Introduction of Criminology

Crime is a social phenomenon that commands the attention and energy of the
American public. When crime statistics are announced or a particular crime goes
viral, the public demands that “something be done.” American citizens are
concerned about their own safety and that of their families and their posses- sions.
For example, Gallup regularly polls Americans on whether they feel as though
crime in the United States has gotten better or worse in the past year. In almost
every poll since 1989, a majority of people felt that crime had increased.3 This was
true even in years when actual crime rates declined substantially. Because of the
public’s concern about the safety of their com- munities, crime is a perennial
political issue that can- didates for political office are compelled to address.
Dealing with crime commands a substantial por- tion of the country’s tax dollars.
Criminal justice sys- tem operations (police, courts, prisons) cost American
taxpayers over $270 billion annually. That equates to about $900 per citizen.4
Much of this cost is due to the use of prisons and jails. Despite making up less than
5% of the global population, the United States now holds almost 25% of the
world’s inmates.5
As these statistics indicate, crime is an important social issue. Further, how
policymakers deal with crime (via crime policy) can have enormous social and
financial implications. Indeed, the high incarcer- ation rates in America are rooted
in policy changes made by states and the federal government through- out the
1980s and 1990s. A basic tenet of this text is that a combination of theory and
research can help provide direction to crime policy. The chapters in this book
attempt to organize ideas in order to explain criminal behavior. This includes the
factors that contribute to crime and the social reactions to crime. In short, this
book explores the discipline of criminology.
What Is Criminology?
Simply put, criminology is the scientific study of crime. More broadly, Edwin
Sutherland described criminology as the study of lawmaking, law-breaking, and
the response to law-breaking.6 Some scholars further distinguish criminal justice
from criminol- ogy. Here, Sutherland’s definition is subdivided into two related
fields, where criminology focuses on law-breaking (i.e., the nature, extent, and
causes of crime), and criminal justice focuses on the response (i.e., policing,
courts, and corrections) to criminal behavior. Scholars interested in criminal
justice, for example, may study the causes and consequences of prison
crowding or the effectiveness of differ- ent policing models. Of course, there is a
relation- ship between criminology and criminal justice. The response to crime
depends largely on one’s view of the causes of crime. For this reason, many
criminolo- gists work in both of these areas.
Another discipline related to criminology is the study of deviance. A “deviant”
is anyone who violates social norms. Norms are guidelines that define for
members of a society the types of behaviors that are appropriate or inappropriate
in certain situations; they are classified as folkways, mores, and laws, based largely
on the response to their violation.7 Folkways are norms against actions (e.g., nose
picking) that may evoke a snicker or some teasing as a response. Violations of a
society’s mores (e.g., teen pregnancy) evoke a more serious response from others.
Laws are norms that have been codified, and the response to violations comes
from formal government agencies. Therefore, although some deviant behavior is
crim- inal, deviance can also include acts (e.g., violating gender norms, cheating
on an exam) that are not defined as crimes. Deviance scholars are often inter-
ested in how deviant behaviors come to be criminal- ized; that is, they focus on
the “lawmaking” aspect of Sutherland’s definition.
Progression of the Investigative Process
The investigative process is a progression of activities or steps moving from
evidence gathering tasks, to information analysis, to theory development and
validation, to forming reasonable ground to believe, and finally to the arrest and
charge of a suspect. Knowing these steps can be helpful because criminal incidents
are dynamic and unpredictable. The order in which events take place, and the way
evidence and information become available for collection, can be unpredictable.
Thus, only flexible general rules to structured responses can be applied. However,
no matter how events unfold or when the evidence and information are received,
certain steps need to be followed. These include collection, analysis, theory
development and validation, suspect identification and forming reasonable
grounds, and taking action to arrest, search, and lay charges.
In any case, as unpredictable as criminal events may be, the results police
investigators aim for are always the same. And, you should always keep the
desired results in mind to provide focus and priority to the overall investigative
process. We will talk more later in this book about developing a mental map of the
investigative process to assist in recording, reporting, and recounting events. It is
mentioned now because a mental map is an appropriate metaphor to illustrate the
investigative thinking process.
In this process, even though the path we will take to investigate may be unclear
and unpredictable at first, the destination, the results we seek in our investigation,
will always be the same and can be expressed in terms of results and
their priorities.
Results and priorities focus first on the protection of the lives and safety of people.
They focus second on the priorities of protecting property, gathering and
preserving evidence, accurately documenting the event, and establishing
reasonable grounds to identify and arrest offenders.
Priorities refer to Level One Priorities, as the protection of the lives and safety of
people. This includes the protection and safety of the police officer’s own life and
the life and safety of other officers.
The Level Two priorities are the four remaining aforementioned results, and these
may be considered equal value to each other. Depending on circumstances, a
rationale can be made for choosing to concentrate on one Level Two priority at the
expense of another depending on the circumstances presenting.