Criminology
Understanding Criminology
Pure and simple – criminology is the study of crime and its effects on social communities and individuals. Whereas a decade ago criminology was a specialization or concentration of sociology and psychology, criminology has come very far on its own path. Today, universities and colleges are devoting whole programs to the study of criminology and some universities are based solely upon the study of criminology.
Historically, three schools of thought are the basis for modern day criminology studies: Classical, Positivist and Chicago. In the Classical school of criminology, 18th century philosophers studying the time's societal classes gave rise to simple theories and hypotheses. So, early criminology biologists attempted to explain and forecast potential criminals by means of biological markers, which lead into the next school of though.
The Positivist school touted the notion of criminal acts being caused by outward influences. It was broken down into three main sub-components: biological, psychological and social positivism. Criminals were thought to be a product of their surroundings and could be categorized based on one of these three main criteria. In more recent years, bio-evolutionists like Steven Gould remarked on how seemingly archaic some of these practices, supported by Positivism in the study of criminology really were. In the more recent Chicago school of thought, social scientists theorized that ratios between population densities and economics were often the root of most social harmony and disruption.
Criminology in the most recent times includes a whole slew of schools of thought, including: psychoanalysis, interactionism, econometrics, and so on. If part of society can be labeled, classified and neatly sought after as a field of study, it can be a new functioning theory of criminology. Because of its complexity and increasing need to assist a global population against such threats as external and internal terrorism, criminology appears to have a valid and solid hold on the world of academia.
