A Macro Research Agenda in Criminology
There are two very broad basic questions that the field of criminology is called on to address: 1. Of the many diverse factors that affect the behavior of individuals, what is the relative influence of each in stimulating or inhibiting the commission of crime? 2. In particular, of the various instru...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1993
|
| In: |
Journal of research in crime and delinquency
Year: 1993, Volume: 30, Issue: 4, Pages: 474-477 |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | There are two very broad basic questions that the field of criminology is called on to address: 1. Of the many diverse factors that affect the behavior of individuals, what is the relative influence of each in stimulating or inhibiting the commission of crime? 2. In particular, of the various instruments available to the criminal justice system, what effect do those have on inhibiting or preventing crime? Obviously, these formulations are intended to be broad and encompassing. Each then raises a number of subsidiary issues that must be addressed in terms of three key constructs: First, what kinds of behaviors are designated as crimes: obviously, any particular influence will be more or less salient with respect to any particular kind of crime. Second, what are the variety of influences that have to be measured; surely they will include, at a minimum, individual genetic constitution, early development and socialization, family, peers, community, schools, and the larger environmental factors as reflected in general culture, religious institutions, mass media, and political leadership. Third, with respect to the set of influences that are the particular charge-those associated with the criminal justice system CJS, what is the array of CJS instruments available, including the general ones of sanction policy, and their particular application to individual cases. Thus sociologists think of three principal constructs that must be decomposed in detail: crimes, influences, and CJS instruments |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0022-4278 |
