1.2 What Is Criminology?
“Trying to understand the behavior of some people is like trying to smell the color 9.”
Janis Ian, activist and singer/songwriter
Criminology can be described as trying to understand people’s behavior as it relates to crime. Janis Ian’s quote humorously shows how challenging that can be. Still, it is this effort that sets criminology apart from criminal justice in terms of focus, approach, and perspective.
First, what is criminology exactly? Edwin Sutherland (1934), an influential criminologist, described it as the scientific study of breaking the law, making the law, and society’s reaction to those who break the law. Essentially, criminology is the study of crime and why it happens. It considers individual, societal, and environmental factors to better understand what drives someone to commit a crime. Once we understand the whys of criminal behavior, we can start to address those causes and prevent harm. With this goal in mind, criminologists look at crime from many perspectives—psychological, sociological, economic, political, biological, and more.
Crime is a legal term that describes the violation of criminal law. While crime in its technical sense is important to criminologists, criminologists acknowledge that crime is also a social construct. In other words, the people who make laws live in a specific time, place, and culture, all of which influence what becomes known as crime. Consequently, concepts of harm and deviance are also important in criminology.
Deviance—often misunderstood as being the same as crime or bad behavior—is a sociological term describing behavior that deviates from socially and culturally accepted norms. To illustrate the difference between crime and deviance, consider speeding and the practice of bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism (BDSM). Speeding is a pretty common traffic offense that a lot of us commit. It is a crime, but it is not really deviant. In contrast, participation in the BDSM community is likely to be considered deviant in American society, but such behavior is not criminal, assuming all involved are consenting adults. However, some behaviors may be considered both deviant and criminal, such as murder.
Why does this distinction matter? Criminologists do more than assess crime rates and what makes them go up or down; they also try to make sense of human behavior and understand harm, safety, and justice, regardless of the legal “lines in the sand.” Although our exploration of criminology will include a little bit about victimization, this book focuses on understanding criminal offending behavior and those who engage in it. The focused study of victims and their experiences of victimization, or victimology, is a subject deserving of its own separate textbook and course.
One way we can see criminology in action is when criminologists attempt to break down why there has been an increase in violent crime, such as gun violence in Portland, Oregon, as described in the chapter-opening example. Criminologists are looking at what happened during the pandemic to identify what caused the increase in crime, what the impacts of the crimes were, and what needs to change based on what they learn. Again, they do this with the belief that if they know why crime is happening, they can figure out how to prevent it.
Criminology Versus Criminal Justice
How is criminology different from criminal justice? In the simplest terms, criminal justice is the what, and criminology is the why. Criminal justice is the system that deals with crime and its consequences. It is made up of the three Cs—cops, courts, and corrections. Although the criminal justice system is essential for addressing crime, it is not set up for analyzing and addressing why the crime occurred in the first place. Rather, the criminal justice system is tasked with addressing the crime itself through law enforcement, the courts, and corrections, while criminology focuses on understanding crime.
Criminological investigation may uncover a variety of potential explanations for changes in crime. Some of those causes may be directly influenced by, or be able to be addressed by, changes in the criminal justice system approach. Others may have individual, societal, or environmental causes that cannot be directly addressed by cops, courts, or corrections. As an example, let’s return to the phenomenon of increased gun violence in Portland. Figure 1.2 shows potential explanations for the crime increase.
| Potential Criminal Justice Explanations | Potential Societal/Environmental Explanations |
|---|---|
| Budget cuts to police departments during the pandemic negatively impacted the ability of police to respond to crime. | Kids were out of school, which may have been their source of safety and guidance away from crime. |
| Dealing with protests downtown after the killing of George Floyd occupied all police resources, meaning no patrols in other areas. | Unsafe homes were made worse during the pandemic as intimate partner violence and child abuse increased. |
| The high burnout and resignation rates of Portland Police Bureau officers following the summer protests led to decreased police response. | With no escape from bad situations, more kids went to the streets and did so in pain. |
| The “Defund the Police” movement and negative press turned the community against law enforcement. | Many kids in the same neighborhood were in the same tough situation, creating ideal conditions for street gangs to form or grow. |
| The Gun Violence Reduction Team was disbanded and unable to address crimes. | Economic distress and high unemployment caused extreme strain on low-income communities. |
| Law enforcement could no longer adequately police neighborhoods, and without this control, crime spread and escalated. | A lack of sufficient resources caused competition over the limited resources available or anything individuals could claim as their own. |
Consider how these different explanations could lead to different potential solutions. What action might someone in a leadership position take if they believe budget cuts to the police department caused the increased gun violence in Portland? Compare this to the action they might take if they believe the increase was due to teenagers lacking a safe place to hang out in neighborhoods where gun violence is the highest. As you can see, a single issue may have many causes or solutions and there is no one simple answer.
Check Your Knowledge
Licenses and Attributions for What Is Criminology?
Open Content, Original
“What is Criminology?” by Taryn VanderPyl is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Revised by Jessica René Peterson.
“What Is Criminology? Question Set” was created by ChatGPT and is not subject to copyright. Edits for relevance, alignment, and meaningful answer feedback by Colleen Sanders are licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Open Content, Shared Previously
Figure 1.2. “Potential Explanations for the Increase in Gun Violence in Portland” by Taryn VanderPyl is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Revised by Jessica René Peterson.
the study of crime and why it happens
legal term describing the violation of a criminal law
the system that deals with crime and its consequences
a sociological term describing behavior that is outside of accepted social norms
a subfield of criminology that focuses on victimization and centers the experiences of those who have survived criminal victimization