Criminology is a theoretical science that is used in order to try to explain not only the relationship between the criminal and society, but also the relation of judiciary committee in the social setting and the criminal element in the social setting as well. By looking at different pieces of the scientific puzzle, it is possible for many people to come up with theories to explain how society functions with crime, in response to it and as a means to perpetuate the crimes. Through these specific theories, it is possible for individuals to understand some different stances on how crime is created in a society and how a society may influence an individual’s decision to commit a particular crime. In some cases, it is also used in order to determine how time and the general implications on moral and immoral behavior in a society. This can be one of the biggest considerations that are taken when a government is thinking about making an amendment to their laws.
For example, homosexuality was considered, for a long time, to be illegal within the United Kingdom, including England. However, what ended up happening in 1967 was that a law was passed that allowed individuals to act in homosexual ways if they chose to, but only if the individual was over the age of 21. This helps to expose that there was likely nothing wrong with the specific act, but the people of the time that viewed the act. This is how criminology approaches crime. They look at the specific crime, and then look to determine how society or laws may have affected the crime at that period of time. As a result, criminologists are able to use these crimes and examples in order to understand more fully how individuals react in a society when it comes to laws and regulations. Criminology does not study crimes and specific laws. Rather, they simply study the reactions between individuals that are exposed to this type of situation. This helps them to be able to accurately understand how society functions. Crime seems to be an inevitable part of society. If we can one day understand why this is so, we stand a better chance of being able to one day eliminate crime from different societies.
Criminology is a unique field because it does not try to eliminate crime conclusively right now. They understand that first it is necessary to research and understand how society and crime are interrelated in different societies. Once this is clearly understood, we can begin to eliminate the criminal elements within a society. Because there are so many different societies, and crime does not relate the same way in all of them, it is very important to make sure that blanket theories are not created in order to try to attack crime on all points within the world. Rather, there are different rules and structures that play within different areas and may affect crime. Criminology views crime as something that cannot be avoided at the current time, but perhaps could be at some point when we understand more about interactions between the community and the individual.
How to Use Criminology and Forensic Science to Effectively Solve Crimes
There are a number of ways in which an individual is able to couple criminology and the practices of forensic science in order to catch a criminal. In some cases, the individual is profiled through criminology and matched up to the forensic evidence left at the scene of the crime. However, there are a number of other ways in which the two genres are used together in order to bring about justice within the penal system. Criminology is the study of how science and environment affects the criminal mind, as well as the interaction between individuals or communities and the criminal element. Forensic science is the area of study in which individuals are able to transform one small piece of information into something of substance. In many cases, forensic scientists are able to use pieces of forensic evidence and what they learn from this piece in order to effectively illustrate either a link between and individual and the crime or an alibi for the individual wrongly accused of a crime.
A few major career focus areas for forensic scientists exist. Criminology areas of expertise range as well, although they are all trained by learning similar material in school. Forensic science fields are especially diverse and offer unique benefits within each one. Together, the members of the forensic science and criminology teams are able to work together in order to piece together their separate information to come up with one solution near completion, based on the facts they have all gathered. For example, a police officer working as a criminology expert may be able to psychologically profile a suspect, but they would require the help of a forensic scientist in order to match carpet fibers from the crime scene to carpet fibers in the suspect’s home or vehicle. By linking together all the separate notions that each individual is able to learn, a complete or near complete timeline of the suspect and crime can be composed. With enough evidence, this can be taken before a court and the trial will begin against the alleged suspect.
Some of the categories that exist for individuals involved in forensic work include medical examiners that inspect corpses, crime laboratory analysts that are able to look at the chemical and biological makeup of pieces of evidence, crime scene examiners, and those that assist in a technical or academic capacity. Through the combination of these different branches, coupled with the work of criminologists, crimes can be pieced together in a more logical and straightforward way, in order to illustrate to juries and judges the events of the crime and suspected individual. This is especially important because in serious cases the jury has to be in agreement that there is no reasonable doubt on the part of the individual defendant’s role in the crime. In other cases, the defense will use the forensic evidence in order to clear their defendant of the charge or charges against them. By using virtually irrefutable evidence of a scientific nature, the jury and the judge are able to clearly see how crimes are or are not linked to the suspect.
When people look into criminology, they may initially be surprised by how expansive the field is. Anyone that is at all associated with the scientific study of crime, the relationship between the criminal and his or her environment, and society’s reaction to crime would have some sort of placement within the scene of Criminology. In some instances, criminologists are researchers that are trying to find the common links between deviant behavior and the environment, in order to try to pinpoint what it is that causes or perpetuates crime.
There are currently a number of different theories that attempt to explain, through the process of science, what it is that causes a crime to take place. These theories began to emerge in earnest in the middle of the 1800’s. Over the course of the next 200 or so years, new theories began to spring up and eventually they began to involve genetics, hormones and biological makeup. Previously, theories of criminology rested heavily on society and the environment’s effect on the individual as a source to either push an individual into crime or away from crime.
There are three distinct schools of thought when it comes to criminology. One of the first schools of thought, the Classical school believes that utilitarian philosophy is the supporting notion of criminology. They argue that individuals have free will and can decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. The hedonistic, or self-indulgent, side of the body must be balanced against the rational of the individual. When the hedonistic side wins, crime may ensue. Rational is the side of the individual that would consider the penalty of the crime and, if the punishment is severe enough, is believed to be the piece of the individual that would keep them from crime by looking at the costs. Positivists are those who believe that the factors that contribute to the criminal’s propensity to go against the law do not rest within their own control. Rather, elements such as society or the person’s chemical makeup do.
These are things that are considered to be outside the control of the individual, but are still things that may play what Positivists claim as the biggest part of the responsibility when a criminal has committed a crime. In the Chicago school of thought, individuals believe that criminals are a result of the disorganized environments from which they come. Later, this definition was extended to include the belief that older generations taught younger generations about the role of crime. It is then fair to say that these individuals believe that crime is a social occurrence only where the social makeup of the area is broken down and unequal.
Crime is often considered to be a blemish when it comes to the society of an area. It causes people to fear when they should not have to. Criminologists are, in their own way, attempting to determine what causes a crime or instigates that type of behavior in a person in order to limit the amount of crime that takes place.
