What you will study
Criminology is a dynamic and multi-disciplinary subject that draws upon a range of theoretical frameworks and social research techniques to explore criminological phenomena. You will engage with the theoretical ideas that govern the discipline and apply them to better understand the substantive issues in the study of crime, harm, victimisation, criminalisation, punishment, rehabilitation and justice. You will explore historical and contemporary criminal justice policy, practice and politics in local and global contexts and develop a critical appreciation of the dynamics between criminological theory, social relations and criminal justice policy. During the course of your study, you will develop methodological knowledge and skills in order to prepare for your own criminological enquiry.
Full time: This course, studied across 1 year, is made up of 4 core modules and a dissertation.
Modules
Core modules
Understanding Crime and Criminal Careers
30 credits
The module offers a comparative analysis of the main theoretical approaches to criminology: approaches centered on the individual (psychological and biological approaches) and approaches centered on the social context. This theoretical knowledge will be applied to the study of various types of ‘criminal trajectories' such as youth crime, professional crime, white-collar crime, and sexual offences. Students will study the role played by the police in modern and late modern societies and explore how key contemporary policing issues are situated in more general question of social control and governance. The module aims to develop an understanding of how the specific combination of individual and social factors and factors of social control lead individuals, or group of individuals, to a place where they are now labelled 'criminals'.
Punishment: History and Meaning
30 credits
Through the readings of classical texts and contemporary works, you will question: how we punish? who we punish?, why is the meaning of punishment so debated and why are prisons in a state of constant reform? The aim is to build a critical framework to better understand the decisions of judiciary and policymakers in the social history of punishment. You will explore empirical and theoretical research on sentencing, the experience of imprisonment and the wider political discourse on punishment. Local punishment practices will be compared with other countries of the West in order to understand the social and economic relations of criminal justice systems.
Critical Criminology
30 credits
This module seeks to offer a critical understanding of the social, economic and political contexts that give rise to crime and to state
responses to crime. You will explore different levels of offending, from individual offences to business/corporate violations and state transgressions. We will problematise the constructions of crime and deviance and the processes that have led to the dominant, accepted conceptions of crime and deviance becoming ‘naturalised'. One of the purposes of the module is to develop an understanding of the ways in which the definition of acts as ‘crimes' is central to shaping responses to them. We will examine a wide range of social harms that criminologists and the legal system often fail to examine, or to define as offences, or those that are seen as offences, but that are under-enforced. This includes not just violations of the law, but also harmful individual, institutional, and socially-accepted activities, behaviours, and practices. We will also build up an understanding of the relationship between processes of marginalisation and criminalisation.
Criminological Research in Practice
30 credits
This module is designed to stimulate students' engagement with academic research and analysis. Students develop a critical understanding of the rationale, design and implementation of different methodologies used by social scientists for their research. They develop a framework for evaluating social research and conducting their own empirical work. In the first half of the module students gain first-hand experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis through instruction and class exercises. In the second half students will apply their knowledge and understanding of research methods to a specific field of enquiry.
Criminology Dissertation
60 credits
This module provides an excellent opportunity for students to extend their criminological knowledge through a detailed study on a topic of their choice and to demonstrate their capacity to utilise the key conceptual perspectives and practical skills of a working criminologist. Students can approach the module either as a theoretical study which is primarily library-based and adopts the traditional style of a dissertation as an extended essay or they can approach it as an empirical investigation and present their findings as a comprehensive research report. The module will be supervised on an individual basis by a member of the staff team.
