Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary nature of criminology makes much difficulty in attempts to set a final and conclusive definition of criminology. Criminology encompasses the knowledge of various sciences, which all together make valuable contributions to criminology. Problems in defining criminology come out of different theoretical standpoints. Sociologists tend to define criminology from their theoretical angle as well as do law theorists, psychologists, biologists, philosophers, anthropologists, social pedagogues and many other theorists. Every theorist gives us their own definition of criminology, so when defining criminology it is best to define it according to objects of research.
Why is criminology an interdisciplinary science? Many scientific fields or specialized disciplines are incorporated into criminology. Methods and knowledge's of psychology, sociology, philosophy and criminal justice are part of criminology. Criminology uses all available knowledge's which are provided by these sciences. Crimes are already researched by other sciences and criminology presents a full integration of all knowledge's using the own methodology which is adapted to the specific research object.
Best definition of criminology describes the criminology as a social empirical science. Main objects of research in criminology are the crimes, victims, criminals, social environment, criminality in general, penal treatment of delinquents, behavioral prognosis, types and methods of crime control. Crime is an individual act, while criminality as a term includes all crimes. Objects of research in criminology are also asocial behaviors (predelinquent phases) and asocial persons.
There are many areas of research in criminology. One of those fields of study is the victimology. Victimology is relatively a very young scientific field which studies victim relations with the criminal, victim contribution to crime causality, victim rehabilitation, effects of secondary victimization trough criminal Court processes, report studies (victim willingness to report the crime) etc. Victimology also focuses upon theory concepts how to prevent future victimization and how to increase the number of crime reports against the criminals.
Most of the criminological disciplines and specialized fields focus upon crime causation, while other efforts are pointed on research of various forms of crimes. Police officers or crime investigators are usually focused on investigation of certain types of crimes like sexual offenses, murders, thefts or other forms of crime. They have received adequate training and theoretical knowledge, which make them grand masters of their profession after five years of work in that field.
Police officer is some sort of a medical doctor, who has to discover and to identify social illnesses, which affected the society, and to find appropriate treatment, which of course is mirrored in effective, swift and just criminal investigation procedures, the lawful collection of evidence and the professional objectivity.