Career In Criminology

According to Bonger (2015), the field of criminology is concerned with the social evaluation of crime, criminal behavior, laws related to crimes, and their enforcement. The field of criminology examines how the society reacts to crimes and how best to prevent criminal activities through examining the psychological, biological, and environmental causes of crimes. According to Schmalleger (2012), the field of criminology also dwells on how criminal investigations are conducted, conviction, the effectiveness of different methods of punishments, and rehabilitation. In a nutshell, Schmalleger (2012) defines criminology as a body of knowledge regarding delinquency and crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the processes of making

Criminologists analyses different aspects of crime and criminal behavior and their causes, and conduct research in the area of crime to gain a deeper understanding of how best to prevent crimes. They are concerned with policies formulations based on scientific research of crimes and criminals. Skilled investigators, crime-laboratory technicians, fingerprint experts, crime-scene experts, and others concerned with solving crimes are also defined as criminologists (Schmalleger, 2012). In the study of criminology, it’s essential to differentiate between crime and deviance.

According to Carrabine, 2014), crime is any illegal activity which is forbidden by the law. On the other hand, deviance behavior is human activities that violate social norms. While deviance is not essentially a crime, the opposite is true. While some human activities could be interpreted as deviance, this doesn’t mean they are criminal, and vice versa (Schmalleger, 2012). However, some activities can both be defined as deviance and

According to the social responsibility theory of crime, individuals commit crimes out of free will. According to the theory, committing the crime could be fun to the criminal. The social responsibility theory argues that for crimes to be controlled, stiffer punishments ought to be passed to those who commit crimes. On the other hand, the social problem theory explains that individuals commit crimes due to matters beyond their control. Issues such as poverty, racism, and social status are the main reason why people choose to be criminals. For example, a person who robs a shop since he has nothing to feed his family is driven to do so by poverty.

To address the issues of crime, the social problem theory argues that we should first address the social factors which drive people to commit crimes such as poverty, lack of education, and segregations. Through formulation of policies which seeks to address specific problems in the society such poverty, crimes are seen to drop. Through criminological research, criminologist can determine social factors which influence criminal behavior, and come up with policies which address the specific causes of these crimes (Schmalleger,