Opinion: Criminology as a Field

The introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Criminology describes Criminology as being extremely inter-disciplinary, as actually being a field rather than a discipline because the uniting characteristic is the topic rather than the methodology.
Of course I agree there; whenever I look for Criminological explanations I find them often in the fields of law, behavioural economics, politics, psychology, anthropology, history or, in rare cases, linguistics.

Why does the law have the effect is does? Well, because the linguistic properties of the law make it what it is, and what it is makes it a sort of contract, and that sort of contract attaches possibly undesired consequences to socially undesired actions which makes most people wanting to keep to that law (unless the law is about jumping red lights on a bike or something, because there the chance of being caught combined with the fine makes for too small a consequence to outweigh the convenience of being three seconds faster). Linguistics, law/politics, economics/politics/psychology (the risk-averse person). 

If the Oxford Handbook and I are both right, I would assume I am right in concluding that Criminology is one of the ultimate liberal arts fields in social sciences.
That said, I would go on to state that plenty of Universities are wrong to put it in the departments of either Sociology or Law; Criminology is neither and thus deserves its own department (yes, I am aware that this reasoning would go for a number of other fields as well) or should have its own track in University Colleges like Roosevelt Academy.
There is a fragment of self-interest in there too; if given the chance to ever teach this at a Uni, I would lobby for making it a separate department (and I don't even have a desire to be a Head of Department, I don't like office politics, but I just feel that Criminology would benefit from having its own dept) or, if at a UC, I would lobby to make Criminology have its own track within Social Sciences.

Practical example: if (IF) I do ever manage to teach Crime & Law Enforcement at RA and RA hasn't given Criminology its own track by then, I WILL lobby for that - besides, the massive over-subscriptions for law and psychology courses would surely guarantee that at least the costs for two more crime courses will be covered, thus actually allowing for a full track. That would also make it easier for students who wish to go on and do Criminology masters in the Netherlands, where one of the requirements is still to have done a certain amount of ECTS within the field of Criminology (because if they do want to go on and do Criminology, the Netherlands and Britain offer, apparently, the best masters. For Criminal Justice, the US is apparently really very good - and yes, there is a difference).

But who knows what the future will bring.