University:
California State University, Northridge
Course:
CJS 320 | Introduction to Criminal Law and Legal Analysis
Academic year:

2024
Views:

85

Pages:

2
Author:

Peggy D.

Course : Criminology Lecture : Utta Credit Hours : 3 Credits Semester Sessions : 3 Semester, 2021/2022 Session Prepared By : Pegyy Dania LECTURE NOTES Criminology comes from Latin, namely crimen and logos. Crimen means evil, while logos means knowledge. Thus, literally, criminology is the science of crime, or more precisely criminology studies all aspects of crime. The word "criminology" was first used by French anthropologist Paul Topinard (1830-1911) who researched using a physical anthropology approach how body shape influences a person to commit crimes. However, discussions about the problems of crime had been studied earlier, such as in works written by Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Criminology can be classified as a scientific discipline that has only recently emerged, however, discussions about crime have been around for at least 250 years. Criminology comes from Latin, namely crimen and logos. Crimen means evil, while logos means knowledge. Thus, literally, criminology is the science of crime, or more precisely, criminology studies all aspects of crime. The word "criminology" was first used by French anthropologist Paul Topinard (1830-1911) who researched using a physical anthropology approach how body shape influences a person to commit crimes. However, discussions about the problems of crime had been studied earlier, such as in works written by Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Criminology can be classified as a scientific discipline that has only recently emerged, however, discussions about crime have been around for at least 250 years. Criminology can be defined as the systematic study of the nature, types, causes and controls of criminal behavior, deviance, delinquency and law violations. Criminology is an applied social science in which criminologists work to build knowledge about crime and its control based on empirical research. This research forms the basis for understanding, explanation, prediction, prevention, and policy in the criminal justice system. Edwin Sutherland, in Principles of Criminology (first published in 1934) explains that criminology studies three things, including the causes of crime (etiology of crime), the formation of law (sociology of law), and the control, prevention and treatment of law violators (penology). Although heavily influenced by sociology, criminology also has roots in a number of other disciplines, such as anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, philosophy, political science, psychiatry, and psychology. Each discipline develops different thoughts, points of view and methods to study and analyze the causes of crime with various policy implications. Criminology is a very elastic scientific discipline, not only because of its multidisciplinary nature, but also because crime can manifest itself in different social and legal contexts, in different places and at different times.