ABSTRACT
According to Edwin H. Sutherland, one of the fathers of modern criminology, criminology is the study of lawmaking, lawbreaking, and law enforcing.1 This definition highlights the broad range of phenomena that can be considered in criminology, for example, from speculating on why marijuana possession is illegal and on the motives of the government that enacted this law to exploring the characteristics of those who tend to violate this law. In fact, the scope of criminology is far too wide to be adequately addressed in a single chapter. Interested readers are directed to Akers and Sellars;2 Kubrin, Stucky, and Krohn;3 and Maguire, Morgan, and Reiner4 for more thorough introductions. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the origins of criminology and criminological thought and examines how “crime” can be measured and the different pictures these measures might provide about crime.
