It was during my second year as a bachelor's degree in psychology student that the course of criminology became part of our curricula during the entire first term and part of task for the course is the researching and writing of criminology essays. Our lecturer gave us the option of choosing our own essay topics, but he advised us to select topics that are interesting and would catch his attention and the students from other classes who might read our criminology essays because their feedback is part of his assessment criteria.
To be better in my task of selecting good topics for the essays we would do during the entire first term, I started early in reading and studying materials on how to select topics for criminology essays. In my readings, I learned that the best way for selecting essay topics in criminology especially for students like me who are new in criminology essay writing would be to get our topics from the general outline of the subject area of criminology. I learned that the topical outline of criminology is found in the encyclopedias and reference books in the library so I read and studied the materials about the topical outline.
I read that the topical outline of criminology is structured into several fields and sub-fields that are further
broken down into particular topics from which I could select the specific topics for the criminology essays we would write during the first term. The fields in criminology consists of: the theories of crime; the types and definitions of crime; and the causes and correlates of crime.