Criminal behavior is discussed from legal, biological, psychological, and sociopolitical points of view. Discussions of consensual and conflictual models used to explain delinquency review research and its significance for social policy and practice. Evaluation of the criminological field from various standpoints makes it possible to establish a strategy of action for modern criminological research, e.g., improved communications among various types of criminologists. The role of criminology in the face of social change is to criticize existing approaches to criminal policy, to create new solutions to transform existing reality, and to foresee new values of the future. As ideologies change, institutions must be kept stable. Further significant aspects of criminological function are elucidated in discussions of the relationship between evaluative research and social policy, conditions for collaboration between the 'pure criminology' of the university and agencies of the state, and probable forms of postindustrial society and crime. Categories of crime in industrial and postindustrial societies as well as the nature of political crimes in various countries are analyzed. Criminological responsibilities are outlined with relation to the constituent elements of criminal policy: law, penal sanctions, administration of justice, and social prevention of crime. A history of criminology in Quebec illustrates the relationship between science and policy. Several figures and a bibliography with over 200 citations are supplied. --in French.