Essay Sample about Criminology

When Criminology became a literal term that was created to examine the cause of criminal behavior, there were many criminologists who believed that could determine the cause of what causes people to have this criminal-like behavior. Many conducted experiments, even created some theories, and most of these theories are theories made by 20th and 21st century criminologists. But no one ever thinks to ask themselves “What was criminology research like in the 19th century?”. We don’t ever hear about these criminologists because we determined that most of the research found in the 19th century would no longer fit as theories that make sense now, but that still doesn’t stop us from wanting to know how these criminologists came to assumptions with the work they found because of how much it interests us. While we don’t really know about 19th century criminologists, it’s still key to know that if it wasn’t for the research they published in their time, we would not have been able to take the information we got from them, and turn it into newer idea’s and theories that fit’s in with today’s time.

Criminologists main job is to study the cause and effect of crime and how to reduce crime, but some Criminologists tend to dig into certain aspects of criminal behavior. Some choose to research crime on the color of one's skin, some choose to examine crime by people's physical appearance and structure, but some choose to look into what causes crime by their gender, and while many people woudn’t understand how gender could have a play into Criminology research, some criminologists are determine to figure out if it has an influence and if it does, why. The one Criminologist that was widely known for his experiments and theories was Cesare Lombroso. Cesare, like many other criminologists, wanted to know how people resorted to criminal behavior, and he believed that the best way to find this out would be through a person's physical appearance. He believed that criminal behavior is linked to being “born criminal” thinking that people who are born criminals would have the physical appearance of what a criminal would look like. Lombroso even created a theory called Atavistic Form, which Lombroso thought was a historical approach in finding information about what you're looking for. Lombroso gathered people, examined their physical features, and thought that his research was helping him determine what causes crime that many criminologists couldn’t get. “Lombroso became known as the father of modern criminology. He was one of the first to study crime and criminals scientifically, Lombroso’s theory of the born criminal dominated thinking about criminal behavior in the late 19th and early 20th century.” - (simplypsychology.org). Despite what Lombroso found, and despite what he was viewed as when he conducted his theory, his work is actually very flawed. He believed that determining someone's appearance could help him find the root to this behavior, and while many believed that this was the cause, he failed to realize that social factors had an influence in these people's behavior. “possessing these unpleasant physical characteristics might lead to unpleasant social interactions, this leads to frustration and anger which, in turn, lead to offending behavior.” - (simplypsychology.org). Sooner or Later, Lombrosos theory got debunked as it showed he was very inaccurate in his work by claiming that people who have criminal physical features were criminals no matter what when he failed to realize that people looking different creates a social gap between then and everyone else, which caused mischief behavior, which eventually led to criminal behavior.

Lombroso was one of the many best examples of criminologists who thought they had reached an answer for the rest of the criminologists on crime, but didn’t. But that didn’t stop people from thinking that his theory was right because of the approach he had on it. The Activistic Form theory was created to help the people in that time learn about what made criminals criminals. But with most criminologists, they, in the 19th century, had an understanding as to why people would even want to engage in criminal behavior in the first place while also trying to determine the main difference in crime rate in some places and in some people compared to others. Criminologists often viewed themselves as policy experts because they believed in themselves that they would only be able to find the answer that many others couldn’t find, even if you tried. Crminologists really had to expand their knowledge into knowledge they weren’t met with yet and try to see if there is a connection between them. “Criminologists have attempted to understand why some people are more or less likely to engage in criminal or delinquent behaviour. Criminologists have also examined and attempted to explain differences in crime rates and the criminal code between societies and changes in rates and laws over time.” - (Britannica.com). While many criminologists were determined to find this out, many were inexperienced with their own research, many didn’t know how to even approach how they should even study it. Criminologists didn’t have the right tools to approach this study in a way that could have been more accurate than some others that were published by other criminologists.