On the Feasibility of Introducing the Specialty of Criminology and Crime Prevention at Law Schools

The authors raise the issue of training criminologists in the CIS countries. The training of criminologists should be determined by the need for these specialists in public institutions and the state policy of crime counteraction. This policy is manifested through the development, implementation and support of national anti-crime programs in the sphere of crime counteraction. Such programs could be aimed directly at counteracting crime, or at minimizing its causes (economic, social, political and others). They draw attention to the fact that the volume of knowledge needed by specialists in criminology is determined by the inner contents of criminology as a science and by the trends of criminological research. The authors conclude that two main schools of criminology — Western and Eastern — prescribe different inner contents of criminology as a science in the legal and the sociological sense. This results in different approaches to training criminologists. It is stressed that both criminological schools recognize the necessity of studying criminal law disciplines. The task of the authors was to assess the need for a special training for criminologists and the quality of such training. In the CIS universities, the niche of criminology is covered by bachelor’s and master’s programs with criminal law specialization. There are no special criminology training programs. In other foreign countries, criminologists are trained at numerous bachelor’s and master’s programs, whose specialization is dictated by public demand. The programs are of applied nature.