Criminological Aspect of Area Studies as a Trend in the Scientific Study of Crime

Abstract

The author suggests reviving one of the traditional approaches to researching life in different regions — area studies — within the framework of criminology. Area studies are defined as a comprehensive study of the country, its territory, people and tribes that inhabit it, as well as specific features of its state system, social and political processes, institutions and other phenomena that could present interest for research. The correlation between area studies and regional studies is shown, and the prerequisites for the development of area studies as a source of practical information and a method of fundamental cognition of nature and society are described. The author studies key stages of the development of area studies as an independent discipline and as a field of research and analyzes its specific branches: military and criminological area studies, Oriental studies, etc. The criminological component of area studies played a significant role at the earliest stages of this discipline’s development. The author also describes the essence of criminological area studies, shows the significance of this field of research, delineates criminological area studies and such research fields as the geography of crime and the regional differences of criminal-criminogenic phenomenon. The difference between criminological area studies and comparativism as a method of criminological research is shown. It is proven that area studies are a prerequisite for the development of a new criminological paradigm. At the same time, criminological area studies are viewed as a productive method of understanding new regularities in the criminal sphere that opens up new knowledge frontiers for researchers. The author describes the advantages of studying different aspects of a country’s life as indicators of crimes in comparison with statistical analysis. Examples of identifying fundamental regularities of the criminal-criminogenic phenomenon based on area studies are presented. Considerable attention is paid to the comparative analysis of corruption in the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The author compares the objectivity of statistical data on the level of corruption and the area studies’ indicators of the degree to which a society is affected by corruption processes. Using the data of criminological area studies, the author argues for the civilization approach to researching deviant behavior and the criminal sphere as well as for identifying civilizational types of crime.