ABSTRACT
The term criminology has been defined by almost every author who has written a text in the field. The varied content of criminology, as conceived from the beginning by writers like Lombroso, Ferri, Garofalo, Aschaffenburg, and other pioneers,( 1 ) has permitted an extensive and confused use of this term for the many subdivisions of the subject. The multiform status of the teaching of criminology has not facilitated an academic definition of the field. Textbooks generally refer to a mixture of data on science, law, public administration, and morality; and the commonplace dichotomy into ‘criminology’ and ‘penology’ has been with us at least since the days of Parmelee.( 2 ) Sutherland’s definition has been standard for many years: ‘Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws. . . . The objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime, and treatment.’( 3 ) Webster’s unabridged edition of the American dictionary appears to have incorporated part of Sutherland’s perspective, for we read that criminology (L. crimen, criminis: crime + -logy) is ‘the scientific study of crime as a social phenomenon, of criminals, and of penal treatment’.( 4 )
