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Criminology De!nition, History &

Theories
Contributors: Abby Conklin, Earl Crowe

Learn the de!nition of criminology and read about

its history. Understand the impact of criminology,
and explore various theories related to criminology.
Updated: 11/21/2023

Criminology: De!nition & 

Meaning

What is criminology? The de!nition of

criminology is the study of nonlegal aspects
of criminal behavior. It is a sociological !eld,
focused on causes, prevention, and corrective
actions as related to criminal behavior. The
major subgroups of criminology are
biological, classical, criminalistics, penology,
psychological, and sociological. The !eld of
study itself is used to inform alterations to the
criminal justice system (penology speci!cally
focuses on prisons and prison systems),
police reform e$orts, assessing criminal
behavior in order to prevent its recurrence
based on speci!c factors, and assessing
criminal behavior in order to better
understand the intent behind it and
determine what the resulting punishment
ought to be.

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History of Criminology 
Criminology emerged as a !eld of study in
Western Europe in the latter half of the 18th
century. At the time, there was a rising public
concern regarding the extremity of criminal
punishments and the seemingly arbitrary
nature of how those punishments were
determined and meted out. Punishments
included public humiliation (getting locked in
stocks, labor in the public eye), limb
amputation, blinding, beheading, and other
physical acts of varying severity. The
inhumane conditions in prisons, and the
disorganized nature of said prisons, added to
the growing public suspicion that criminal
justice as it existed was ine%cient and
impotent.

In 1764, sociologist Cesare Beccaria published

"On Crime and Punishments," a treatise that
called for the !tting of criminal punishment to
the severity of the crime committed.
European countries and, eventually, the U.S.
used this work to help inform prison and
justice system codi!cations. In the early
1800s, the !rst research project regarding
criminal activity was conducted. The data was
gathered and published in France, and
subsequently analyzed by sociologists such as
Adolphe Quetelet and Cesare Lombroso. In
the mid-20th century, the American Law
Institute established a new Moral Penal Code,
introducing the concept of mental health as
an in"uence on criminal behavior for the !rst
time in criminological history.

This was followed by the social-process

criminology theory and the social-structural
criminology theory, which were created in the
twentieth century and argued on systemic
in"uences on criminal activity.

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Theories Related to Criminology 

There are several theories related to
criminology. They change with time, as
understandings of human behavior, available
technology, and society on the whole evolve.

Classical Theory
This theory (created by Cesare Beccaria and
Jeremy Bentham)posits that crime is a freely
made choice, in"uenced by the human desire
for pleasure. As such, classicism argues that
the way to limit crime is to increase the
likelihood of arrest and punishment for a
crime, such that the pleasure of committing it
is overridden by the pain of discipline.

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Lesson Summary 
Criminology is a sociological !eld of study
that focuses on criminal behavior, the
circumstances that can lead to criminal
behavior, criminal punishment, and criminal
justice systems. The !eld focuses on why
crime occurs, in order to better understand
how crime can be prevented. Criminology has
several sub-categories: biological (or
biocriminology), classical, criminalistics,
penological (the speci!c study of prisons),
psychological, and sociological. Each category
examines criminal behavior through a speci!c
lens. The criminological theories that
undergird these categories have grown and
changed over time, due to ongoing societal
and technological evolution. The !rst theory
was the classical theory, founded in the late
1700s by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy
Bentham and focused on proving that crime is
enacted in order for people to access
pleasure. This theory was supplanted by
positivism, arguing that criminal activity is
inherent in some people. Then social-process
criminology theory and the social-structural
criminology theory were developed in the
twentieth century and argued on systemic
in"uences on criminal activity. What all
criminological theory focuses on, ultimately,
the same thing: why does crime happen, and
what changes can be made in order to
prevent it? Though the !eld was founded as a
means of managing and codifying criminal
justice in the late 1700s, today it informs
criminal justice reform, police reform, and
abolition, and prison reforms and abolition,
showing exactly how broad the scope of
criminology has become.

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Video Transcript

De!nition of Criminology
Criminology is the scienti!c study of crime,
including its causes, responses by law
enforcement, and methods of prevention. It is
a sub-group of sociology, which is the
scienti!c study of social behavior. There are
many !elds of study that are used in the !eld
of criminology, including biology, statistics,
psychology, psychiatry, economics, and
anthropology.

Just as criminology is a sub-group of

sociology, criminology itself has several sub-
groups, including:

Penology: the study of prisons and prison

systems

Biocriminology: the study of the biological

basis of criminal behavior

Feminist criminology: the study of women

and crime

Criminalistics: the study of crime detection

History and Theories

There are many di$erent theories of
criminology that have developed throughout
the past 250 years or so, and while some have
fallen out of popularity, others are still
thought relevant today. The creation of
criminology as a !eld of study can be tracked
as far back as the 18th century, when two
social theorists, Cesare Beccaria in Italy and
Jeremy Bentham in England, each pushed the
idea that the punishment should be so severe
that the criminal would decide that the
pleasure of the criminal act would not be
worth the pain of the punishment. This was
known as the classical school of
criminology.

As recently as 1995, a judge in California

sentenced a man to prison for 25 years to life
for stealing a slice of pizza. The judge stated
that his hands were tied because of the three
strikes law, and the law would not allow the
judge to look at the speci!c crime. This
example follows the classical school of
criminology that was developed over 200
years ago.

During the early 19th century, criminologists

started to argue that the classical school of
criminology does not di$erentiate between
varying degrees of crimes. These
criminologists were known as the positivists.
The positivists believed that the punishment
should !t the criminal, not the crime.

Cesare Lombroso, Italian physician and

psychiatrist, was a leader of the positivist
theory. He believed that criminals were born,
not made, and that crime was a matter of
nature, not nurture. He conducted extensive
studies on cadavers of executed criminals,
coming up with the argument that certain
facial features, such as very large jawbones
and strong canine teeth, were obvious signs
that an individual was or would be a criminal.
However, this theory became less popular for
moral reasons and in favor of later theories
focusing on environmental factors that
contribute to criminal behavior.

During the late 19th century, criminologists

began to incorporate biology and statistics
into their !eld of study. Genetics was used to
determine whether criminal behavior could
be linked from one family member to
another, and statistics was used to study
population and crime. In 1946, the Society for
the Advancement of Criminology was created,
which later became the American Society of
Criminology, a scholarly and scienti!c
organization aimed at studying prevention
and causes of crime and treatment of
criminals.

Criminology Topics

White-Collar Crime

Organized Crime (Criminal

Justice)

Criminologists

Cybercrimes (Criminal
Justice)

Domestic Terrorism (Criminal

Justice)

Domestic Violence (Criminal

Justice)

Drug-Related Crimes

Gang Activity

History of Criminal Justice

Property Crimes Stalking

Theories of Crime Violence

FAQ

What is the best de!nition of

criminology?

Criminology is a sub!eld of sociology.

Criminology studies criminal behavior,
assessing why crime is committed, how it is
committed, and how it can be prevented,
taking into account personal, societal, and
systematic factors.

What is the role of criminology?

The role of criminology is one of criminal

reduction. As the !eld becomes better-versed
in why crime occurs and the factors that
in"uence it, criminologists can advocate for
changes in society that limit those factors and
improve life for all.

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