DEFINITION OF CRIMINOLOGY

Origin and Definition of Criminology

Raffaele Garofalo, the Italian law professor, was the first to coin the term “criminology” in 1885. in Italian it is called criminologia. In 1887 Paul Topinard, French anthropologist, used it in French. Criminology has been of scientific interest for only two centuries. Two schools of thought, classical and positive approaches, contribute to the development of modern criminology. Emerging in the eighteen century classical school focuses on crime. Positive school has its origin in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and studies criminal.

Criminology is “the scientific study of non-legal aspects of crime. In its wider sense, embracing penology, it is the study of the causation, correction, and prevention of crime. In some countries its scope is broadened to include so-called criminalistics, the science and practice of criminal investigation. This definition indicates that there are legal and non-legal aspects of crime legal aspects pertain to defining crime by substantive law and enforcing the rights of the victims and punishing the offenders as per the provisions of the procedural law. Non-legal aspects of crime are concerned with studying crime from various aspects other than legal. This definition is not tenable as its scientific inquiry to both the legal and non-legal aspects of crime.

"Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding delinquency and crime as social phenomena. It includes within its scope the process of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting towards the breaking of laws.

Crime consists of three principle divisions, as follows: 1. the sociology of law, which is an attempt to systematically analysis the conditions under which criminal laws develop and also an explanation of variations in the policies and procedures used in the administration of criminal justice. 2. Criminal etiology, which is an attempt at scientific analysis of the causes of crime; and 3. Penology, which is concerned with the control of crime.  

The objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime and reaction to crime. This knowledge will contribute to the development of other sciences, and through these other social sciences will contribute to an understanding of social behavior. In addition, criminology is concerned with the immediate application of knowledge to programs of social order and crime control. This concern with practical programs is justified, in part, as experimentation which may be valuable because of its immediate results but at any rate will be valuable in the long run because of the increased knowledge which results from it."

"Criminology in the broadest sense covers the whole of criminal science. In a narrower sense it refers to the part of criminal science which empirically describes criminal behaviour and explores individual and social factors associated with crime and criminals.

As a subdivision of the larger field of sociology, criminology draws on psychology, economics, anthropology, psychiatry, biology, statistics, and other disciplines to explain the causes and prevention of criminal behavior. Subdivisions of criminology include penology, the study of prisons and prison systems; biocriminology, the study of the biological basis of criminal behavior; feminist criminology, the study of women and crime; and criminalistics, the study of crime detection, which is related to the field of  Forensic science.
Criminology has historically played a reforming role in relation to Criminal Law and the criminal justice system. As an applied discipline, it has produced findings that have influenced legislators, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, Probation officers, and prison officials, prompting them to better understand crime and criminals and to develop better and more humane sentences and treatments for criminal behavior.