Criminology (from Latin crimen, "accusation"; and Greek -
¿¿¿¿a, -logia) is the scientific study of the nature, extent,
causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and
in society. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in the
behavioral sciences, drawing especially upon the research of
sociologists and psychologists, as well as on writings in law.
Areas of research in criminology include the incidence, forms,
causes and consequences of crime, as well as social and
governmental regulations and reaction to crime. For studying the
distribution and causes of crime, criminology mainly relies upon
quantitative methods. The term "criminology" was coined
in 1885 by Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo as criminologia.
Around the same time, French anthropologist Paul Topinard used the
analogous French term criminologie.
