9.1 Chapter Introduction
As our societies, physical environments, climate, and technologies change and evolve, so too can offending behavior and victimization. Additionally, as social norms or understandings of social life change, so too do our approaches and theories (figure 9.1). Every year, more criminological approaches and subfields give voices to underrepresented or marginalized populations and their perspectives. The field of criminology and criminal justice has considerable room for growth, improvement, and new perspectives. In this chapter, we will briefly discuss continuing and emerging crime and victimization topics as well as different sub-fields or specializations within criminology. As you read, I encourage you to contemplate the exciting research, advocacy, and career opportunities that the field can provide.
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter and engaging with the activities and resources, students will be able to do the following:
- Identify some of the core continuing and emerging topics in the crime and victimization subfields of criminology.
- Assess the changing needs within the field of criminology.
- Understand more about research and career options that exist within the field of criminology.
- Apply criminological knowledge to current issues.
Key Terms
- Cybercrime: an umbrella term that refers to essentially all crime that is committed via the internet or the use of computers
- Deepfake: the product of digital manipulation in which an existing photo or video is replaced with someone’s likeness
- Domestic violence: violence that is physical, sexual, emotional, or financial in nature and often patterned that takes place between people in a family setting; often used interchangeably with the term intimate partner violence, although domestic violence is not limited to intimate partners
- Environmental racism: the unintended or intended phenomenon in which policies or practices have disproportionate negative environmental impacts based on race or color
- Femicide: the killing of women because of their gender
- Gender-based violence: a broad category of violence that is directed at someone because of their gender; may also refer to violence that is disproportionately experienced by one gender
- Green criminology: a subfield of criminology that focuses on harm to the environment, humans, and nonhuman species
- Hate crimes: crimes that are motivated at least in part by bias against a particular identity or group affiliation
- Infotainment: media that blurs the line between news and entertainment and might be both educational and entertaining
- Intimate partner violence: violence that occurs between people who are or were in a romantic and/or sexual relationship; can include physical, sexual, or emotional violence perpetrated by a partner or ex-partner
- Legal desert: areas or counties, typically in rural settings, where few or no lawyers are working
- Mass killing or mass murder: the killing of multiple people, typically more than three, in one incident
- Mass shootings: an event in which one or more people use firearms to target, injure, and/or kill multiple people
- Queer criminology: a subfield of criminology that centers the LGBTQIA+ community in studying crime, victimization, and the criminal justice system
- Rural criminology: a subfield of criminology that focuses on rural settings and how the rural context impacts the study of crime, victimization, and the criminal justice system
- Serial murders: a series of murders in which multiple people are murdered across more than one incident and there are cooling off periods separating each murder
- Space criminology: a subfield of criminology that focuses on outer space-related crimes, security, and justice
- Victimology: a subfield of criminology that focuses on victimization and centers the experiences of those who have survived criminal victimization
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Introduction
Open Content, Original
“Chapter Introduction” by Jessica René Peterson is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Open Content, Shared Previously
Figure 9.1. “Board School Soon” by Gerd Altmann is licensed under the Pixabay License.
the study of crime and why it happens
the system that deals with crime and its consequences
legal term describing the violation of a criminal law