International Journal on Criminology Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2013 | Page 5

International Journal on Criminology
psychologists, social workers, and educators. 1 The resultant diversity of legal and
paralegal staff makes cohesion difficult to achieve. In order to avoid fragmented work
where no-one looks beyond their own domain, shared basic training is required.
Moreover, the evolution of viewpoints, institutions, and staff in the domain of crime
prevention and offender treatment poses the question of a renewal of criminal law and
procedure. Criminological factors must therefore be taken into account when constructing
the rule of law. This means that conventional lawyers must be brought up to date with
advances in criminology.
Finally, it should be remembered that beyond professional training for judges and
their auxiliaries or for lawyers, criminological teaching is necessary to stimulate scientific
research. This research cannot be successful without a constant effort to methodically
classify the partial results obtained by individual researchers and integrate them into an
overall science, where rigorous systematization allows them to be put in perspective,
revealing their full significance. In this approach, training must separate what is
confirmed from what is only thought to be true, break down watertight barriers in
thinking, draw attention to urgent questions, and disseminate the latest research by
various specialists in different countries.
These, in brief, are the arguments in favor of teaching criminology.
The agreement as to the need for criminological training would have been illusory
without discussion regarding the definition of criminology itself.
This problem formed part of the investigation program and was presented to the
different reporters. It was also largely addressed in the general introductory note written
by one of our group and distributed at the London conference. Similarly, it was addressed
at this conference by Mr. Benigno di Tullio, professor at the University of Rome and
honorary president of the International Society for Criminology.
The vast majority of participants agreed on Enrico Ferri’s conception of criminology
as a “synthetic science” drawing upon criminal anthropology 1 and criminal sociology.
Today, as in the past, the objective of this synthetic science is to reduce criminality
and, on the theoretical level that works towards this practical goal, to provide a complete
study of the criminal and crime, the latter being viewed not as a judicial abstraction, but
as a human action, as a fact of nature and society. The method employed in criminology
is that of observation and experimentation, applied within the framework of a true social
clinic.
It nevertheless goes without saying that in viewing criminology as a unitary and
autonomous science that synthesizes results from clinics and experimentation, the
participants at the London conference simply identified a direction—a path to follow.
Clearly, this view of criminology supposes that the clinical, experimental approach is
sufficiently integrated in practical institutions to allow serious research. The development
of observation centers, penitentiary anthropology laboratories, and classification institutes
is a prerequisite for the harmonious application of this approach. All were aware that
when this condition is not fulfilled or only partially fulfilled, criminology must be content
to remain a collection of sciences. It then embraces all those sciences linked to the
criminal phenomenon. In these circumstances, it is more appropriate to speak of
criminological sciences than of true criminology, since this term applies only to a
synthesis of the constituent disciplines.
These two views: criminology as a collection of sciences and criminology as an
autonomous science in itself are not mutually exclusive. They are in fact complementary.
The social clinic of true criminology uses the methods and data of the fundamental
disciplines together. Consequently, the teaching of criminology itself is an extension of,
and not a replacement for, the teaching of criminological sciences.
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