Vocabulary

1. Crime- Conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal government, or a local jurisdiction for which there is no legally acceptable justification or excuse.

2. Criminology-The scientific study of the causes and prevention of crime and the rehabilitation and punishment of offenders.

3. Deviance-A violation of social norms defining appropriate or proper behavior under a particular set of circumstances. Deviance often includes criminal acts.

4. Theory-A set of interrelated propositions that attempt to describe, explain, predict, and ultimately control some class of events.

5. Hypothesis-An explanation that accounts for a set of facts and that can be tested for further investigation.

Resource for vocabulary words: Criminal Justice Today fourteenth edition by Frank Schmalleger.