Criminology Careers

Criminology is the scientific study of crime and criminals—why some people commit crimes, why some people become the victims of crime, why some places have more criminal activity than others, and how crime can be prevented and deterred through the study of its motivations. If you’re interested in a criminology degree, you will study the roots of crime and try to find ways to make crime less likely to occur. You may do this in the employ of a law enforcement agency, a university, a think tank or a government committee.

Crime is one of the most important problems facing the human race today. For that matter, it has always been one of the most important problems facing the human race, going back to prehistoric times. Criminology careers are a way in which you can make a genuine difference in people’s lives, by decreasing the incidence of crime and saving both the lives and property that would otherwise be lost to criminal activities. You will work with police, you will work with lawyers, and you will work with corrections officers. Criminology careers can take you into important government agencies or even allow you to travel the world to find the answer to criminal problems worldwide.

There are specific subfields of criminology in which you might wish to work. One is the study of how drugs and drug abuse affect and inspire criminal behavior. Another is the study of juvenile crime and how young offenders can be prevented from growing up to be adult offenders. A fairly new area of criminology careers is victimology, the study of why some people are more likely to become crime victims than others. Although some people think that patterns of crime (and therefore patterns of victims) are random, they are not. Crime victims are much more likely to know the perpetrator of the crime, even be a friend of the perpetrator, than to be assaulted at random. Young, black males are the most likely to become crime victims. Elderly women are one of least likely victim types. Studying these things can help police prevent crimes among the groups where they are most likely to happen and protect the people who most need to be protected.

Criminology is an academic field and will require considerable study at the college level before you launch your criminology career. If you obtain an advanced degree in the topic—a doctorate, perhaps—you may even choose to teach criminology at the college level, passing your knowledge on to a whole new generation of criminologists preparing for criminology careers.