Criminological Enterprise

Criminal law is a construct of the government, enforced through tangible measures. In a democratic society, the government is elected by the citizens, and as such, laws are generally conceived with the aim to reflect whatever ethical or moral standards are presently acceptable. However, in order to be truly effective, some legislation must circumvent current sociological viewpoints in order to create laws that are genuinely in the best interests of society. This results in a delicate balancing act, as lawmakers attempt to weigh the views of the majority against the need for laws to be both reasoned and objective.

Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior (Siegel 4). Criminology is not just understanding criminal actions but also studying how to correct and prevent crime, overall. There are five major Criminological theories, (1) Classical Theory, (2) Positivist Theory, (3) Marxist / Conflict Theory, (4) Sociological Theory, and (5) Multifactor / Integrated Theory.

Throughout this whole term we have learned numerous roles of the criminal justice profession. How on a macro level law enforcement has made points to serve and protect, all the way down to the micro level of society. Men and women risk their lives every day to make sure that the law is obeyed, and their community is still held together. In the following paper you will see how the criminal justice profession helps on an individual and societal level. But what does each level mean you may ask, well let’s break it down a little. Individual need is person to person with the law, where societal is in the community of the law enforcement. The first individual need are assaults in and around bars. "The proliferation of bars in many communities

Through out the years Criminologists has conducted a great amount of research and through that research Criminologist has developed different theories in order to better understand and explain criminal behavior. Theories try to help make sense out of many observations that are conducted presenting the facts of the principal that connects and explains the theories. If good theory has been developed; then it becomes very valuable to Criminologist, because it shows the knowledge that is beyond the facts that has been presented; which will show Criminologist how to predict how others might behave (Andrews, D and

This is usually the start of their careers. Many use their Criminal Justice degree to join law enforcement agencies, such as medical examiners, FBI agents, or police officers. Others go into the educational field and conduct research or teach (Criminal Justice, 2011).   A criminologist develops profiles of criminal behavior by using studies and research that examine environmental factors, psychological behavior, educational levels, social issues, and biological factors. Criminologists also develop statistics about crimes by using certain tools obtain from law enforcement agencies (Criminal Justice, 2011). By organizing statistics and developing profiles into meaningful information, a criminologist uses these techniques in trying to develop ways to prevent criminal behavior.   State and federal agencies, US customs, private security companies, and drug enforcement agencies all employ criminologists as well (Criminal Justice, 2011).

Schmalleger, F. (2012). Criminolgy today: An interactive introduction. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Public criminology combines research, crime and the public in the meaning of their work and engages people of all skill and expertise levels in their consensus. Unlike other research, public criminology strives to involve the public in debates to further their knowledge and be able to interact with people of differential opinions.

By constructing theories or representations we can increase our understanding of criminal conduct. Through improving our understanding we can create effective, and operational strategies to handle crime issues. We must have a sufficient amount of accurate and documented research, and or experiments to prove the validity of our research. Research is attaining the information and data needed to generate a theory. We gather research by creating specific controlled experiments to reach a conclusion that will satisfy, or otherwise attest our theories.

Criminology is a study of crime, criminals and criminal justice. Ideas about criminal justice and crime arose in the 18th century during the enlightenment, but criminology as we know it today developed in the late 19th century. Criminology has been shaped by many different academic disciplines and has many different approaches. It explores the implications of criminal laws; how they emerge and work, then how they are violated and what happens to those violators. Laws are relative and historically shaped; they vary from time to time and from place to place (Carrabine et al, 2009).

Sociologists have many perspectives when it comes to the examination of our laws. Three out of many theories of lawmaking processes are the Rationalistic model, Functionalistic view, and Conflict perspective. Rationalistic models view laws as a rational way of increasing protection for members of society from crimes which are “socially injurious” (Vago 2012). Functionalist view look at where the ideas behind the laws come from and describes laws as “re-institutionalized customs”, where lawmaking is a reiteration of customs (Vago 2012). Conflict perspective describe laws as value the opinions of the elite, instill unequal access to economic goods which upkeep the social economical groups, basically keeps the elite on top (Vago 2012). The three theories are all similar but different at the same time. In my opinion, conflict theories captures the reality of law making process.

As human beings we all see and hear about crimes from a day to day basis. We all question why we have crime and what makes a person commit a crime.

     In his book on ?The Behavior of Law? Donald Black attempts to describe and explain the conduct of law as a social phenomenon. His theory of law does not consider the purpose, value, impact of law, neither proposes any kind of solutions, guidance or judgment; it plainly ponders on the behavior of law. The author grounds his theory purely on sociology and excludes the psychology of the individual from his assumptions on the behavior of law (Black 7). The theory of law comes to the same outcome as other theories scrutinizing the legal environment, such as deprivation theory or criminal theory; however, the former concentrates on the patterns of behavior of law, not involving the

1). Criminology arose from the social scientific community over the year and has since come into its own discipline, it examines the entire process of lawmaking, law breaking, and law enforcing” (as cited in Akers, & Sellers, 2013). Criminology seeks to discover the depth of crime at both the micro and macro levels, from the individual’s natural biological and psychological characteristics, the nurturing of social and structural institutions, to policy, prevention and control.

There are many different aspects of criminal justice policy. One in particular is the different theories of crime and how they affect the criminal justice system. The Classical School of criminology is a theory about evolving from a capital punishment type of view to more humane ways of punishing people. Positivist criminology is maintaining the control of human behavior and criminal behavior. They did this through three different categories of Biological studies, which are five methodologies of crime that were mainly focused on biological theories, Psychological theories, which contains four separate theories, and the Sociological theories, which also includes four different methods of explaining why crime exists. The last theory is

1. Three eras that characterize the field of criminology over the last 100 years was launch by John H. Laub. The first era went from 1900 to 1930, known as the “Golden Age of Research”. This time was mostly focused on criminal behaviors and gathering data on crime. The second era was “The Golden Age of Theory” which went from 1930 to 1960. This time they did not link criminology research to any theory being developed because the work was not organized. The third era which went from 1960 to 2000, this era the time was extended. This time scientific used it to examine criminology theories from the era that was advanced previously.