What鈥檚 the Difference Between Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Forensics?
Criminology. Criminal Justice. Forensics. They all mean the same thing when it comes to fighting crime,聽right?
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The reality is more nuanced. Although they all share a common focus, criminology, criminal justice, and forensics are three distinct methods that help shape how our society thinks about, investigates, and addresses crime. Learning the differences between them can help us better understand the entire life span of a crime, from the individual responsible to the systems that help keep us聽safe.
What Is Criminology?
Criminology is an interdisciplinary field working to develop theories to explain the social, economic, and psychological reasons why people commit crimes. Spanning sociology, psychology, statistics, and public policy, criminology is predictive and preventative. Criminological research informs changes to social policy and law and then monitors how individuals interact with the changes over聽time.
The history of criminology has its roots in the Enlightenment in Europe, a period during the 18th century when humanistic ideals emphasizing tolerance, reason, and personal liberty were gaining strength over the authority of religion and royalty. of this time centered on examining the motivations of the individual as opposed to the details of the crime. Thinkers like and rejected corporal punishment in favor of social reforms and focused on the choices each individual has in opposition to the internal and external factors influencing聽them.
Modern criminologists are still studying the criminal implications of societal forces like poverty, childhood trauma, or addiction. Researchers look at longitudinal data on demographics and economics to identify trends in criminal activity and its impact over time, with an eye toward decreasing crime聽rates.
Criminologists do important work that helps us understand the interconnected reasons why crime happens, but they don鈥檛 arrest suspects, solve crimes, or gather crime scene evidence. Criminal justice professionals and forensics experts take over from聽there.
What Is Criminal Justice?
Criminal justice is a system of institutions and services that function as society鈥檚 day-to-day response to crime, as compared to criminology, which is a research-based field that explores the causes of crime in the long聽term.
The U.S. system is divided into the three pillars of law enforcement, courts, and corrections that manage the criminal process from investigation to rehabilitation. Police enforce laws, investigate crimes, and make arrests. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges ensure that legal due process is followed, determine culpability, and deliver sentences. Corrections, probation, and parole officers focus on punishment and behavioral聽change.
Criminologists may not necessarily work within the criminal justice system, but there is a symbiotic relationship between the work that they do. A criminologist might discover that a neighborhood has a high rate of juvenile delinquency because of a lack of after-school programs. Based on that research, local law enforcement might shift their policing toward for crime prevention and away from increasing arrest volume. In turn, the criminal justice system provides ongoing crime statistics such as arrest records, recidivism rates, and trial outcomes, which criminologists then analyze to refine their聽theories.
What Is Forensics?
At its essence, forensics is concerned with proving or disproving the involvement of a person, place, or thing in a crime by using chemistry, physics, and technology to analyze physical and digital artifacts. While criminology works on the theoretical why聽of crime, and criminal justice deals in the how of enforcing the law, forensic science is focused on the physical what. The role of forensics is to act as the bridge between the lab and the legal system, providing objective scientific evidence that can be used in聽court.
Evolving from the early days of fingerprinting and crime scene photography, modern forensics encompasses several fields, including DNA analysis, toxicology, forensic pathology, ballistics, and the newest forensic innovation of digital forensics, which recovers and analyzes data from encrypted phones, hard drives, or deleted聽emails.
Criminology vs. Criminal Justice vs. Forensics
Criminal behavior is complicated, and it doesn鈥檛 happen in a vacuum. The challenge of preventing and addressing crime is a collaboration among professionals in criminology, forensics, and criminal justice, all working in parallel on different elements of the聽process.
Here鈥檚 a breakdown of the goals of each discipline, the tools they use, and where they聽work.
Essentially, if you鈥檙e analyzing DNA from blood spatter, you鈥檙e a forensic specialist. If you鈥檙e arresting the suspect, you work in criminal justice. If you鈥檙e researching why that specific neighborhood has seen a 10% spike in homicide, you鈥檙e a聽criminologist.
Start Your Career in聽Public Service at Excelsior
Anyone starting their career in public service needs empathy, attention to detail, and a nuanced understanding of people, processes, and聽politics.
While criminology, criminal justice, and forensics are distinct disciplines, they are all committed to serving the public good, and they are each writing parts of the same story about crime and society. 91吃瓜鈥檚 BS in Criminal Justice program curriculum incorporates elements of all three, with courses like Criminology, Statistics, Criminal Procedure and Evidence, and Criminal Justice Administration so you can build the well-rounded base of knowledge employers are looking for. Which crime prevention career path you decide to take depends on where you want to make a difference within that聽story.
