In the development of the last two centuries, humans no longer study crime, but they have studied criminology. Studying crime and studying criminology are two different things. Studying crime means studying the patterns and causes of people doing bad things, while studying criminology is learning about crime and public reactions to crime that has been committed. Criminology is important to study because its scope is not limited to finding the causes of crimes committed but rather towards crime prevention.
The International Society of Criminology (ISC), as part of UNESCO, is aware of this situation. The lack of literature on criminology is considered as an indication of the underdevelopment of criminology. It is unknown whether this stagnant situation comes from criminology experts who have experienced a deadlock in finding new ideas or, even more ironically, the lack of development of the flow of criminology in universities. Based on this situation, the ISC requested assistance to collect data on the flow of criminology. Data was collected in ten countries, including: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America and Yugoslavia.
The collected data was discussed in a symposium initiated by the ISC in London on September 11th, 1955, and was the third International Criminology Congress. The aim of the symposium was to obtain an overview of the extent to which the flow of Criminology has been developed in higher education institutions, especially social sciences colleges. In December 1952, a congress was held under the name of the Conference of Specialized Agencies and International Non-Governmental Organizations Interested in Crime Prevention and The Treatment of Delinquents in Geneva. The outcome of this symposium suggested:
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- At Universities/College, in accordance with existing facilities and capabilities, to include Criminology courses in the curriculum;
- The distribution of criminology also needs to be given to officers in the legal field, such Judges, Prosecutors, Police and correctional officers;
- The flow of criminology must be carried out clinically.
Aside from recommending the provision of criminology, the symposium also suggested some other criminology-related knowledge to be taught, such as Medical Jurisprudence, Criminalistics, and so on.
Based on the recommendations in the symposium and realizing its importance, criminology started to be included in the curriculum of law faculties in Indonesia. Criminology is an integral part of students who study law, especially those who pursue criminal law. Several law faculties in Indonesia have even established criminology institutions in which they discuss and continue to study criminology more specifically.
In addition to criminology institutions in several law faculties in Indonesia, an organization consisting of lecturers of criminal law and criminology always shows its existence. The organization called Asosiasi Pengajar Hukum Pidana dan Kriminologi (ASPEHUPIKI) was formed with the aim of continuously developing science, especially criminology, as one of the supporting criminal law policies.
It is hoped that studies conducted by criminology institutions and MAHUPIKI will be a source for the creation of literature on criminology which is still a rare commodity of knowledge. Many students, practitioners, and observers of this discipline have not obtained the widest possible information about the concepts of crime, perpetrators of crime and public reactions to crime, which briefly explains what criminology is and to what extent its limitations.
Based on this purpose, hopefully this paper will become one of the books that discuss criminology, history and background, the concept of crime, perpetrators of crime and all the things about crime and crime prevention strategies from a criminological perspective, even though it is not the only one.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
