Sociology and Criminal Law

Many theorists see the criminal law as a product of society.  Theorists can clash and often do so strongly on the origins of law, but at some point the law is implemented by people and that intersects with politics.  Law, politics and sociology are intertwined. So, the study of sociology is a useful tool for students of criminal justice, judges, prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers. Criminal defense lawyers approach a criminal case with bifurcated strategies, one for a contested trial on the evidence and another for the arguments in a contested punishment case. There are a number of criminal defense perspectives, some might defend from a deterministic viewpoint of societal responsibility such as a Clarence Darrow, on the other hand Fyodor Dostoevsky would certainly see crime as a problem of a free will. Prosecutors inevitably will take the latter position and argue that a blameless society must be protected. Your criminal defense lawyer had better have given some thought to these issues prior to entering the world of crime and punishment.