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.