Criminology

Criminology (from Latin crīmen, "accusation" originally derived from the Ancient Greek verb "krino" "κρίνω", and Ancient Greek -λογία, -logy|-logia, from "logos" meaning: “word,” “reason,” or “plan”) is the scientific study of the nature, extent, management, causes, control, consequences, and prevention of criminal behavior, both on individual and social levels. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioral and social sciences, drawing especially upon the research of sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, psychiatrists, biologists, social anthropologists, as well as scholars of law.

The term criminology was coined in 1885 by Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo as criminologia. Later, French anthropologist Paul Topinard used the analogous French term criminologie.

In the United States for the past 100 years, criminology has experienced three life course phases : (1) Golden Age of Research (1900-1930) which has been described as multiple-factor approach, (2) Golden Age of Theory (1930-1960) which shows that they were no systematic way of connecting criminological research to theory, and 1960-2000 period as seen as a significant turning point for criminology.

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