ABSTRACT
The scientific study of offenders and offending requires some agreement between practitioners about which people and which acts should be studied. This chapter begins with a discussion of different definitions of ‘criminal’ and goes on to assess different ways of measuring the extent of crime within a given society. Some consideration is given to factors that appear to influence an individual’s chances of becoming either a criminal or a victim of crime. Finally, there is a discussion of why people tend to have a fear of crime that is disproportionate to their chances of being victimised.
