Criminology is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and social sciences, which draws primarily upon the research of sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, psychiatrists, biologists, social anthropologists, as well as scholars of law.

Criminologists are the people working and researching all of the ins and outs of criminology. Criminologists often look for behavioral patterns of a possible criminal in hopes of finding a particular perpetrator. They also conduct research and investigations, developing theories, and composing results, and more often than not solve crimes.

The interests of criminologists include the study of nature of crime and criminals, origins of criminal law, etiology of crime, social reaction to crime, and the functioning of law enforcement agencies and the penal institutions. It can be broadly said that criminology directs its enquiries along three lines: first, it investigates the nature of criminal law and its administration and conditions under which it develops, second, it analyses the causation of crime and the personality of criminals; and third, it studies the control of crime and the rehabilitation of offenders. Thus, criminology includes within its scope the activities of legislative bodies, law-enforcement agencies, judicial institutions, correctional institutions and educational, private and public social agencies.