Science is a general term that describes the collection and organization of ideas and

understanding them through series of explanations, tests and experimentations. On the other
hand a brief definition of criminology from Merriam Webster is "the scientific study of crime as a
social phenomenon, of criminals, and of penal treatment".
Criminology is generally a method of identifying a crime.
Scientific observations are made under controlled conditions, even though laboratories are not
used where all variables may be totally controlled, yet itis possible to control quite a few
variables even when studying human behavior.
THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS IN THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
THESE ARE:
(1) Defining the problem;

(2) Reviewing the literature;

(3) Formulating the hypotheses or making tentative propositions to explain certain facts;

(4) Planning the research design;

(5) Collecting the data and

(6) Drawing conclusions or making generalizations regarding the uniformities and regularities
found in the facts through an inductive method (i.e., proceeding from the particular to the
general).

A scientific law is a universal and predictive statement of a relationship among facts that has
been repeatedly corroborated by scientific investigation. It is universal in the sense that the stated
relationship is held always to occur under the specified conditions. Itis predictive in that if the
specified conditions are found, the relationship may be predicted to follow

With these concepts of science and scientific method, criminology may be described as a science
because it uses the method that is defined as science. However, if 'science' is referred to terms of
the 'content', "the body of scientific findings", then criminology is NOT a science.

Criminology is a science because we can predict some things with a degree of certainty that is
better than chance. We can look at career criminals and we can predict some things. They came
from a broken home, they had no strong moral role models, and they have low or no education.
Is that always the case? No, but there are some things that are pretty accurate. What about
someone who is a serial killer and sexually brutalizes women and then kills them in such a
manner that indicates a great deal of rage. Overkill, stabs them 60 - 70 times. Generally indicates
an individual with a strong hatred of some woman in their life. Many times an abusive mother.
This is the kind of data and proclivity that profilers study to try to understand the psyche of those
involved in these types of horrific crimes. People who commit serious crimes have a very high
ability to rationalize their behavior.

If I asked you while taking a trip and driving on the Interstate have you ever driven over the
speed limit, or set your cruise control to a few miles over the speed limit, would you say yes? If
you said yes, why did you break the law and go over the speed limit? Seriously, why would you
do that?

Was it because you were just trying to keep up with everyone else? Was everyone else speeding
too? Were you just trying to maintain and average to make up for all the times you had to slow
down when you came up on a slow truck? Maybe your car gets better gas mileage when you go a
little faster