Basic definition of the science of criminology. Data from the sciences of civil and family law are used to study the tasks, place, and effectiveness of legal measures to stabilize the family, protect motherhood and childhood, and prevent domestic crimes and crimes.

1. The concept of criminology as an academic discipline

Criminology as academic discipline is engaged the study of crimes, their causes, types of their relationship with various phenomena and processes, as well as the effectiveness of measures taken in the fight against crime.

Criminology studies and analyzes the regulations that form the legal basis for an adequate understanding of crime, timely response to them and the development of preventive measures to prevent crime.

The normative base of criminology is:

1) criminal legislation, including the norms of criminal and penitentiary law;

2) criminological legislation regulating preventive activities aimed at preventing the commission of crimes and lying outside the scope of criminal repressive measures.

Criminology as an academic discipline studies a set of phenomena, processes and patterns, consisting of four main elements: a) crime; b) the identity t of the offender; c) causes and conditions of crime; d) crime prevention.

The object of criminology are public relations associated with: 1) crime and other offences;

2) causes and conditions of crime;

3) the place and role of the offender's personality in society; 4) solving problems for the prevention and prevention of offenses.

The object of criminological study and detailed analysis is a crime. It is considered: 1) in close connection with the conditions external environment, generating a crime, and the criminological characteristic of the criminal generated by this environment; 2) as a long and developing process that takes place in space and time, has its beginning, course and end, and not as a one-time action associated with the commission of a criminal act and often takes a few minutes.

Criminology examines the crime from all sides and with maximum objectivity and studies: 1) the causes and conditions of the crime; 2) features of the characteristics of the person committing the crime; 3) the consequences of criminal behavior.

2. Structure of the criminology system

Criminology system founded on the features of the subject studied by this discipline - a number of issues related to the existence of crime. It includes theories developed by leading experts in the field of jurisprudence, which consider crime in inextricable connection with the social, economic, cultural relations that have developed in society, explore the patterns, laws, principles and properties characteristic of their development, take into account statistical, sociological and other indicators, as well as present facts and previous historical experience.

Criminological science is not a simple set of information about crime and its relationships, but an effective scientific knowledge that has its own theoretical basis and is applicable to practical activities. Theoretical information and meaningful results of practical activities are formed into a coherent and peculiar system, consisting of two main blocks - the General and the Special parts.

A feature of this division of criminology into the General and Special Parts is the conditional division of the science itself into general theoretical issues applicable to any kind of criminal activity (General Part) and criminological characteristics of certain types of crimes with their in-depth analysis, distribution forecast and possible preventive measures to prevent them (Special part).

a common part includes a detailed consideration of the concept, subject, method, goals, objectives, functions and history of the development of criminology both in Russia and abroad, the study of the foundations of research used in criminology, consideration of all aspects related to crime, including the personality of the offender and crime mechanism.

special part, Based on the General Part, he gives a criminological description of certain types of crimes and analyzes the preventive measures that are used to prevent them.

Thus, both parts of criminology cover the entire spectrum of issues, both theory and practice, allowing you to identify a flaw in social relations that gives rise to a particular type of crime, eliminate it as much as possible and reduce the growth of crime.

3. Goals and objectives of criminology

Criminology as a science studies objective and subjective factors that have a determining influence on the state, level, structure and dynamics of crime, as well as the personality of the offender himself, identifying and analyzing existing types of criminal personality, mechanisms for committing specific crimes and control measures that can reduce the growth of certain crimes in society .

The goals of criminology can be roughly divided into four groups:

1) theoretical- involves the knowledge of patterns and the development on this basis scientific theories crime, concepts and hypotheses;

2) practical- develops scientific recommendations and constructive proposals to improve the effectiveness of the fight against crime;

3) promising- is aimed at creating a crime prevention system that will neutralize and overcome criminogenic factors;

4) nearest– is aimed at the implementation of daily work to combat crime.

From the goals facing criminology, its tasks organically follow:

1) obtaining objective and reliable knowledge about crime, its volume (state), intensity (level), structure and dynamics - in the past and present; criminological study of the types of crime (primary, recurrent, violent, mercenary; crime of adults, minors, etc.) for a differentiated fight against them;

2) identification and scientific study of the causes and conditions of crime and the development of recommendations for overcoming them;

3) the study of the personality of the offender and the mechanism of committing crimes, the classification of various types of criminal manifestations and types of personality of the offender;

4) determination of the main directions of crime prevention and the most appropriate means of combating it.

Criminology performs its tasks with the help of certain functions, among which it is customary to distinguish three main ones: a) descriptive (diagnostic); b) explanatory (etiological); c) predictive (prognostic).

4. Theories of criminology

As an independent science, criminology took shape in the 19th century. and was originally based on the advanced for its time anthropological theory(Gall, Lombroso), based on the idea that criminals have innate criminal qualities. Criminology is also based on socio-economic and socio-legal theories(Ferry, Garofalo, Marro), explaining crime by negative social phenomena - poverty, unemployment, lack of education, which give rise to immorality and immorality; ontological theories(the theory of "pure reason" by I. Kant), statistical studies(Khvostov, Gerry, Ducpetyo).

In the twentieth century criminology from other sciences (psychology, psychiatry, genetics, anthropology) received new views and independent theories that in one way or another tried to explain what features of the development of society and the person himself contribute to the emergence of crime:

– genetic theories causes of crime (Schlapp, Smith, Podolsky) explained the propensity to crime by innate factors;

– psychiatric concepts(based on the theory of Z. Freud) saw crime as the result of a conflict between primitive instincts and the altruistic code established by society;

– clinical criminology(based on the concept of the dangerous state of the criminal Ferri and Garofalo) introduced the concept of a state of increased propensity to crime, from which the criminal should be taken out with medication and isolated from society for this time (Gramatik, di Tulio, Pinatel);

– sociological concepts(the theory of multiple factors Quetelet and Healy) explained crime as a combination of many anthropological, physical, economic, mental, social factors;

– stigma theory(interactionist approach - Sutherland, Tannebaum, Becker, Erickson) found the causes of crime in the reaction of society itself to criminal behavior;

– differential association theory(Sutherland, Cressy) associated criminal behavior with a person's contacts with a criminal environment (bad environment);

– the concept of the criminality of scientific and technological progress found the causes of crime in post-industrial society;

– marxist theories brought crime out of the contradictions of an exploiting society.

5. The subject of criminology

The subject of criminology is the range of issues related to the existence of such a phenomenon as crime includes theories developed by leading experts in the field of jurisprudence, considering crime in integrity and inseparable connection with social, economic, cultural relations that have developed in society, exploring patterns, laws, principles and properties characteristic of their development, taking into account statistical, sociological and other indicators, as well as available facts and previous historical experience.

The subject of criminology includes four basic elements:

1) crime, that is, a social and criminal law phenomenon in society, which is the totality of all crimes committed in given state for a certain period of time; this phenomenon is measured by qualitative and quantitative indicators: level, structure and dynamics;

2) identity of the perpetrator its place and role in antisocial manifestations; information about the personal properties of the subjects of crimes includes information about the causes of crimes, and the personality of the offender itself is investigated in order to prevent relapse (new crimes);

3) causes and conditions of crime (criminogenic determinants), which make up a whole system of negative economic, demographic, psychological, political, organizational and managerial phenomena and processes that generate and cause crime as a consequence of their existence. At the same time, the causes and conditions of crime are studied in all the diversity of their content, nature and mechanism of action and at different levels: both in general and in terms of individual groups crimes, as well as specific crimes;

4) prevention (prevention) of crime as a system of state and public measures aimed at eliminating, neutralizing or weakening the causes and conditions of crime, deterring crime and correcting the behavior of offenders; preventive measures are analyzed in terms of direction, mechanism of action, stages, scale, content, subjects and other parameters.

6. Method of criminology

It is customary to call the method of criminology the whole set of techniques and methods that are used to find, collect, analyze, evaluate and apply information about crime in general and its individual components, as well as about the personality of the offender, in order to develop effective measures both to combat crime and for crime prevention.

The methods of criminology include the following:

1) observation- direct perception of the phenomenon under study by a researcher-criminologist, whose objects are individuals, a group of individuals, specific phenomena associated with the existence of crime;

2) experiment- the use, if necessary, of new methods of crime prevention, verification of certain theoretical assumptions and ideas in practice;

3) survey- a sociological method of collecting information, which consists in interviewing or questioning a significant circle of people and asking them for various information about objective processes and phenomena that are of interest to criminologists; when polling to obtain reliable information, objective factors (place and time of the survey) and subjective (interest of the interviewed person in this or that information) are taken into account;

4) analysis of documentary sources of information criminological research - collection of necessary information from various documentary sources (certificates, contracts, criminal cases, video, audio recordings and items intended for storing and transmitting information);

5) logical-mathematical method, including:

- modeling - a method of studying processes or systems of objects by building and studying models in order to obtain new information;

– factor analysis and scaling;

– methods of criminal statistics (statistical observation, grouping, statistical analysis, calculation of generalizing indicators, etc.).

In general, the methods of criminology can be divided into general scientific(formal-logical, analysis and synthesis, abstraction, analogy, modeling, generalization, historical method, system analysis) and private scientific(questioning, interviewing, content analysis of documents, testing, observation, experiment, statistical, legal, mathematical methods, criminological examination).

7. Relationship of criminology with indirect legal disciplines

Criminology belongs to the legal sciences, is closely and closely related to a huge variety of legal sciences, in one way or another engaged in the fight against crime; they can be conditionally divided into indirect and special.

Indirect legal sciences consider the problems of crime in general terms, rather superficially, without delving into the subtleties and details of the issue.

Indirect legal disciplines include:

1) constitutional law, which establishes the general principles for all activities of law enforcement agencies and determines the provisions on which the legislative framework, both in Russia and in any other country;

2) civil law, which provides for civil liability for any of the violations of numerous norms of civil law, which determines the range of issues and the nature of violations that criminology deals with in more detail;

3) land law;

4) administrative law;

5) environmental law;

6) family law;

7) labor law, etc.

For the full existence of criminology, it is necessary to obtain information and methods from non-legal sciences. Therefore, criminology applies certain provisions of philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, economics, the theory of social management, sociology, political science, statistics, demography, mathematics, cybernetics, pedagogy and interacts with general, social and legal psychology.

Information from demography, sociology and political science is necessary for criminologists when predicting and programming the fight against crime, with a special study of the prevention of juvenile crime, recidivism, domestic crimes, crimes committed by persons without a permanent source of income; data of a psychological or psychiatric nature are required to identify and understand the causes and conditions of crime and crimes, since they are the basis for the study and classification of the personality of the offender, without which competent development of preventive measures is impossible.

8. Relationship of criminology with special legal disciplines

Most close connection criminology has with special legal sciences - criminal, criminal procedure, criminal executive law. In the 19th century it was believed that criminology refers to criminal law, and there is some truth in this - how the science of criminology came out of criminal law.

Criminal law (as a theory and criminal law based on it) provides a legal description of crimes and criminals that is mandatory for criminology, and criminology data on the level of crime, its structure, dynamics, the effectiveness of crime prevention and forecasts regarding changes in socially negative phenomena allow criminal law to plan and implement rule-making activities, timely qualifying or reclassifying certain crimes and offenses.

The connection of criminology with the criminal process lies in the fact that the criminal procedure rules governing social relations are aimed at preventing impending crimes, resolving cases on the merits, identifying the causes and conditions for the commission of crimes. Criminology is connected with penitentiary law by the general struggle against recidivism of crimes, the desire for the effectiveness of the execution of punishments, resocialization and adaptation of persons who have committed a crime and served a sentence.

Criminology has a close relationship with forensic science, which, unlike criminology, is occupied with purely practical tasks, the actual side of crimes. Criminology information helps criminologists to identify the main directions for the development of new methods, help to find the right solutions in the investigation of crimes, based on criminological data on the structure and dynamics of crime, typical criminogenic situations, etc. At the same time, many forensic methods and technical means allow criminology build crime prevention more effectively and use the latest scientific developments to prevent criminal activity.

Criminology is also associated with the interdisciplinary complex science of delictology (administrative, disciplinary, civil and family), which deals with issues of non-criminal offenses, their causes and conditions, the identity of offenders and the prevention of offenses in the field of legislation.

9. The development of criminology until 1917

Criminology as a science appeared in Russia at the same time as the Western one and then developed in stages: the history of criminology is usually divided into several periods:

1) pre-revolutionary (until 1917);

2) the period of formation of Soviet criminology (1917–1930);

3) the period from 1930 to 1990;

4) modern (counting from the collapse of the USSR to the present).

Domestic criminology in the pre-revolutionary period actively perceived many advanced ideas of representatives of various schools and contributed to the study of crime problems. The forerunners of Russian criminology were scientists and public figures who lived before the official birth of this science. Among them, we should mention the famous public figure of the XVIII century. A. Radishchev, who for the first time in Russia identified indicators characterizing both the types of crimes and the persons who committed them, the motives and reasons for committing crimes by them, and proposed a constructive method for statistical monitoring of crime and its causes.

IN varying degrees A. Herzen, N. Dobrolyubov, V. Belinsky, N. Chernyshevsky, who criticized the social system of Russia and crime as a product of this system, dealt with crime issues.

At the beginning of the XIX century. a deep study of murders and suicides on the basis of criminal statistics was carried out by K. F. Herman. Well-known lawyers I. Ya. Foinitsky, G. N. Tarnovsky, N. S. Tagantsev and others considered crime in close connection with criminal law issues, paying special attention to the understanding of crime as a social phenomenon that has objective reasons. Based on the work of the anthropological school in foreign criminology, the pre-revolutionary lawyer and scientist D. A. Dril noted the impact on the commission of crimes, in addition to the characteristics of the psychophysical nature of a person, also external influences on him, sharing the views of domestic supporters of the social understanding of crime. A classical school appeared in Russia.

In Russian criminology late XIX- the beginning of the XX century. the same growth processes took place as in contemporary foreign criminology.

The post-revolutionary stage in the development of domestic criminology lasted until the early 1990s, it can be divided into two periods: a) 1917 - early 1930s; b) the beginning of the 1930s - the beginning of the 1990s.

1. The era from 1917 to the early 1930s. it was distinguished by a tough party struggle and ended with the beginning of mass repressions; criminological problems were studied within the framework of criminal law, and criminology was considered a branch of criminal law. During this period, it was closely merged with its kindred criminology and forensic medicine: in 1922, an office for criminological anthropology and forensic medical examination was created in Saratov under the Administration of Places of Confinement; since 1923 in Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa there were offices for the study of the personality of the criminal; in 1925, the Institute for the Study of Crime and the Criminal was established under the NKVD.

In 1929, criminology as a science ceased to exist. This was due to the political thesis that socialism was built in the USSR (and under socialism, crime dies off). It was concluded that criminology was no longer needed.

2. In the period from 1930 to 1940. criminological research was of a semi-closed nature, continued on individual problems of the fight against crime, was aimed at identifying enemies of the people and was organized by law enforcement agencies. After Stalin's death, Khrushchev announced a course towards building communism. But it became clear that crime had not disappeared. The year of the revival of criminology was 1963, when a course in criminology was read at the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, which became mandatory for lawyers since 1964. Criminology was derived from criminal law and turned into an independent science. A. B. Sakharov played a major role in this.

In 1960–1970 the main attention was paid to the study of crime as a product of society and its general prevention, in 1970–1990. the problems of the causes of crime, the mechanism of criminal behavior and the personality of the offender, victimology, forecasting and planning the fight against crime, prevention different types crime.

During these years, the Scientific Research Institute for the Problems of Strengthening Law and Order under the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation became the largest scientific research center for criminology.

CRIMINOLOGY (lat. crime - crime and logos - teaching)

an integral part of social science: a science that studies the patterns of existence and development of crime, as well as a wider range of social phenomena and processes associated with it;

complete system scientific knowledge on crime prevention measures.

K. is an independent social and legal science. Its subject includes crime, its essence, patterns and forms of manifestation (the concept of crime covers the totality of crimes considered in the form real facts social reality, and not legal constructions such as corpus delicti). K. studies the origin. the origins of crime, its causes, conditions that are analyzed: a) for the totality of crimes: b) in relation to their individual types (groups, categories); c) in relation to individual acts of criminal behavior. The subject of K. is the personality of the offender, distinguished from the whole mass of people on the basis of two main criteria: legal (persons who have committed criminal acts) and social or socio-psychological (persons occupying certain social positions, statuses that have a set of demographic, moral and psychological and other qualities, including antisocial orientation). K.'s focus on preventive, proactive approaches to solving the problems of combating crime necessitates the study of this science and those individuals who have not yet violated the criminal law, but due to antisocial views and habits, one way or another manifested, for example, in the form of the commission of appropriate administrative offences, may lead to crime. K. studies the problem of crime prevention - a specific area of ​​social regulation, management and control, which has a multi-level character and pursues the goal of combating crime primarily on the basis of identifying and eliminating its causes, conditions, and other determinants.

K. studies crime and related phenomena as a social and legal reality. It is characterized by the broadest and most consistent sociological approach to the study of crime, the personality of the criminal. At the same time, K., as a socio-legal science, is not distracted from the legal characteristics of crime, crime, and the criminal.

The specificity of criminological knowledge lies in the causal explanation of the social and legal phenomena and processes studied by this science. In general, the existence and development of crime is associated with such an approach to the fight against crime, in which the task of preventing it is put at the forefront. K .. unlike other legal sciences. takes part in the development of not only legal, but also other crime prevention measures: socio-economic, cultural and educational, etc.

Along with general scientific methods (formal logic, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, analogy, modeling, etc.), K. widely uses the tools of sociological knowledge, in particular, such methods of obtaining socio-legal information as questioning and interviewing, studying documents, observation , experiment. Techniques play an important role in criminological research. statistical analysis and above all criminal statistics.

Criminological ideas, judgments about the essence of crime, its causes, ways of counteraction are rooted in the depths of centuries. Formally, 1885 can be considered the date of birth of k. as an independent science, when a book by the Italian scientist R. Garofalo was published under this title. However, even before that, quite solid criminological theories were formulated and published. For example, the book of the famous C. Lochbroso "Criminal Man" was published in 1876.

Criminological issues have been successfully developed by many Russian forensic scientists:

AND I. Foinitsky, E.N. Tarnovsky, N.S. Tagantsev, N.A. Neklyudov, D.A. Drill and others, who made a significant contribution to the study of crime, its causes, the personality of the offender from the standpoint of both sociological and "anthropological" (biological, biosocial) directions. Many scientists who started their scientific activity in tsarist Russia, continued to develop problems of K. after 1917 (M.N. Gernet, M.M. Isaev, A.A. Zhizhilenko, S.V. Poznyshev, P.I. Lyubinsky, etc.).

In the early years Soviet power criminological research was carried out very intensively. Along with statistical observations, the study of economic, social factors of crime, much attention was paid to anthropological measurements, the study of the physical constitution, health status, heredity of criminals. was educated State Institute for the study of crime and the criminal, numerous offices of criminological, criminal-anthropological, etc. have been created. profile. Late 30s to 50s. criminological research was not carried out in the USSR. At the end of the 50s. they have been renewed. In the early 60s. the first publications appeared, which opened the beginning of a new (modern) stage in the development of domestic cinematography.

Alekseev A.M.


Law Encyclopedia. 2005 .

Synonyms:

See what "CRIMINOLOGY" is in other dictionaries:

    Criminology… Spelling Dictionary

    - (from lat. crimen crime, in logos the word). The science of crime as a phenomenon caused by social causes. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. criminology (lat. crimen (criminis) crime + ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

    Modern Encyclopedia

    Criminology- (from Latin crimen, genitive criminis crime and Greek logos word, doctrine), the science of crime, its causes, the identity of the offender, ways and means of preventing crime. As an independent science, criminology ... ... Illustrated encyclopedic Dictionary

    - (from lat. crimena, p.n. cri minis crime and gr. logos word, doctrine) the science of crime, its causes, the identity of the offender, ways and means of preventing crime and the prospects for its elimination. K. explores crime as a social ... Law Dictionary

    - (from lat. crimen genitive criminis crime and ... logic), a science that studies crime, its causes, the identity of the offender, and also develops measures to prevent crime ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    CRIMINOLOGY, criminology, pl. no, female (from lat. crimen crime and Greek. logos Doctrine). The doctrine of crime as a social phenomenon. Dictionary Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

    CRIMINOLOGY, and, for women. The science of crime and methods of its prevention. | adj. criminological, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

    Exist., number of synonyms: 2 biocriminology (1) penology (1) ASIS synonym dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

    - (from Latin criminalis referring to a crime and Greek logos word, teaching) eng. criminology; German Criminology. A science that studies the patterns, forms and methods of manifestation of crime, its causes, the personality of the offender and develops measures ... ... Encyclopedia of Sociology

Criminology (“the science of crime”, from Latin crimen - crime and other Greek logos - teaching) is a sociological and legal science that studies crime, the personality of the offender, the causes and conditions of crime, ways and means of preventing it. It is believed that the term "criminology" was introduced in 1879 by the anthropologist Topinar. In 1885, for the first time with the title "Criminology", a book by the Italian scientist R. Garofalo was published. However, ideas about criminal behavior and the fight against it can also be found in earlier sources, for example, in the work of Cesare Beccaria "On Crimes and Punishments".

A legal scholar who specializes in criminology is called a criminologist.

The subject of study of criminologists and includes four main elements:

crime- is studied as a socio-legal historically changeable negative mass phenomenon. It is made up of the totality of crimes committed in a particular period in a state (region, world) that have quantitative (level, dynamics) and qualitative (structure and nature of crime) indicators. There are different types of crime, such as violent crime, juvenile delinquency, environmental crime, etc.;

Crime is historically changeable and inevitable, socially dangerous, social and legal phenomenon, which is generated by the conditions of the hostel, representing the totality of all crimes committed in a given state for a certain period of time.

It is characterized by qualitative and quantitative indicators:

State (level or coefficient) of crime;

The structure of crime;

Crime dynamics.

identity of the perpetrator, considered as an individual endowed with a set of social, biological and psychological traits, with features of formation and development that allowed him to satisfy his interests and needs by committing a crime. In addition, the identity of the offender is investigated as a direct subject of the prevention and prevention of new crimes (relapse);

causes and conditions of crime(determinants of crime) - the totality of negative economic, demographic, psychological, political, organizational and managerial phenomena and processes that generate and cause crime is studied. The causes and conditions of crime in the diversity of their content, nature and mechanism of action are studied at different levels: the causes and conditions of crime in general, for individual groups of crimes, for a particular crime;

crime prevention is understood as a system of general social and special criminological measures aimed at eliminating, neutralizing or weakening the causes and conditions of crime, deterring crime and correcting the behavior of offenders. The preventive system is analyzed: by direction, mechanism of action, stages, scale, content, subjects and other parameters.

2. The place of criminology among other branches of scientific knowledge

Criminology is closely related to criminal law. The criminal law theory and the criminal law based on it determine the legal signs of a criminal act and a person who is a criminal.

Criminology provides criminal law, the legislator and law enforcement practice with information about the level of crime, its structure, dynamics, and the effectiveness of crime prevention. Thus, it contributes to the definition of criminal policy in the country. Criminological information contributes to the timely implementation of rule-making activities in terms of criminalization or decriminalization of acts, as well as in the procedure for differentiating sanctions (replacing criminal penalties with other measures of influence).

Criminology is associated with the criminal process and prosecutorial supervision. Thus, the criminal process studies the procedure for preliminary investigation and judicial review, the subjects of such activities (investigator, prosecutor, court) are obliged to identify the causes and conditions for the commission of crimes, offer effective measures aimed at eliminating them, identify and neutralize crimes in a timely manner, and also prevent them. commission.

Relationship between criminalistics and criminology. Forensic science uses criminology data on the state of crime, on the personal characteristics of criminals, methods and mechanisms of criminal behavior to develop the effective use of forensic tools and methods. In 1995, the Union of Criminalists and Criminologists, the Criminological Association, was founded in Russia (President Dolgova Azalia Ivanovna - Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Honorary Worker of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation).

Interaction with criminal-executive law. Criminology studies recidivism and penitentiary crime, the reasons for its growth and develops preventive measures aimed at eliminating or neutralizing negative situations that contribute to the commission of repeated crimes. And penitentiary law studies the very procedure for serving a sentence, using information of a criminological nature. On the basis of such interaction, recommendations are jointly developed to prevent relapse, to increase the efficiency of correction of convicted persons and their further, successful resocialization and adaptation after they have served their sentence.

The connection between criminology and legal statistics. One of the main methods in criminology for collecting and analyzing information is the statistical method, it allows you to systematically reflect many crimes in time and space, statistical data give an overall picture of crime in the country and in individual regions. Statistical data show the dynamics of crime, contribute to the development of the necessary measures to prevent crime.

Among non-legal sciences, criminology interacts with general, social, legal psychology, sociology (the sociology of crime), economics, psychiatry, demography, political science, and pedagogy.

Criminology is the study of crime (from the Latin crime - "crime" and the Greek logos - "doctrine"). Over time, the meaning of this word began to be interpreted more widely, and at present it is understood as the science of crime.

Such a definition of this science characterizes only the general orientation of criminology and does not adequately reflect the content of this branch of scientific knowledge. As a social science, criminology studies a wide range of social phenomena and processes, one way or another related to crime and the nature of its occurrence. With all the variety of social phenomena studied, the basis of criminology as a science is its subject, i.e. the answer to the question of what exactly she is studying.

In this sense, the following definition of this science, which lists the elements of its subject, seems to be the most acceptable. Criminology is a socio-legal general theoretical and applied science that studies crime as a social phenomenon, the essence and forms of its manifestation, patterns of occurrence, existence and change; its causes and other determinants; the identity of those who commit crimes; crime prevention system.

The proposed definition reflects the socio-legal nature of the science of criminology, its theoretical orientation and practical significance.

The definition of the subject of criminology is the starting point for understanding its essence and content. At the same time, reducing the content of the science of criminology only to listing the elements of its subject is not enough, because the definition of science should reflect its place in common system scientific knowledge, indicate the most important methodological approaches to the subject of research, the ultimate goals and objectives of research searches.

The object of criminology is economic, political, ideological, cultural and other social relations to the extent that they are associated with crime and determine its individual aspects. The subject of criminology is much narrower. This is what is known by criminology as a whole, in all manifestations and aspects. In this sense, the above types of social relations, including "background" phenomena, are not included in the subject of criminology, but constitute the object of its interest, and only in the connection in which they affect crime.

Thus, the main element of the subject of criminology is crime as a special social and legal phenomenon. However, crime itself is a very complex social formation, characterized by volume (state), intensity (level), dynamics, structure, consequences and other features.

Having understood the specifics of the object, subject and methods of criminology, one can determine its place in the system of social sciences and its relationship with them. There are three points of view on this issue:

  • 1. Criminology is part of the Science of Criminal Law (Gertsenzon A.A., Piontkovsky A.A.).
  • 2. Criminology is a part of sociology, that is, it is the sociology of crime (American school).
  • 3. Criminology is an independent science.

The first point of view is not substantiated due to the fact that criminology is not a legal science, criminal law and criminology have different objects of study. The object of the science of criminal law is the legal system as a regulator of social relations, legal norms and institutions, the object of criminology is the social activity of people and social groups. Therefore, the methods used in these sciences are fundamentally different in nature, and their subjects differ accordingly. This position is quite understandable both historically (criminology "left" criminal law, most criminologists are lawyers by education) and logically (it is criminal law that defines the concept of criminal).

With regard to the second point of view, it can be noted that sociology and criminology do indeed partially coincide both in the object and in some methods, but the subjects are still different. Criminology is a complex science, the subject of its study are both socio-psychological aspects of crime, and individual psychological features the personality of the offender. Therefore, the subject of criminology cannot be included in the subject of sociology.

Currently, the third point of view has the greatest recognition, the supporters of which believe that criminology is an independent science. But the independence of the science of criminology does not mean that it has no links with other sciences.

Criminology is one of the social sciences, a branch of social science. In the system of social sciences, criminology is located at the intersection of sociology and jurisprudence. Criminology refers to jurisprudence because the phenomena it studies have a characteristic that is based on the criminal law concepts of "crime", "criminal", "criminality" and is delimited from administrative and legal concepts, such as: "other offense", "other offender" The prevention system and the preventive measures included in it also have a legal basis or a legal aspect, and the causes and conditions of crime, the personality of the offender are largely associated with defects in legal consciousness, legal psychology, etc.

At the same time, the study of crime as a phenomenon as a whole, causes and conditions, the identity of the offender, measures to prevent crime does not fit only into the framework of legal characteristics, the analysis of legal relations, but also falls within the scope of sociology. Criminology is largely an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge. Of the legal sciences, it most closely interacts with criminal law.

The criminal law gives a legal description of crimes and criminals, which are mandatory for criminology. In turn, criminology provides the science of criminal law, the legislator and law enforcement practice with information about the level of crime, its structure and dynamics, the effectiveness of crime prevention, makes predictions about changes in socially negative phenomena. This makes it possible to implement rule-making activities in terms of criminalization and decriminalization of acts, that is, recognizing them as criminal, or attributing them to the rank of other offenses, as well as in terms of differentiating sanctions, including the regulation of cases of replacing criminal penalties with other measures of influence. Thus, criminological knowledge is used in determining the policy of combating crime (criminal law policy) in the country (region).

Criminology is closely connected with the sciences of the criminal process and prosecutorial supervision. their sphere general interest legal relations related to procedural rule-making and law enforcement activities of bodies of inquiry, investigation, prosecutor's office and court to identify and eliminate the causes and conditions of crimes act.

Criminalistics develops a methodology for detecting and fixing factual data on the causes and conditions of crimes, as well as organizational, technical and tactical means of protecting a person and property from crimes that make it difficult to commit the latter (for example, signaling and blocking means). Criminology, on the other hand, indicates the main directions for their development, arising from data on the structure and dynamics of crime, typical criminogenic situations, etc., and also considers these recommendations as an integral part of preventive measures and analyzes the effectiveness of their application.

The interaction of the sciences of penal law and criminology is most actively carried out in relation to the problems of combating the recidivism of crimes, the effectiveness of the execution of punishment and measures that replace it, as well as the interaction of state and public bodies in the resocialization and adaptation (inclusion in society) of persons who have committed crimes, after they have served their sentence. At the same time, the science of penitentiary law studies the very procedure for serving a sentence in the process of implementing its goals and objectives, and criminology studies the causes and conditions of relapse and measures to eliminate them. The sciences of penitentiary law and criminology are jointly developing recommendations for preventing relapse, for improving the efficiency of correction of convicts and persons whose punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty has been replaced by other measures of influence.

Criminology widely uses the data of the sciences of civil and family law in terms of studying the state and dynamics of divorces, family conflicts and some other similar phenomena in terms of their impact on crime. They are used in studying the tasks, place, and effectiveness of legal measures to stabilize the family, protect motherhood and childhood, and prevent domestic crimes and juvenile crimes.

The sciences of state and administrative law provide criminology with material on administrative offenses, many of which often turn into crimes, as well as on the tasks and functions of state bodies and public organizations(groups) in the field of crime prevention. In turn, criminology investigates the tasks, content, and effectiveness of the activities of these bodies and organizations in this area, studies the ratio of the prevention of crimes and other offenses.

Criminology makes extensive use of legal statistics. Since criminology has as its subject relatively mass phenomena: a holistic set of crimes, their causes and conditions, the personalities of criminals and a diverse system of crime prevention measures, one of its main methods for collecting and analyzing information is the statistical method. The data of criminal statistics of the internal affairs bodies, the prosecutor's office and the court, the information obtained as a result of specific criminological studies, give a reliable picture of crime, its causes and conditions, the identity of the criminals and the effectiveness of the preventive measures used.

Criminological analysis of the causes and conditions of crime, as well as a special study of crimes against property and the national economy, as well as malfeasance, is impossible without knowledge of the economy and economic statistics.

Of the non-legal disciplines, criminology is closely related to sociology, which studies specific social relations. Sociological studies of the problem of human employment, the organization of free time, education, the conditions for the formation of individual views, the problems of cities, their urbanization in modern conditions, socio-economic conditions of life and much more have for criminology great importance, since the methods of specific sociological research are used here.

Criminology has a close relationship with psychology - the science of the laws of the psyche, especially with social psychology, which helps the legal sciences to better understand and find out the features of the commission of various crimes. Criminology needs data social psychology to understand the causes and conditions of crime and specific crimes; they play a leading role in the study and classification of the personality of the offender. The same applies to data from demography and certain branches of sociology, which are especially significant, in particular, in the special study of juvenile crimes, recidivism, domestic crimes, military crimes, etc.

The connection of criminology with pedagogy, which develops the problems of training and education, is carried out in the study of juvenile crimes, recidivism, military crimes, etc., the study of these features makes it possible to develop methods and techniques for correcting various groups of offenders. Pedagogy data are also necessary in the development and analysis of the effectiveness of individual crime prevention measures.

Thus, interdisciplinarity, the sociological and legal nature of criminology, implies its close interaction with many other sciences. However, this in no way affects the certainty of the subject of criminology, the clarity of its boundaries when delimited from related branches of knowledge.

Already from acquaintance with the subject of criminology, it is clear that this science is interdisciplinary, that is, closely related to some other sciences. These are legal and social sciences in the broad sense of the word.

First of all, consider the relationship of criminology with the legal sciences. In the first place here is the connection of criminology with criminal law.

Both criminal law and criminology study crime and crime. But they do it differently. Criminal law is the science of responsibility for committing crimes. Therefore, she studies crime from a legal standpoint as a concept and a set of features (composition) of a certain act of unlawful behavior. Criminal law also studies the punishment imposed by the court for the commission of a crime, mitigating and aggravating circumstances, determines the principles of sentencing and release from it.

Criminal law does not refer to those phenomena, events and actions of a person that precede the crime; he is not directly interested in the causes of crime and the conditions conducive to the commission of crimes. And the identity of the offender is reduced in criminal law to the concept of the subject of the crime, which is characterized mainly by two properties: age and sanity (plus signs of the so-called special subject). The social, moral and psychological characteristics of the criminal remain outside the boundaries of criminal law. But everything that is not included in the subject of criminal law is just of interest to the criminologist, in particular the mechanism of criminal behavior and the causes of the unlawful development of events.

The organic connection of criminology with criminal law lies in the fact that criminal law defines the boundaries, the scope of the subject of criminology. After all, the list of criminal acts is determined by the criminal code. Namely, this circle of acts is studied by criminology.

Criminology is closely related to the science of the criminal process, which studies the procedures for preliminary investigation and judicial review of a case. The criminal procedure legislation contains a direct prescription: the investigator, the prosecutor, the court are obliged in each criminal case to identify the causes and conditions that contribute to the commission of crimes, and to propose measures aimed at eliminating them.

Another legal science is criminology, which studies the methodology, technique and tactics of investigating crimes, receives data from criminology on the state of crime, the features of the mechanisms, methods of committing various crimes and the personality traits of criminals. Forensic science uses this information to develop the most effective methods for solving crimes. Criminology is inextricably linked with the theory of operational-search activity, which makes it possible to study crime in a certain sense "from the inside" with the help of special tools and methods.

Criminology is also connected with penitentiary law, which studies the principles and conditions for the appointment and serving of sentences. Many crimes are committed in places of deprivation of liberty or by persons released from prison, so the interaction of criminologists and specialists in penitentiary law is very useful.

There are several more sciences, usually referred to the legal cycle. These are forensic statistics, forensic medicine and forensic psychiatry. And criminology has direct contacts with them. So, she makes extensive use of judicial statistics. And the developments of forensic psychiatrists help criminologists to get a better idea of ​​the personality traits of various categories of criminals.

In the course of the development of criminological teachings, proposals were made to expand its subject by studying phenomena related to crime (social anomalies): alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, suicide, etc. But the point of view prevailed, limiting the subject of criminology only to the analysis of crime. Thus, its connection with the legal sciences was preserved and strengthened.

But, as noted, criminology is no less closely connected with sciences that do not have a legal orientation. First of all, it is sociology, which studies society in the process of its functioning. Sociology has several branches: the sociology of the family, the sociology of labor, the sociology of sports, and others. Criminology can rightly be called the sociology of crime. In passing, we note that if in Russia criminology is studied in law schools, then the Anglo-American tradition consists in teaching criminology at the faculties of sociology.

Next, we point out the close connection of criminology with legal psychology, the subject of which is the inner life of a person, his behavior in nature and society. One can rightly call criminology, or at least a certain part of it, the psychology of the criminal.

So, when clarifying the relationship of criminology with related sciences, we come to the conclusion that this science is complex. It is at the intersection of jurisprudence with sociology and psychology and uses data from all these and other sciences.

It should be noted that among specialists in the field of criminal law there is a point of view that denies, contrary to the facts of reality and the development of world science, not only the independence of criminology as a general theoretical science of crime, but also as a science in general. These scholars believe that criminology is part of criminal law or part of sociology. In our opinion, the origins of such views date back to the mid-1920s, when the question of the causes of crime under socialism was resolved "completely, unambiguously and definitively." Short, little binding appeals within the framework of the doctrine of crime in criminal law were enough. Now such judgments look like an anachronism. Criminology, its findings allow a deeper understanding of the institutions of criminal, penal, procedural law, criminology, in general, the practice of combating crime and does not at all belittle them and do not divide the sciences, as the “liquidators” and opponents of criminology as a science claimed.

Criminology really came out of criminal law (although one can say that it also came out of general sociology - such a point of view still exists, as, by the way, they say about “medical criminology” and its other types, since the problem of crime was dealt with scientists of different specialties, bringing their own to this problem), but, having come out, it got the opportunity of its own development. Having become independent, it remained closely connected with criminal law and other legal sciences, as well as with sociology, philosophy and medicine, especially psychiatry, and with a number of other sciences. In the context of the rapid development and differentiation of various sciences that have a common root, this is a completely natural phenomenon.

The methodological basis of criminological research consists of three groups of methods: general scientific methods; methods and techniques borrowed by criminology from such sciences as sociology, psychology, psychiatry, biology, physiology and others; actually criminological methods, or tools.

The first group of methods includes the following:

  • * from abstract to concrete;
  • * hypothesis;
  • * system-structural analysis;
  • * comparison;
  • * dynamic and statistical methods.

Also, from the general scientific methods of cognition in criminology, abstraction, modeling, analysis, synthesis, etc. are used.

The group of methods borrowed by criminology from other sciences includes the statistical method, interview, questionnaire method, testing, sociometry, observation, peer review, experiment, documentary method, etc. Let us dwell on the statistical method, which allows us to present in numbers:

  • * a comprehensive description of the state of crime in the whole country, its regions, in a separate locality and etc.;
  • * patterns of development of crime in the country (regions), its dynamics;
  • * the composition of criminals according to socio-demographic and other characteristics of criminal law and criminological significance (sex, age, number of crimes committed, etc.);
  • * the most characteristic, stable and regular links between crime and other social phenomena;
  • * the necessary material that can serve as a basis for identifying the causes and conditions that contribute to the growth of crime, as well as for predicting it and developing specific measures to prevent it;
  • * data characterizing the criminal-legal, administrative measures of influence applied to criminals in order to optimize them and increase their efficiency.

However, the statistical method today has not received due development. There are several reasons for this, the most important of which are as follows.

  • 1. The scientific literature is dominated by a causal approach to the study of such a social phenomenon as crime in general. Why is this approach preferred? As we know, crime is a certain number of crimes committed in a given territory for a specific period of time. It is known that each crime is committed under the influence of specific causes, conditions, certain life circumstances. Similarly, for crime as a social phenomenon, you can find the appropriate causes, conditions and circumstances. The logic of this reasoning at one time was optimal, corresponded to the available amount of knowledge and, therefore, it was true for its time. Today it is quite obvious that crime is not a simple set of crimes committed in a given territory for a specific period of time, but, first of all, their system, which develops all over the world according to certain laws that are still unknown to people, regardless of their will and desire.
  • 2. There is no statistical database that allows for broad generalizations. It is known that only since 1985 in our country the crime statistics became open.
  • 3. There is a shortage of computers and related software products that are able to quickly process huge amounts of information (it is almost impossible to do this manually).

Finally, the third group of methods of criminological research is actually criminological methods, or tools, the choice of which is determined by the range of specific problems being studied. There are three such methods:

  • * statistics;
  • * typology (or case study);
  • * a combination of these two methods.

Goals of criminological research. Russian scientists note a significant difference in approaches to typology or the study of an individual case between domestic practice and the practice of their Western colleagues. According to our scientists, in the West too much attention is paid to the study of an individual case, while the ultimate goals of criminological research are the explanation of one or another negative phenomenon and the development of recommendations to prevent or prevent these phenomena in the life of society. Based on this, the goals of criminology can be divided into theoretical and practical. It is also important to differentiate immediate, long-term and final goals. All these goals, of course, should be considered from the standpoint of their unity, but with appropriate specification.

From the goals of criminology listed above, its tasks can also be deduced, namely:

  • * obtaining reliable information about everything that is the subject of criminology;
  • * scientific explanation and prediction of criminological phenomena;
  • * Obtaining essential information about the causes of crimes, which can be used in determining measures aimed at preventing new crimes;
  • * determination of a general policy for the development of science, i.e., an analysis of the existing developments made back in the Soviet period, the preservation of valuable scientific research and the rejection of dogmatic and distorting the truth provisions;
  • * putting into practice the results of theoretical research, especially in terms of forecasting and planning (conducting criminological examinations, etc.);
  • * study and use of international experience in the fight against crime. Here, an important place should be given to the analysis of international legal documents, the achievements of science, including criminology, participation in international organizations such as Interpol, police associations and various other conferences and seminars.

By implementing Scientific research included in its subject, criminology performs three main functions:

  • * empirical, or collective, when the researcher finds out how this or that process proceeds;
  • * theoretical, or explanatory, when the researcher seeks to find out why this process proceeds in this way and not otherwise;
  • * predictive, when the researcher seeks to look into the future and reveal the prospects for the development of the studied phenomenon, process, as well as the possibility of a positive influence on them.

At the same time, some domestic scientists classify the functions of criminology somewhat differently. For example, according to Professor A.I. Alekseev, criminology performs the following functions:

  • * descriptive;
  • * explanatory;
  • * predictive;
  • * ideological;
  • * practical-transformative.

The methodology of criminology proceeds from the materialistic essence and the dialectical nature of the interaction of phenomena. This approach was used by Russian scientists before, only then it was known under a different name - dialectical and historical materialism as two sides of Marxist-Leninist philosophy. The methodology of Western scientists is in correlation dependence from what is meant by the subject of criminology. There is no single approach here, and this explains the presence of a number of criminological schools, which were described above. However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that both domestic and foreign scientists use the same philosophical categories: general, particular and singular; necessary and accidental; content and form, etc. Thus, it should be noted that there are no special disagreements in the general methodology.

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