Criminology

Author: Brenda Edith Cetina Juárez

Degree in criminology
July 18, 2021

Like most sciences, criminology was fueled by curiosity; the curiosity to know about the criminal mind, the antisocial mind. This in turn starting from the scientific method; that is, from the observation, problem, hypothesis, experimentation and conclusion.

Criminology was born with César Lombroso, an anthropologist who carried out studies on people inside prisons, where he carried out anthropometry, that is, he took measurements of the body of people (mainly the skull). Lombroso used the hypothesis of comparing criminal groups with those who did not, this because when Lombroso joined the ranks of the Italian militia he realized that there were a large number of tattoos in dishonest soldiers compared to soldiers who did not. They were, at this point is where Lombroso was born with the idea that perhaps there could be some physical pattern between those who were criminals against those who were not criminals, reasons for which lead him to carry out these studies to justify his hypothesis. Based on these studies of the skull, Lombroso suggests that cranial deformities, among other physical characteristics, allude to delinquent types, hence his later classification. Consecutively to this positivist school, they would be joined by Enrico Ferri and Rafael Garófalo who added more in-depth and specialized knowledge in sociology and psychology subjects respectively (Hikal, Introduction to the study of criminology., 2013). Theories that perhaps for our times could already be taken as obsolete, but that nevertheless remain latent.

On the other hand, doing criminology is not something relatively new, if we think that there have always been rules in all societies and at all times, in addition to having the concern to identify the reasons behind a crime / fact. What we could call “new” would perhaps be putting terminology, trying to establish standardized protocols, an order to the systematization of knowledge and that this science is self-correcting (Hikal, Introduction to the study of criminology., 2013).

Criminology has gone through many definitions throughout history, and within all its assets it has changed, evolved, learned and apprehended, to stay at the forefront and on a par with crime rates, that is; as criminologists we have learned to continue updating ourselves to innovate in this field with the firm objective of social good and prevention, as well as to improve criminological practice.

The definitions of criminology vary depending on the author consulted, but etymologically speaking, criminology derives from the Latin "criminis" which means crime or crime and "logos" which means treatise or study, that is; criminology is the treaty or study of crime or crime (Training Center, 2014).

Now criminology is an inter and multidisciplinary science of which its foundations are the forensic and social bases, without neglecting the legal framework (Juárez, 2018).

As mentioned above, the definitions are too many to list, however, what they have in common are keywords that most of them handle:

• Science

• Multidisciplinary

• Subject / perpetrator

• Victim

• Crime / fact

• Behavior behavior

• Prevention

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Bibliography

Training center, ec (2014). Criminal study. Specialists in criminology and criminal law. Obtained from Criminal Study:  http://www.estudiocriminal.eu/criminologia.htm

Hikal, W. (2005). Psychonalitic, behavioral and developmental criminology. Mexico.

Hikal, W. (2013). introduction to the Study of criminology. Mexico: Porrúa.

Juárez, BE (2018). The criminologist as a criminal profiler. Jalisco: Vizcaya.

Wiarco, OA (2012). Criminology. Modern and contemporary. Mexico: Porrúa.