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Criminology, History Of: Camic, 1995 Laub and Sampson, 1991 Savelsberg Et Al., 2004 Short and Hughes, 2007
Criminology, History Of: Camic, 1995 Laub and Sampson, 1991 Savelsberg Et Al., 2004 Short and Hughes, 2007
Abstract
The history of criminology is examined comparatively for four countries or regions: the United States, Latin America,
Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom. Each case history considers a common set of analytic dimensions: origin and takeoff
(time, discipline, political context); changing shapes (themes, theoretical orientations, data); changing organization (associations, journals, position in universities, government and nonprot institutes); and the political-economic environment of
criminology. Commonalities across national and regional developments and particularities of each region speak to the
conditions of criminology. Globalization is at work, partly under US guidance, but academic exports are challenged and
adapted to nation-level political, ideological, and institutional contexts.
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International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Volume 5
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.03030-0
Criminology, History of
and Reformation of Criminals (Lengermann and Neibrugge,
2007: p. 74).
Programmatic scientically inspired empirical research on
the social distribution of juvenile delinquency (Shaw et al.,
1929) led to sociological hegemony in criminology, albeit
not without challenges from biology (Rafter, 1997), while
academic texts marked the autonomy of the eld. Criminology
was integral to the dramatic growth of social sciences in the US
through the 1920s and 1930s (Rice, 1931).
The inherently interdisciplinary nature of criminology
created a great deal of theoretical ferment. Robert Mertons
(1938) theory of deviant adaptations to structural limitations
on goal attainment marked a shift toward an emphasis on
social structure. Advances in survey methodology made study
of individual delinquents and criminals more efcient.
Individual-level research and theory ourished with advances
in psychology and social psychology, and economics brought
the rational action paradigm to the eld.
Criminological theory over the past half century elaborates
and adds to insights from these disciplines and from advances
in the biological sciences, an early precursor of criminology.
Social disorganization theory and Sutherlands (see Cohen
et al., 1956) ideas of differential association and differential
social organization began a process of formalizing theory in
criminology that continues even today. Social learning theory,
borrowed from psychology, became a major perspective, as did
control and labeling theories, which owed much to their roots
in symbolic interaction theory. In recognition of failures to
explain variations of regulatory capacities of social relationships and neighborhoods, social capital, an addition to
human capital, was in turn added to as collective efcacy, and
social disorganization became systemic disorganization.
While macro- and individual-levels of explanation were
strengthened by these developments, situational contexts and
group processes received less emphasis. However, methodological and theoretical innovations in network analysis and
analysis of spatial relationships, together with new technologies for qualitative data analysis, offer promise of more holistic
scholarship in criminology (Sampson, 2012).
Formal organization of criminology came about in
conjunction with organizations devoted to law enforcement
and corrections. The American Society of Criminology evolved
from an organization formed initially for the purpose of
professionalization of police. The constitution of one of its
progenitors dened criminology as the study of the causes and
prevention of crime, including, but not restricted to, several law
enforcement and crime control goals (Morris, 1975: p. 128).
Implications of research for crime prevention and control
have been problems for criminology from its beginnings.
Debate also centers on whether criminology is a fundamental
discipline or a special interdisciplinary eld; and/or an applied
vs a theoretical- and research-oriented enterprise. Partisans of
the disciplinary view argue that criminologys association with
law and its multimethod, theoretical and empirical maturity
warrants such recognition. The dependence of criminology on
the social science and behavioral science disciplines as well as
the inuence of extrascholarly inuence on the elds subject
matter challenge this view. In either case, the lines between
criminology and its supporting disciplines increasingly are
blurred, as criminologists continue to benet from and
239
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Criminology, History of
Criminology in Scandinavia
Criminology in Scandinavia, in its intellectual development,
conforms to the overall Continental European patterns. Before
the establishment of an independent social science criminology, studies of criminal behavior, policy, and law were
conducted by scholars with background in psychiatry or law.
Yet, after World War II, criminology took off as an independent social science discipline, as distinct from law and
psychiatry.
Criminology, History of
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242
Criminology, History of
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