3.2 The Discipline of Criminology

What drives a person to become a criminologist? All scientists conduct measurements. Criminologists are no different. A criminologist examines crime in a “temporal-spatial” (time and space) way. In these longitudinal studies, the characteristics of crimes and those who break the laws are measured. In an effort to curb or eliminate crime throughout history, writers and scholars have written and studied how to contribute toward the reduction, if not complete elimination, of crime. You might be surprised to learn that the term “criminology” is a relatively new one, developed just over one hundred years ago (Schmalleger, 2006).

It is important to consider the theoretical assumptions of social policies regarding criminal deviance. Does the well-dressed person at a bus stop awaiting the arrival of a scheduled transit ride home after work, raise suspicions of the police? Absent any more detail, no. This subject is in a place where they are lawfully permitted to be, lacking any criminal motivation or intent. Contrast this situation with a person at that same bus stop whose manner of dress is in disarray, and who is waiting for another bus one hour later. Someone flags down a police officer and reports this person who “looks out of place.” The officer approaches the offending party and asks what’s happening, the response is, “I’m just hanging out.” Has a crime been committed? In the days when the crime of vagrancy was on the books, then perhaps the answer is “yes.” In today’s world, generally, no crime has been committed. In a series of cases on vagrancy (City of Seattle v. Drew, 1967; City of St. Louis v. Gloner, 1908; Pinkerton v. Verberg, 1889; State v. Caez, 1963; Territory of Hawaii v. Anduha, 1931), various states ruled that laws exhibiting such vagueness and overly-broad language can conceivably give police the discretion to decide who walks the streets, and potentially penalize persons who are experiencing homelessness or are otherwise unsheltered. Such action taken by the police would be looked upon as an abuse of discretionary powers, and would be implicitly unconstitutional. At the time when this was occurring years ago, such action was generally considered to be the “law of the land,” and sanctioned by many communities which wanted squatting laws enforced. Today, the laws and the police who enforce them are taking different approaches in order to create solutions which will be sensitive to the needs of all parties.

One also needs to ask the question: “What is criminal deviance?” Initially, the question seems easy to answer. In fact, criminologists, depending upon their individual viewpoints, may disagree and have differing answers. Criminologist Paul Tappan (1947) believed that only criminal acts defined by a code of criminal law should be considered. The perspective of Herman and Julia Schwendinger (1970) takes a much broader-based approach by saying that a wide range of social injuries and injustices, not just those prohibited under written legal code, should be addressed in the study of criminology. As one can see, the two perspectives are inconsistent and even incompatible with each other.

A third view from some mainstream criminologists selects a definition of the field which is less constrained than Tappan’s, but not as open-ended as the Schwendingers’. As an example, Thorsten Sellin (1938) opined that violation of conduct norms should be studied by criminologists. Each case has its strength of viewpoint, yet all face scrutiny in some fact or fashion. As an example, under Tappan’s model, the former crime of vagrancy would fall within the area of criminology when there were laws against vagrancy. However, due to case precedent declaring the crime of vagrancy “void for vagueness,” and the optics created by housing shortages and resorting to unsheltered conditions, vagrancy as a crime is largely non-existent, or at least not enforced, today. For today’s criminologists, an area of concern might more correctly consider the predatory practices of landlords, large corporations and government actions that marginalize, and may even target, some members of society while enriching others from the conflict criminology perspective. In this way, criminologists study criminal acts by offenders to better understand motivations, consider deterrence measures, and proscribe rehabilitation strategies or mechanisms to prevent or catch criminals in the future. In considering the effectiveness of these efforts, the data points (arrest information) are largely what criminologists rely upon for their research and correlation findings. Impediments to their work can result when something was not illegal, or no arrest was made, resulting in a situation where no data would be available from which to conduct analysis.