Conceptualization in Criminal Justice - Essay Example

Conceptualization is a term that draws its origins from the term concept, which means a label representing an aspect of reality such as an object, policy, issue or phenomenon (Hunter & Dantzker, 2006). From this, concepts are viewed as the beginning of every research since they are broad in nature. To conduct research, there is a need to turn a concept from a theoretical to an observational level. This is what creates the term conceptualization meaning a shift from the abstract to the concrete (Hunter & Dantzker, 2006).

A conceptual definition on the hand refers to the characteristic of a concept and its usage in research on crime and justice. In this case, it is used in clarifying the idea behind a concept.In criminal justice, the conceptualization of crime is difficult in that there are numerous variables to consider thus creating the wide or rather narrow disparity. This is dependent on the influence of different variables since the issue of crime happens to be very wide (Gibbs, 1989). Influence of certain aspects may be overlooked, as there are no set standards to conceptualization.

It also creates issues in terms of how to measure certain phenomena related to crime and justice. This is due to the presence of multiple methods of measuring similar concepts of interest.