---
title: "Criminology"
chunk: 8/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminology"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:57:42.603938+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Ultra-realism is a 21st-century theoretical school and research programme that straddles criminology and zemiology. Ultra-realists revisit the fundamental question that underpins both disciplines: why, rather than seeking solidarity and cooperation, do specific individuals, groups, or institutions choose to risk harming others in pursuit of their own interests? Early proponents of the ultra-realist perspective are Steve Hall and Simon Winlow. The original ultra-realist concepts of the pseudo-pacification process, special liberty, and objectless anxiety first emerged from the mid-1990s onwards in a series of articles and books. The ultra-realist framework began to take a clearly defined shape in three later works.
Ultra-realist researchers operate in research fields such as deviant leisure and consumer culture; crime, harm and place; crime, harm, work and employment; Covid, lockdown and social harm; riots and far-right politics; violence and masculinity; crime, harm and glocal markets; policing and corruption; homicide and serial murder; crime, harm and mass media; crime, corruption and compliance; history and violence; crime, corruption and sport; hate crime; technology, harm and crime; the crime decline; child abuse; military studies; subjectivity and investment fraud; crime, harm and drugs; the criminology of borders.

== Types and definitions of crime ==
Both the positivist and classical schools take a consensus view of crime: that a crime is an act that violates society's basic values and beliefs. Those values and beliefs are manifested as laws that society agrees upon. However, there are two types of laws:

Natural laws are rooted in core values shared by many cultures. Natural laws protect against harm to persons (e.g., murder, rape, assault) or property (theft, larceny, robbery), and form the basis of common law systems.
Statutes are enacted by legislatures and reflect current cultural mores, albeit that some laws may be controversial, e.g., laws that prohibit cannabis use and gambling. Marxist criminology, conflict criminology, and critical criminology claim that most relationships between state and citizens are non-consensual and, as such, criminal law is not necessarily representative of public beliefs and wishes: it is exercised in the interests of the ruling or dominant class. The more right-wing criminologies tend to posit that there is a consensual social contract between state and citizen.
There have been moves in contemporary criminological theory to move away from liberal pluralism, culturalism, and postmodernism by introducing the universal term "harm" into the criminological debate as a replacement for the legal term "crime".

== Subtopics ==
Areas of study in criminology include:

Comparative criminology, which is the study of the social phenomenon of crime across cultures, to identify differences and similarities in crime patterns.
Crime prevention
Crime statistics
Criminal behavior
Criminal careers and desistance
Domestic violence
Deviant behavior
Evaluation of criminal justice agencies
Fear of crime
The International Crime Victims Survey
Juvenile delinquency
Penology
Police science
Sociology of law
Victimology

== See also ==

Anthropological criminology
Crime science
Forensic psychology
Forensic science
List of crime-related publications
List of criminologists
Social cohesion
The Mask of Sanity
Taboo
Public criminology
Qualitative research in criminology
Quantitative methods in criminology

== References ==

=== Notes ===

=== Bibliography ===
Agnew, Robert (2005). Why Do Criminals Offend? A General Theory of Crime and Delinquency. New York: Oxford University Press.
Barak, Gregg (ed.). (1998). Integrative Criminology (International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice & Penology.). Aldershot: Ashgate/Dartmouth. ISBN 1-84014-008-9.
Beccaria, Cesare, Dei delitti e delle pene (1763–1764).
Blatier, Catherine (1998), "The Specialized Jurisdiction: A Better Chance for Minors". International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family. pp. 115–127.
Bouchard, Jean-Pierre, "Can criminology be considered as a discipline in its own right?" L'Évolution Psychiatrique 78 (2013) 343–349.
Briar, S., & Piliavin, I. (1966). Delinquency, Situational Inducements, and Commitment to Conformity. Social Problems, 13 (3).
Clear, T. R. (2009). Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cohen, A. K. (1965). "The Sociology of the Deviant Act: Anomie Theory and Beyond". American Sociological Review, 30.
Horning, A. et al. (2020). "Risky Business: Harlem Pimps' Work Decisions and Economic Returns", Deviant Behavior, 21(2): 160–185.
Jaishankar, K., & Ronel, N. (2013). Global Criminology: Crime and Victimization in a Globalized Era. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group. ISBN 9781439892497.
Katz, J. (1988). Seductions of Crime: Moral and Sensual Attractions in Doing Evil. New York: Basic Books.
Pettit, Philip and Braithwaite, John (1990). Not Just Deserts. A Republican Theory of Criminal Justice. New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19-824056-3 (see Republican Criminology and Victim Advocacy: Comment for article concerning the book in Law & Society Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 765–776).
Pontell, Henry, Black, W. K., & Geis, G. (2014). "Too big to fail, too powerful to jail? On the absence of criminal prosecutions after the 2008 financial meltdown." Crime, Law and Social Change, 61(1), 1–13.
Sampson, Robert J. (2012), Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wikibooks: Introduction to sociology
Mirco Turco; Giuseppe Lodeserto; Maria Rosaria Bruscella; et al. (Daniele Martignano) (1 September 2025). Crime Analyst. Aspetti psicocriminologici e investigativi [Crime Analyst. Psycho-criminological and investigative aspects]. PE Psychology (in Italian). Padua (PD): Primiceri editore. ISBN 978-88-99747-45-9. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
Wolff, Kevin & Baglivio, M. T. (2017). Adverse childhood experiences, negative emotionality, and pathways to juvenile recidivism. Crime & Delinquency, 63(12), 1495–1521.

== External links ==