犯罪学从法律，社会学，心理学，精神病学和历史学等众多学科中汲取知识和观点。最初，犯罪学具有很强的实践重点：其作用是就警务，监狱管理，量刑和罪犯待遇等问题向政府提供建议。仍然与政策和实践有关，但是犯罪学家现在在更广泛的领域中工作，包括预防犯罪，公司和白领犯罪，商业法规，毒品政策以及消费者和环境保护。犯罪学并不认为犯罪和刑法是理所当然的。作为一门学科，它不断地质疑为什么不同的社会以不同的方式定义和应对犯罪，以及为什么惩罚的方法和其他形式的社会控制在各个时代之间差异如此之大。越来越多的犯罪学家也研究文化描绘犯罪
A Bachelor of Arts (BA) offers a flexible approach to studying the humanities, social sciences and languages at Australia's number one university. Build interdisciplinary knowledge, community leadership and cultural awareness. And, you'll graduate with the skills necessary to succeed in the rapidly changing, global workplace.<br><br>Criminology draws knowledge and perspectives from a range of disciplines such as law, sociology, psychology, psychiatry and history. Initially, criminology had a strong practical focus: its role was to advise governments on issues such as policing, the management of prisons, sentencing and offender treatment. Concern with policy and practice remains, but criminologists now work in a much wider range of fields including crime prevention, corporate and white-collar crime, business regulation, drug policy and consumer and environmental protection. Criminology doesn't take crime and criminal law for granted. As an academic discipline it continually questions why different societies define and respond to crime in different ways, and why approaches to punishment and other forms of social control have varied so much from era to era. Increasingly criminologists also study the ways cultures depict crime: whether in newspapers, television and other mass media or in films, novels and art.