The Relevance of Criminology in the Criminal Justice System

Describe your understanding of criminology
Evidently, criminology deals with crime, which may be described as human behavior in violation of any local jurisdiction, state, or government’s stipulated laws; the entity in question should be authorized to formulate and implement them (Schmalleger, 2016). The above description is preferable as, in the absence of laws that specify behavior, one cannot claim that a crime has been committed, irrespective of the social repugnance or level of deviancy of a person’s conduct. The study of criminology may be described as an interdisciplinary occupation utilizing the systematic study of criminal conduct and crime; this covers cause, manifestation, control, and legal elements.
What parts of the criminal justice system are important to you?
I believe the following two components of the crime justice system hold significance: correctional systems and the courts.
The courts form a key criminal justice system component as they aim at ensuring fair trials and the protection of citizens’ rights. Judges and juries contribute to dispensing sufficiently disciplinary punishments to criminals for their perpetrated offenses. However, in doing so, they need to adhere to federal- and state- stipulated statutory guidelines. Meanwhile, correctional systems guarantee the guilty individuals effectively serve their dispensed sentence, besides monitoring the condemned at the time of serving sentences (Schmalleger, 2016; Sherman & Strang, 2007). Furthermore, correctional system personnel are in charge of overseeing prisoners for guaranteeing proper implementation of correctional measures.
Is the study of criminals pertinent to the application of criminal justice or not?
Criminology aids in comprehending reasons behind criminal conduct and crime, from the point of view of welfare and social policy. This branch of learning examines a few causes underlying criminality, which include penury, poor housing conditions, homelessness, welfare problems, social exclusion influences, and low earnings, in addition to ways to appropriately deal with such societal problems. This encompasses investigating both governmental reactions to criminal justice and societal problems and the effect international and national economic crises have (Sherman & Strang, 2007). Criminology offers a chance to gain insights into criminal justice and societal challenges from diverse standpoints, utilizing models, notions and conceptions from criminology as well as other disciplines. Therefore, studying offenders and their offensive conduct is relevant to the overall crime prevention goal, and adequately deals with criminals for the purpose of correction.
Determining underlying causes of crime in attempts to avert crime vs. punishing criminals and the costs or benefits in either regards
“Prevention is better than cure” – thus, averting crime takes precedence over penalizing offenders via the crime justice system. Ascertaining the motives for crime implies tackling an offence’s chief source thereby averting it. Penalizing offenders is vital (particularly if the person is wild and demonstrates consistent criminally-oriented conduct), but having proper tools in place and tackling social issues potentially leading to crime proves much more helpful in deterring ‘ordinary’ criminals (Schmalleger, 2016; Sherman & Strang, 2007).
The benefits and costs of crime prevention outweigh the advantages of punishment for offending. The foremost of these is economic advantages. For instance, offenses not reported to law enforcement authorities typically result in significantly greater direct financial costs to the unfortunate victims, since this prevents possible chances of receiving compensation in the form of jury awards, insurance, or employer compensation. Furthermore, crime prevention aids, overall, in upholding and uniting communities. From a societal perspective, it increases neighborhood satisfaction and cohesiveness, leading companies and individual victims to relocate to localities considered to be more secure. Still further, official crime response costs are huge, constantly draining federal, municipal, and provincial government funds. Besides costs linked to tackling already-perpetrated offences, substantial costs have been linked to anticipating crime. Such costs are, specifically, associated with various elementary safety measures undertaken by companies as well as individuals for the purpose of crime avoidance (e.g., household security systems, security personnel, guard dogs, and car alarms) (Dossetor, 2011). Finally, a few specialists highlight the social costs of criminals’ “lost potential”. This viewpoint presumes the average criminal would be a productive societal member, participating actively in ensuring societal welfare, were he/she not directly perpetrating crime or going through related rehab measures and punishments.


References
Dossetor, K. (2011). Cost-benefit analysis and its application to crime prevention and criminal justice research. Australian Institute of Criminology.
Schmalleger, F. (2016). “What Is Criminology? Understanding Crime and Criminals” Criminology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.
Sherman, L., & Strang, H. (2007). Restorative justice: The evidence. Smith Institute.