Analysis of Criminology and its Significant Phases

About The Study

Criminology is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behavior. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field that draws primarily on the research of sociologists, political scientists, economists, psychologists, philosophers, psychiatrists, social workers, biologists, social anthropologists, and law scholars. Criminologists are those who study and research crime and society's response to crime. Some criminologists investigate potential criminals' behavioral patterns. Criminologists, in general, conduct research and investigations, developing theories and analyzing empirical patterns.
Criminologists are interested in the nature of crime and criminals, the origins of criminal law, the etiology of crime, the social reaction to crime, and the operation of law enforcement agencies and penal institutions. In general, criminology investigates three lines of inquiry: first, the nature of criminal law, its administration, and the conditions under which it develops; second, the causation of crime and the personality of criminals; and third, the control of crime and the rehabilitation of offenders. As a result, criminology encompasses the activities of legislative bodies, law enforcement agencies, judicial institutions, correctional institutions, and educational, private, and public social agencies.

Modern academic criminology has direct roots in the 19^th century Italian School of "criminal anthropology," which "caused a radical refocusing of criminological discussion throughout Europe and the United States from law to the criminal," according to historian Mary Gibson. While the 'Italian School' was attacked and partially replaced by ‘sociological' theories of delinquency in countries such as France, they retained the new focus on the criminal.

According to Gibson, Raffaele Garofalo, an Italian law professor, coined the term criminology as Criminologia. The analogous French term Criminologie was coined by French anthropologist Paul Topinard in the late nineteenth century.

As a discipline, criminology expanded significantly in the first quarter of the twentieth century. From 19th to 20th century, this field of research in the United States went through three significant phases: (1) the Golden Age of Research, which has been described as a multiple-factor approach, (2) the Golden Age of Theory, which attempted to show the limits of systematically connecting criminological research to theory, and (3) a period, which was seen as a significant turning point for criminology.

Social structure theories

As a conflict theory or structural conflict perspective in sociology and sociology of crime, this theory is applied to a variety of approaches within the bases of criminology in particular and in sociology more broadly. Because this viewpoint is sufficiently broad, embracing a wide range of viewpoints.

Disorganization: The Chicago School's Henry McKay and Clifford R. Shaw laid the groundwork for social disorganization theory. According to social disorganization theory, neighborhood’s plagued by poverty and economic deprivation has high rates of population turnover. According to this theory, crime and deviance are valued within social groups known as "subcultures" or "gangs." These groups hold values that differ from the social norm. These areas also have a high level of population diversity. With such high turnover, informal social structures frequently fail to develop, making it difficult to maintain social order in a community.

Social ecology: Social ecology studies have been based on theories of social disorganization. Many studies have discovered that crime rates are linked to poverty, disorder, a high number of abandoned buildings, and other indicators of community deterioration. As working and middle-class people leave failing neighborhoods, the most vulnerable segments of the population may remain. According to William Julius Wilson, a poverty "concentration effect" may cause neighborhood’s to become isolated from society and prone to violence.

Strain: Strain theory, also known as Mertonian Anomie and advanced by American sociologist Robert Merton, proposes that mainstream culture, particularly in the United States, is saturated with dreams of opportunity, freedom, and prosperity—the American Dream, as Merton put it. The majority of people believe in this dream, which becomes a powerful cultural and psychological motivator. Merton used the term anomie as well, but it meant something different to him than it did to Durkheim. Merton defined the term as a dichotomy between what society expected of its citizens and what those citizens were capable of accomplishing. As a result, if the social structure of opportunities is unequal and prevents the majority from realizing the dream, some of those who are discouraged will resort to illegitimate means (crime) to achieve it.