What is a criminologist?

Answer 1

Me!

Basically we study crime. This includes why we believe it happens, criminal types (although that is generally more classical), different theoretical perspectives on many criminal issues etc... the most basic question to address is 'why do some people commit crime?' but some authors such as Tom Tyler ask 'why do most people not commit crime?'.

Criminology draws upon many disciplines, but in my experience the discipline we use most is sociology (my degree is actually crim soc). Criminal psychology is a branch of criminology, but a specialist one... personally I'm not too interested in the psychology side, sociology focuses more on a person's life and their values. Media analysis sort of stuff requires different skills, and there are entire textbooks about how the media relates to crime (for example the biggest false belief of the century is that crime in Britain is rising). The various disciplines that criminologists draw upon makes us well-rounded in terms of our academic knowledge and skills.

Answer 2

Criminology is the scientific study of crime and criminals and a criminologist is the person involved in it.

Answer 3

A criminologist is often defined as someone who studies the etiology of crime, criminal behavior, types of crime, and social, cultural and media reactions to crime.

Answer 4

Malaika is right I checked it out in my trusty dictionary She is obviously familiar wuth the subject I wish i had an ology just cos it sounds good xxx

Answer 5

A person who studies crime.

Answer 6

A person who studies crime.

Answer 7

crime crime crime everywhere - let one study