Key takeaways criminology is the study of crime and is a branch of sociology it involves research into and analysis of who commits crimes why they commit them their impact and how to prevent the goal of criminology is to determine the root causes of criminal behavior and to develop effective . Criminology definition criminologys meaning involves analyzing illegal human behaviors and crime prevention methods the field of criminology blends social science and psychology with criminal justice as a criminologist youll explore the many causes of criminal activity among different groups of people