What is Criminology? A Crash Course

- Hi there. This is Margaret
from criminologyweb.com.

And in this video,

I'll answer the question
of what is criminology?

One question that I get asked
a lot is what criminology is.

Criminology is a scientific study

of several different aspects of crime.

Namely, first, the nature
and extent of crime.

This asks questions such as,

how much crime is there in our society,

what crime types are there, et cetera.

The second field is the causes of crime

and this includes questions like

why do some people commit crime

and why do others not commit crime?

Or why does crime happen at
some places and not at others?

The causes of crime is without a doubt

one of the most studied
areas in criminology.

Another area of criminology
is the consequences of crime.

Crime affects a large
number of people, offenders,

and the reasons why they commit crime

often receive the bulk of the attention.

But many more people are involved

in one way or another.

Of course, the victims
of crime can experience

a range of consequences,

including potential injuries,
psychological consequences

and inability to work or
pursue other activities

and financial damages among others.

And besides the victims,
the people around them

such as their families,
entire communities,

and even society as a whole
are affected by crime.

Another sub area is
the reactions to crime.

This covers responses to
crime by law enforcement.

For example, it covers the police

and how they handle crime,
the practices that they use,

the decisions that they make

while they're doing their job,

and the way in which they treat offenders.

It also looks at the way

in which courts sentence offenders,

how judges make decisions
and process cases,

and whether and how different offenders

are treated in different ways.

And finally, this subfield

focuses on different types of punishment

on what happens after imprisonment

such as when offenders are
on parole or on probation.

And also on prison life,
like on prison practices

and how inmates experience
day to day life in prison.

And finally, criminology
concerns the prevention of crime.

There are many strategies that
are claimed to prevent crime

and some of these may be
effective, but others may not.

And so, it requires good research

to test out which programs are effective

so that we can invest in those

and not invest in programs that
do not work to reduce crime.

One thing that I've always found useful

when defining criminology is
to see it as an object science.

The idea here is that there
are many different sciences

that study crime.

So, crime is the object of study

across those different sciences.

Criminology is very diverse

because people look at crime

from very different perspectives.

For example, lawyers, sociologists,

economists, biologists, anthropologists,

psychiatrists,
psychologists, philosophers,

political scientists, and historians

have all contributed to criminology.

But they all come from
their own background

and have different views
on crime, on methods.

and theoretical perspectives.

Some people think that that
creates problems for criminology

because it's very difficult to create

a sort of integrative framework.

But others think and I feel that way too,

that it makes criminology so interesting

because it's so multidisciplinary.

Here are a couple of examples

of how different
disciplines look at crime.

When looking a crime
from a law perspective,

it deals more normatively
with the conditions

under which punishment may be imposed.

Sociology is about groups
and social relationships

and how crime happens
within these relationships,

for example, in youth groups and gangs.

Psychology is all about human
behavior and experiences.

Biology about the natural
basic conditions of life,

And economics looks, for example,

at the costs and benefits
of criminal behavior.

And history deals with questions like

how is the course of crime
over the past centuries?

How do people deal with
offenses in the past?

And have there been any changes

in what is considered to be a crime?

So, all of these disciplines

offer their own unique lens on crime,

and that is what makes criminology

so incredibly interesting.

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and criminal justice stuff,

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