The Full quote

In 1937, Thorsten Sellin argued that criminology could never truly claim to be a science as long as it allowed legislators and judges to determine its subject matter. In Sellin’s view, scientific inquiry is based on the study of the ‘‘natural properties’’ of some category of objects, behaviors, or events. Legislative designations of certain behaviors as criminal, he noted, create the appearance of a common category of behavior, however, these appear- ances are ‘‘external similarities’’ created by virtue of having been given the common label of crime.