The Difference Between Criminology and Criminal Justice Essay

Perhaps, most historians would purport that crime rates are lower in modern societies compared to earlier societies. On the contrary, Carrabine et al., (2014) argue that there has been an increasing pattern of violent crimes in the 21st century that ended the historical decline observed in the mid-20th century. Additionally, an increase in the rate of prosecutions has also been reported in the 21st century due to the increased crime rates. The most prosecuted people are young men while women have shown an increased involvement in criminal activities. These patterns are seemingly intertwined. However, an understanding of criminology and criminal justice is crucial to explaining specific aspects of these trends such as the reasons behind the increased rate of violent crimes. This paper, therefore, explores the difference between criminology and criminal justice both as areas of study and in their practice. In this regard, the paper identifies criminology as the study of crime as a social case to understand criminals' psychology and what should be done to them whereas criminal justice revolves around the application of criminology concepts in law enforcement.

The term criminology, on one hand, has an "ology" part, which implies that criminology is a study discipline. Simply put, criminology entails studying crime from a social perspective. This study entails an exploration of the causes and types of crimes and the penalties of engaging in crime. In a detailed manner, Carrabine et al., (2014) define criminology as a study of the grounds and interpretations of criminal law, that is, the process of formulating laws, violating these laws and the repercussions of violating the laws. Upon studying criminology, one will understand crime as a social phenomenon and the reasons why people take part in criminal behaviors.

In criminology, people learn how to evaluate crime and use their findings to give advice on various dimensions of criminal behavior. For instance, criminology students learn to use computer models, which are designed using languages such as LEADSTO or the Temporal Trace Language, to analyze criminal behavior. These models incorporate several suspects' cases and data on a committed crime to draw conclusions about the crime's perpetrator (Bosse, Gerritsen & Treur, 2007). The conclusions can then be used to recommend appropriate measures that law enforcers should take to deal with the perpetrator.

Criminal justice, on the other hand, involves studying the law enforcement system. This system includes the police, courts of law and rehabilitation facilities. Essentially, in criminal justice, people study how society responds to crime. Roufa (2019) argues that criminal justice entails applying the concepts learnt in criminology. People studying criminal justice are trained on being observant, applying analytical skills and the need to uphold integrity and accountability. The development of the criminal justice discipline has been spurred by the gap between its practice and the knowledge that its practitioners ought to have. For this reason, research in criminal justice has grown immensely. Researchers focus on addressing contemporary issues such as assessing the effectiveness of certain criminal justice guidelines in mitigating crime. A suitable current topic of concern, for example, would be whether the detention of abusive partners is likely to thwart the reoccurrence of domestic violence (Bernard, 2019).

While the concepts of criminology are vital in advising on various issues pertaining to deviant or criminal behavior, studies in criminal justice are essential in informing criminal justice policies. For instance, findings from criminal justice studies significantly determine the redesigning of parole and sentencing decisions. In the past, the jury exercised a considerable level of discretion when sentencing criminals that led to inconsistencies in the sentences. However, based on several studies in parole and sentencing procedures, new guidelines have been formulated to minimize the inconsistencies (Bernard, 2019).

On another note, criminology and criminal justice are also distinct from one another with regards to their practice. On one hand, the practice of criminology principally entails devising solutions to problems experienced in the society pertaining to crime and critiquing the existing or proposed solutions. To this end, addressing the issues on the measures that should be taken against criminals as well as the actions that should be done about criminal behavior and on the victims of such behaviors, are key aspects of this practice (Stout & Clamp, 2015).

Consider the case of a forensic psychologist, for instance, who studies people's behavior, the relationship between criminals and the public and their reactions to various situations. The forensic psychologist has studied criminal behavior and concluded that criminals fall under three categories. First, are the violent psychopaths who are unremorseful and unemotional towards other people. Secondly, the criminals with antisocial personality disorder (APD) who are quite aggressive but somehow emotional towards others. The third category is criminals with the intermittent explosive disorder (IED) who function like other members of the society but experience periods of aggressive behavior that may result in crime (Bosse, Gerritsen & Treur, 2007). Based on this labeling, the forensic psychologist can suggest to jurors that a violent psychopath should be put in a criminals' asylum while those with IED and APD should be transferred to correctional institutions.

The criminal justice practice involves taking legal measures against offenders unlike the practice of criminology that addresses issues concerning these measures as stated above. Criminal justice practice is well-defined in a system that addresses crime. Activities involved in addressing crime include investigating incidences of crime, apprehending criminals, prosecution and jailing or rehabilitating the criminals. Schram and Tibbetts (2017) point out that the criminal justice practice aims at preventing and controlling crime in addition to providing and upholding justice. In this line, the main aspects of this practice include law enforcement, court procedures and correctional interventions. Therefore, it can be deduced that the criminal justice practice directly addresses crime while the criminology practice entails understanding crime first to establish how to address it.

Within the criminal justice practice, one can become a detective, for example, where he is tasked with investigating criminal activities within a certain State or locality. After investigating crime and finding out that someone broke the law, the detective then arrests the suspected criminal. The detective gathers relevant evidence needed to charge the criminal in a court. Within the court, judges will determine whether the evidence presented is convincing enough to send the criminal to jail, a correctional facility or release him (Schram & Tibbetts, 2017).

Going by the above explanation, this paper has shown that criminology and criminal justice are different both as study disciplines and areas practice. As study disciplines, the paper identifies criminology as the study of crime to understand criminals' thinking and how they relate with others. Conversely, criminal justice is the study of the law enforcement system that entails how society responds to crime. As areas of practice, criminology involves inventing solutions to society's problems that are caused by crime and reviewing the existing or proposed solutions. On the contrary, criminal justice practice involves taking legal action against criminals to prevent and control crime as well as maintain justice. With this knowledge, one can, thus, demystify prosecution patterns associated with an increased rate of crimes and the reasons why young men are the most prosecuted and women are increasingly engaging in crime.

References

Bernard, T. (2019). Criminal justice | academic discipline. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/criminal-justice

Bosse, T., Gerritsen, C., & Treur, J. (2007). Case analysis of criminal behavior. In International Conference on Industrial, Engineering and Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems (pp. 621-632). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Carrabine, E., Cox, P., Fussey, P., Hobbs, D., South, N., Thiel, D., & Turton, J. (2014). Criminology: A sociological introduction. Routledge.Roufa, T. (2019). Jobs in Criminology and Criminal Justice-What's the Difference? Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/difference-between-criminology-and-criminal-justice-3975265

Schram, P. J., & Tibbetts, S. G. (2017). Introduction to Criminology: Why Do They Do It? SAGE Publications.Stout, B., & Clamp, K. (2015). Applied criminology and criminal justice. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences. Volume 1, 832-838.