Foundational also in the study of criminology is the importance placed on examining the activities of the social institutions comprising the criminal justice system: police, courts and the correctional institutions. In this holistic view, the criminologist will suggest that the measurements obtained and the hypotheses derived from them, will impact the three member groups of the legal system. Some, in fact, may be impacted to a greater degree than others.

Some criminologists adhering to the functional theory choose to focus on the important objectives carried out by these institutions in the interest of society, such as ensuring the rights of individuals, and service to and protecting the public. This group may draw upon the earlier work of Emile Durkheim and his successors. (Brown et al., 2007). Other criminologists who study the conflict theory, may, in response, argue that the function of the law, police, courts and correctional systems can more accurately be described as serving the interest of the upper class, in an attempt to maintain “status quo.” Their predecessors in this theory are Karl Marx and his successors. More about these theories will be discussed later in the chapter (Akers et al., 2020).