Friday, February 8, 2019

Are you a criminologist or a sociologist? Anonymous Responses

When I first decided to apply to PhD programs I knew I wanted to study American criminal punishment, but intentionally chose to apply only to sociology programs, not criminology programs. At the time I had assumptions about criminology programs; that they were primarily focused on criminal justice enforcement and finding the best techniques to reduce crime. What I cared about conducting research on then (and now) was on the conditions and consequences of punishing crimes, not the drivers of criminal behavior. However, over the years, I realized that the distinction between criminology and sociology is not so black and white. 
While some criminology departments (and criminologists) produce research in line with my assumptions, many others study topics in line with my own personal agenda. Moreover, to fully grapple with the inequalities exacerbated by criminal punishment it is impossible to ignore the structural forces that lead to different rates of crimes among different groups (along with the structural forces that lead to disparate treatment of persons who commit crimes). Treating these fields as separate obscures these important overlapping forces. So now, with what I have learned now, I believe that a holistic research agenda on aspects of American criminal punishment incorporates knowledge from both criminology and sociology. Thus, I consider myself to be both a sociologist and criminologist. 

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