society’s reaction to crime.

The rapid development of criminology over at least the last four decades has led to a wide variety of studies among criminologists, such as gender inequality, juvenile delinquency and child protection, human rights violations, white-collar crime, punishment and incarceration, the criminal justice system, terror and terrorism, environmental crime, police and policing, media, narcotics, cybercrime, transnational and organized crime, and criminal policy.

Furthermore, with the rapid pace of globalization, criminological studies are increasingly developing by exploring various nuances of how humans perceive previously unrecognized crimes.