Criminology Research Paper

Antoine Stephens

07/26/16

Acquiring Digital Knowledge

        Criminology, while it is a common term to hear, is an important part of society that most people do not even think twice about. It is actually a vital part of the society that exists today, which makes it extremely interesting to research and learn more about, but most Americans do not take the time to do this. In the simplest of terms, criminology is the part of sociology that studies crime and criminals (Criminology). In the past, criminals were simply labeled as such, criminals. With criminology, however, a door was opened that gave these criminals a chance to explain and redeem themselves, in a sense. Therefore, criminology is, to an extent, a form of justice for these people, and it allows people within society to no longer see criminals and crime in one specific way (Gault 1925). Instead, they can be seen for what they really are, whatever that may be. The journey of criminology has been a long one, and it is still evolving today as society further evolves too.

        As time has kept moving, so has the progressions within humanity and the American society, making everything either progress with it or simply be forgotten. Just like anything else, criminology has managed to progress with society and continue to move forward. With advances in technology and new foundations for people to connect, like social media, criminology has had to change. For example, people can now take a video of a crime happening and immediately upload it online, letting the whole world instantly see it and make their own comments on it. With this rise in technology and society being more connected than ever, criminology has had to adjust to the culture. There has even been a new field that was made to study the effects and relationship between the culture and criminology, which is cultural criminology (Ferrell, 1999). Because there is now this new outlet for people to be seen or see whatever they like, studies can be done to further get deeper into the mind of a criminal or learn more about a criminal act. For instance, after a criminal has been caught, it is not unusual to see news reporters discussing the most recent “tweet” that they had posted. This is because criminologists are now able to see what the criminal was thinking about or looking into before the crime was committed, learning more about the actual motivation for the crime behind the person. The point of diving so deep into these different networks is to further define these crimes and criminals because as time has progressed, it has been learned that those two things cannot be vaguely grouped. Criminals cannot just be categorized into broad groups, and that is exactly what researchers, and even citizens, have come to realize.

        In fact, one man in the criminology field sought to break down these irrelevant stereotypes that are associated with crime and criminals. His name was Edwin Sutherland, and he suggested that crime and criminal activity are not associated with poverty or the psychological aspects of poverty (Criger 2011). Most studies that were done during Sutherland’s time focused on crime and the status of the person that committed the crime, yet they were not done quite yet. Since they didn’t take the whole population into consideration for the study, the results consistently indicated that crimes were worse and committed more often by those that were racially and financially at a disadvantage. These studies also showed that those who were wealthier, or of a higher status, were less likely to commit a crime, and if they did, it was not a serious crime. This has led to a debate in the field of criminology about what should be considered criminal activity in society. For instance, the high class individuals in society can often execute a crime with little to no punishment, because it is not seen as a crime for them, but if an individual in a lower class committed the crime, there would be more scrutiny on them. Sutherland pointed out that these high class crimes can cause distrust within society, making them unlawful, and people seemed to agree with that, but he did not quite reach his goal of changing criminology towards a more equal path.