Criminology is the scientific study of social crimes, criminals and criminal behaviour,
crime regulations and crime prevention methodology. The field of study known as criminology involves the studying of crime as a phenomenon on an individual as well as at a social level. In this article, I am going to discuss the scope and importance of Criminology.
Scope of Criminology
Criminology involves the study of various forms of crime, the reasons working behind an incidence of crime, and its consequences. In other words, it examines society’s response to crime and prevention of crime. It is the scientific investigation of crime through analysis of evidence.
Criminology includes the examination of evidence, hereditary and psychological causes of crime, various modes of investigation and conviction and the efficiencies of differing styles of punishment, rehabilitation and corrections. Criminology involves studying all these aspects associated with crime in general.
Criminology is the study of factors of criminality. In other sense, it is evaluating the
circumstances that provoked to do the crime and preventing/regulating future chances to do such crime.
Causes of crime and methods of preventing crime are the two most important aspects of the study of criminology.
Other areas of interest in this field of study are – Crime Statistics, Criminal Behaviour, Penology, evaluation of criminal justice agencies, Sociology of Law, Criminal careers and desistance.
A person professionally qualified in the subject of criminology is called a criminologist. The primary task of criminologists is to determine the reasons why people get into committing illegal activities.
So if you are interested in the study of criminology or criminal justice, then you can become a criminologist.
Professional may alternatively specialise in crime prevention, crime scene investigation, criminal litigation, corrections, rehabilitation, or the privatisation of
prisons.
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The responsibilities and requirements differ drastically from one job to another. There are criminology administration jobs that require organisation skills, as well as court reporter jobs that require excellent writing skills and knowledge of the justice system.
A criminologist, like a psychologist, must be interested in human nature and behaviour. One who is interested in this career must have creativity, analytical thinking capacity, problem solving ability, public speaking skill and ability to convince people.
Criminologist working in prisons, law firms etc. must be able to read the mind of the
person and counsel them. Strong research and analysis skills are vital as so much of the job involves data collection and interpretation.
Such a professional must be computer literate and proficient in computer and Internet use, especially research related to criminology.
I hope now you understand the scope of criminology completely. Now let’s discuss the importance of criminology.
Importance of Criminology
The need for study of criminal science (which includes criminology, penology, and
criminal law) essentially emanates out of the psychological apprehension about insecurity of life, liberty and property of the people.
It is the lust for wealth, satisfaction of baser urges, hatred or suspicion for one another that tends people to follow criminal behaviour and leads them to commit crime.
The science of criminology therefore, aims at taking up case to case study of different crimes and suggests measures so as to infuse the feeling of mutual confidence, respect and cooperation among the offenders.
Some of the significant attributes of criminology are noted below:
- The most significant aspect of criminology is its concern for crime and criminals. It presupposes the study of criminal with basic assumption that no one is born criminal. It treats reformation as the ultimate object of punishment while individualisation the method of it.
- The police, the lawyers, attorneys, judges, jurors, probation officers, detectives and other specialists such as psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists, etc., need perfect knowledge of criminology and administrative machinery for criminal justice system for their professional pursuits.
- Criminology also seeks to create conditions conducive to social solidarity inasmuch as it tries to point out what behaviours are obnoxious and anti-social.
- This has led to an enormous increase in crime rate and many new crimes which were hitherto altogether unknown, have emerged. Thus, thefts of automobiles, shop-lifting, smuggling, cheating, financial scams, bank robberies, scandals, terrorist activities etc., have become too common these days.
Again, white collar crimes have attracted the attention of criminologists in recent years. This in turn, has led criminal law administrators to devise new methods and techniques to tackle these problems through intensive scientific researches.
The modern computer related crimes have thrown new challenges before criminal law administrators throughout the world. Besides internet gambling, on-line pornography, the menace of drug-trafficking through computer-shopping and illegal downloading of money in transit is some of the cyber-crimes which are coming to light in recent years.
Conclusion
Thus, modem criminologists keep themselves acquainted with the new criminological developments and work out strategies to tackle these intricate problems for the protection of society. The scope and importance of criminology is not limited but multidimensional.
I hope now you have understand the scope and importance of criminology completely and it will be helpful in preparing for your CSS examination. If you have any question then leave it in the comment section below.
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