On The Formation Of The Discipline Of Criminology

The research of criminology focuses on a special type of social problems.In the process of recognizing the phenomena of crimes in human society,scholars have proposed all kinds of theories concerning crimes.These theories provide rich thoughts and theoretical support in the independence and development of criminology as a discipline.However,through the accumulation of more than two hundred years,the research of criminology is in lack of common language,independent discipline awareness and complete theoretical framework.Besides,a unified research paradigm hasn't been formed.These take manifestations in the comparatively large disagreement in some basic concepts and theoretical issues of the discipline of criminology itself,like the argument of the concept of “crime”,the research subjects,the research content,together with the relationship of criminology and other related disciplines.All these indicate that the self-consistency of the discipline itself has not been handled well.This goes against the rational treatment of crimes,the exploration of the causes of crimes with scientific knowledge,the formulation of effective social precaution policies,the inheritance and development of the discipline.Thus,it is of great necessity to integrate the academic resources concerning research on crimes available at present scientifically and consider the formation of the discipline of criminology purposefully.The dispute in the nature of the discipline of criminology is originated from scholars' different opinions in the research subjects of criminology,and even comparatively large disagreements in the concept of criminology.Based on the comparison of the various kinds of definitions of criminology proposed by scholars in China and abroad,it is found out that researchers of different discipline background have comparatively large differences on the recognition of criminology.This leads to the disagreement in the nature of the discipline of criminology in the academic field.These indicate the fundamental and systematic problems in the formation of the discipline of criminology.It holds that the above-mentioned disputes and arguments are caused by the following two reasons: the ignorance of the rheology of the nature of the discipline;the analysis of the problem with the confusion between “standard science” and “factual science”.In order to bridge and settle the disputes,one possible way is to make clear the basic tasks,research subjects,research content and research methods at first,then extract the traits of criminology as a discipline,and finally gain a global comprehension and grasp of criminology as a discipline.development of the discipline of criminology could be summarized into the following three phases: pre-scientific phase,quasi-scientific phase and scientific phase.In order to form the global comprehension and grasp of criminology,it is necessary to make detailed investigation of various kinds of theories concerning crimes in the history of the research of crimes,and evaluate on the significance of these theories on the formation of the discipline.These could explain how different theories lead to different development and changes of the nature of the discipline of criminology.According to the requirement of the self-consistency of the discipline,all theories have been classified and labeled to the corresponding places in the system of the discipline to make them coordinate with other parts in the theoretical system.This indicates the achievement of the compatibility and inheritance between all constitutive elements of the theoretical system and the system itself,and thus “names” and “actualities” could be matched.From the rheology of the development of the discipline of criminology,the development of the discipline of criminology could be summarized into the following three phases: pre-scientific phase,quasi-scientific phase and scientific phase.In order to form the global comprehension and grasp of criminology,it is necessary to make detailed investigation of various kinds of theories concerning crimes in the history of the research of crimes,and evaluate on the significance of these theories on the formation of the discipline.These could explain how different theories lead to different development and changes of the nature of the discipline of criminology.According to the requirement of the self-consistency of the discipline,all theories have been classified and labeled to the corresponding places in the system of the discipline to make them coordinate with other parts in the theoretical system.This indicates the achievement of the compatibility and inheritance between all constitutive elements of the theoretical system and the system itself,and thus “names” and “actualities” could be matched.The superficial reason of the difficult situation that occurs in the formation process of the discipline of criminology is the disputes in the recognition of the nature of the discipline of research on crimes,while the underlying reason is the lack of scientific and unified recognition of some substantial issue in the academic field of the discipline of criminology.The substantial issue is the nature of crimes.It is believed that “crimes” are caused by the conflicts between self-interest and social cooperation.The exploration of the causes of crimes lies primarily in the formation mechanism of human conduct.The implementation of the prevention of crimes lies in the settlement of the problem of self-need and the coordination of the society.From this perspective,the research subjects could be classified further.Firstly,the direct research subjects of the research of criminology are criminal behaviors and criminal phenomena;secondly,two inter-related theoretical systems which are theoretical system of criminal behaviors and theoretical system of criminal phenomena have been formed in research on crimes.At last,the fallacy of explanation from inter-level of structure should be avoided in the research on crimes.Besides,the axiomatization of the analytical model of the cause of crimes should be accomplished for the formation of the discipline of criminology.Research on crimes should be pulled back to the exploration of “natural laws”.Thus,the consistent basic concepts,assumptions and general theory of the formation of the discipline of criminology could be prepared.Based on the solution of the above-mentioned substantial problems,the reformation task of the discipline of criminology could be started.Firstly,it needs to be made clear that criminology is an independent interdisciplinary discipline in social science.“Criminology” is defined as a discipline on laws of the formation,development andchange of people's demolition activities of their social life style and the exertion of effective control.This definition could reveal the social attributes of the research subjects of criminology.Secondly,the general framework of the discipline of criminology could be formed preliminarily based on the remolding of the tasks and values of the discipline of criminology.Thirdly,the relationship of criminology and other related disciplines like sociology,criminal law,psychology,etc should be reevaluated and research boundaries of different disciplines should be clarified reasonably.At last,the discipline system of criminology could be formed scientifically.Based on the present realistic environment and condition of the construction of criminology as a discipline in our country,the practical problems that criminology in our country faces could be solved in the following three aspects.Firstly,the institutional advantages in social administration in our country should be exerted to find out the “parent body” of the social application of criminology.Secondly,the proper discipline position in higher education should be strived for based on police and judicial universities and colleges.Thirdly,the research community of criminology with the joint work of researchers from police,procurator,supervision and judicial systems should be formed.