The Concept Of Criminology

Criminology in its most simple definition is the study of crime. It entails a wide range of theories and arguments all aiming to explain everything there is to explain about crime. Covering every area of reasoning behind criminal behaviour, criminologists all have their own opinion, and all have their own theories which explain crime in different ways. Crime is a lot more difficult to define as it differs over time and location. Every era and every country have their own modified version of crime. Almost everyone can agree on a crime being an act committed against the law, yet as the law changes so does how crime is defined and that’s what makes it so difficult to define. In a world without Criminology crime would not be able to be explained

This is where crime has supernatural cause. Instead of looking at the individual themselves crime is explained through the possession by evil spirits often linked to the devil. Spiritual explanations provided an understanding of crime where there was no other way of explaining crime. This still falls under the wider theory of religious explanations as there are clear links to the devil, however this approach is clearly different to that of simple religious explanations offered more vaguely by Christianity in its actual reasonings and understanding of crime. This idea was prevalent before the enlightenment period of the early 1700’s which introduced scientific reasoning. Most commonly associated with the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600’s, spirits were at blame for all crime and the punishments were the most barbaric. External forces such as demons or evil spirits compelled behaviours. The cruel punishment of earlier centuries, was organized around ideas of revenge and retribution, and was increasingly criticized as barbaric, inhumane as it was seen as the only possible reaction to forces which were out of human control. There can be some variety in the opinions of what the spirits were or what caused them ranging from the possible links to a full moon or possessive evil spirits from those rom the past, present or future. Either way such forces are ‘other-worldly’

Humans looked to religion before any recognition of science, it being the original explanation and in a world again without factors such as free will and rational choice all introduced by criminology itself surely, it’s not unreasonable to world would utilise what it already knows to explain crime. Whether that be religious explanations of what I covered first which look at temptations of natural sin, and avoidance of God’s leadership which leave to a lack of knowledge of right and wrong, consequently leading to criminal acts. Or that be the influence of external forces of evil which strip a person of any connection to good and cause a person to become a criminal. Either way its hard to imagine in today’s world that these would be what we could revert back to but without the knowledge provided by criminology, you have to look to what the world used before, you have to look at the evidence of the world without