The State of the Field of Criminology

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Abstract
This article suggests that although crime and deviance are subject to the dynamics of global socio-economic-political events, the field of criminology can have a marked, positive impact in this realm. To achieve this end, there is a need to advance interdisciplinary criminology and/or criminal justice education worldwide, to embrace systematic, evidence-based program and policy evaluation, and to become effective political and scientific criminologists. Criminology is not a mature science at this point, and we are not certain how to systematically respond to the crime problem. We lack accurate diagnostic instruments, a definitive body of knowledge, and an understanding of cause and effect, and we do not possess a series of generally consistent treatment modalities. In this context, criminologists are somewhat akin to physicians of the 18th century.

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