This article will tell you what criminology is. It is the science that studies crime. It classifies the types of crimes, studies the causes of their occurrence, various relationships with life processes and phenomena, as well as the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat them. That is, this subject unites all the sciences related to crime, all its manifestations, determinations (interdependence and mutual influence) and the causes of exposure to various influences.
Criminology content
What could be in this item? There are four main components here:
- crime study;
- justification of his reasons;
- identifying the perpetrator;
- measures to prevent the same crime in the future.
Because the concept of crime implies the presence of many crimes that are committed in certain historical conditions in a certain period of time. This item has a long history.
Causality considered in crime isthe process of emergence, the birth of this vice in society. This is a social determination with the subsequent allocation of derivative dependencies. That is why every citizen must know what criminology is, since everything secret becomes clear sooner or later. And with the involvement of the methodology that this subject is armed with, the crime will be solved sooner rather than later.
Any crime has a connection with economic, social, psychological, political. demographic, ideological, organizational or managerial phenomena that literally push to commit illegal acts. They directly generate crime in their own environment, reproduce it as a result of their actions, and all this is very well known in criminology that such manifestations will certainly occur in an unfavorable environment.
Crime Research
The identity of the offender is the most complex component of this subject, it is considered as a combination of biological and social, and therefore is studied in a separate system of demographic, role and psychological properties of each subject of the crime. The subject of criminology also contains a component of the prevention of illegal actions. It is studied in the field of social regulation, control and management.
The subject of criminology includes the pursuit of a single goal: the fight against crime by methods of identifying the causes and eliminating the conditions that give rise to it. It is much better to prevent a crime than to eliminate its consequences later. In the content of the conceptCriminology includes the study of crime and its assessment, identifying the underlying causes and studying them. And also there is a goal - to study the identity of the criminal. The most important section concerns the development of measures to combat crime, the compilation of methodology and techniques for criminological research and analysis.
Main goals and objectives
The purpose of the theory of criminology is to learn the patterns of crime and develop scientific hypotheses, concepts, theories based on this knowledge. The practical goal is to develop constructive proposals and scientific recommendations in order to increase efficiency in the fight against crime. The concept of criminology includes long-term goals. This is the creation of a flexible and versatile system that prevents crime and makes it possible to overcome and neutralize criminogenic factors. Immediate goals relate to the implementation of daily practical work and scientific research in the fight against crime.
The tasks of criminology are quite extensive. This includes the study of subjective and objective conditions that affect the dynamics, structure and level of crime, the study of its types from a socio-criminal point of view, in order to determine ways to combat it. This also includes the study of the personality of the offender and the study of the mechanism of a specific illegal action. Also, the tasks of criminology include the classification of all types of manifestations of crime and the types of personality that commit them. The main directions and measures to prevent the growth of crime are determined.
Functions and system
First, material related to criminal cases is collected. Then the processes and phenomena that are included in the subject of criminology are described. Then the nature and order of the flow of this process is clarified, the features are revealed. Further, the ways of probable development of the studied process or phenomenon are revealed. All this relates to the functions of criminology. Methods for collecting material and studying it, as well as building a version regarding the process, can be very diverse. But always consistent with prescribed regulations.
There are two parts in the system of criminology - general and special. In general, criminological concepts are studied:
- methods of criminology;
- item;
- tasks;
- goals;
- development history;
- functions;
- identity of offender;
- crime;
- mechanisms of criminal behavior;
- prediction;
- warning;
- crime planning.
The special part contains a criminological description of the types of crimes according to the content of the actions and taking into account the characteristics of the crime contingent.
Links with other sciences
The development of criminology as a science shows that it cannot be entirely attributed to any one discipline, it cannot be called purely legal or sociological. This is an interdisciplinary science, it interacts in the social and legal sphere. She is equally close to both legal disciplines and public ones. The closest dependence is the connection with the criminalcycle of legal sciences:
- criminal process;
- penal enforcement;
- criminal law.
All this because they use the same terms and concepts. Also, for practical investigation and for trial, the conclusions of criminology about the causes of crime, the conditions under which illegal actions were committed, and much more are important.
Criminology is naturally associated with forensic science, where methods, tactics, and techniques for investigating crimes are being developed. Here, a record of crime is kept - its determinants, the identity of criminals, and so on. Criminology is also connected with constitutional law.
After all, many provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation are directly related to the education in citizens of moral standards, respect for the law and compliance with the rules of the hostel. Administrative law is also strongly associated with criminalistics, because the importance of administrative law in the fight against offenses is high. And administrative and legal norms regulate the activities of law enforcement agencies.
Links of criminology with sociology, economics, statistics, pedagogy and other sciences
Since criminology studies the most striking social negative, that is, crime, it cannot but be associated with the science of sociology. The latter studies the manifestations and action of the general laws of the development of society, the most diverse spheres of its life and activity in certain historical conditions. Andthe goals of study and its subject matter are the same in these sciences. In the same way, criminology is connected with the economy, because it is in this area that many phenomena and processes that generate crime are located. Moreover, the market economy is very fertile ground for its growth.
Statistics, especially criminal statistics, is closely related to criminology. Without the data of this plan it is impossible to investigate the development and causes of crime. Criminology also interacts with psychology, which helps to study the subjective causes and conditions in which the idea of a criminal act is born, the mechanisms and motivation of the behavior of the criminal element.
Pedagogy, together with criminology, studies the determinants of crime, which are most often associated with a lack of quality in educating a person at school, in the family, in society. Personality in criminology helps to reveal all of the above sciences. Demography, genetics, psychiatry, prognosis - each of these sciences is an assistant in the study of crime. And this is not quite a complete list.
Criminology Methods
Reception of research, the method is the method. And the methodology is their totality, a tool for research. Methodology is the study of the paths taken by the researcher. Methods combine legal and sociological approaches to the study of any object and personality of a criminal in criminology.
The use of a sociological approach helps to consider crime as a consequence of social phenomena that bring negativity to politics,economics, the spiritual sphere, psychology, law and almost any field. And the personality of the criminal becomes an opportunity to study in the aggregate the negative qualities of the individual, which were formed in him when interacting with reality.
Crime in criminology - human behavior in society, and it is seen as a unity of subjective and objective factors. The latter are all the negative phenomena that led to the commission of the crime, and subjective factors are the features of a particular person who committed the crime, and they were formed as a result of the influence of objective factors. The basic method in criminology is dialectical knowledge, this is a general method that leads all research in the right direction.
The personality of the offender and the act itself are studied according to the laws of dialectics. When quantitative changes turn into qualitative ones. Main Categories:
- necessary and accidental;
- cause and effect;
- possibility and reality;
- form and content;
- phenomenon and essence.
All this is of great importance in the knowledge of patterns in the emergence and existence of crime and ways to combat it.
General scientific methods
The general method is as follows. All crime in general is common. Its individual groups and species are special. And the specific crime considered in criminology is a single one. Along with this general method, general scientific ones are also used:
- generalization;
- formal logic;
- analysisand synthesis;
- abstraction;
- deduction and induction;
- simulation;
- analogy and many more.
Methods of collecting information are surveys in various forms, the study of documentation, experiment, observation, the bibliography method, the study of the products of the criminal's activities, and so on. The most common method is statistical, when quantitative data on crime are summarized, on individual acts, causes, conditions, and patterns are revealed.
The general scientific methods of criminology include the following variants of cognition:
- the path from abstract to concrete;
- system-structural analysis;
- hypothesis;
- comparison;
- historical method;
- statistical and dynamic.
Used in forensics and specific sociological methods:
- study documentation;
- interview and survey;
- experiment and observation.
Three stages of studying crime
The first stage is preparatory (methodological), when the problem is formulated, the object and subject for research are determined, as well as goals and objectives, concepts are clarified, hypotheses are formulated. The second stage is working, at this time the toolkit is being developed. Questionnaires, polls, interviews are being conducted, which are aimed at studying the relationship between the people being interviewed - likes, dislikes, indifference.
Testing is popular, but the data is too strictinterpretations, and therefore must be treated with some degree of criticism. Additionally, the documentation is studied for grammatical, syntactic, historical analysis, a logical analysis is carried out with justification, the concept of meaning, and the argumentation of all provisions.
Separately, the method of content analysis of semantic elements in the study is used, a transition is made from quantity indicators to quality and vice versa. The method of experiment, observation with a video camera and just eyes is used. At the final stage, conclusions are formulated, reports are drawn up, research results are put into practice, legislative proposals are prepared, scientific conferences are held, and comprehensive plans to combat crime are developed.
Prediction objects in criminology
The main object is always crime as such, its types, groups and subgroups in a specific historical situation. All the most probable options are predicted, according to which the criminological situation may develop, and under the influence of what determining factors. The expected image of the criminal is compiled, the most dangerous types - according to the directions for the sections of criminal activity, as well as the degree of influence on the processes taking place in the criminal world. A portrait of the victim of the crime in the social aspect is also drawn up, risk groups are established.
From all the above research material, an assessment of the state of crime in the future is compiled, the processes of its determination are predicted, andthe results of managerial decisions that are to varying degrees associated with crime. Of course, all the material, all the data that was obtained by the predecessors is used. It will take all the theoretical training and developed abstract thinking to put this method into practice in criminology.
