ABSTRACT
Criminology as a science occupies a rather peculiar position among the social sciences. Trying to synthesize sociology and law, it is called upon to provide objective descriptions of crimes and their related phenomena. In criminology, the concept of reification expresses itself in the "natural crime" conception. It focuses on crimes that are "inherently" criminal. Reification of social, moral-ethical problems leads very often to biological reductionism. Deification of the sociocultural conceptions is linked to the idealistic point of view that regards so-called constitutive meanings as the basis for social practice. In criminological theory, this kind of deification leads to ascribing the decisive role in crime conception to such objectified, definite, but ideal categories as morals, ethics, and law. Criminal law, with its crime conception serving as a basis for the criminal justice system, is but a part of the much broader sociolegal structure of society.
