Criminology is the scientific study of crime, the criminal and society's reaction to both — the definition's classic form is Sutherland's (the study of the making of laws, the breaking of laws, and society's reaction to the breaking — by name only). It asks three questions: why is conduct criminalised? (criminalisation theory), why do people commit crime? (etiology), and what should society do about it? (penology and criminal policy). Nature: an interdisciplinary social science — sociology (the science's backbone), psychology, biology, psychiatry, law, statistics and economics all feed it; empirical and evolving (its theories replace rather than accumulate — the "lively hypotheses" character); both theoretical (explaining crime) and applied (shaping police, courts, prisons). Scope (the exam map):
1. Etiology of crime — causes: personal, situational, structural (Unit 3).
2. Criminal epidemiology — crime's distribution: rates, geography, time, victims (the statistical face).
3. Criminal psychology/biology — the offender's mind and body (Unit 2's schools).
4. Penology — punishment, prisons, corrections and their alternatives (Units 5–6).
5. Victimology — the victim's role, vulnerability and rights.
6. Criminal policy and law reform — criminalisation, decriminalisation, evaluation of interventions.