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Criminology is offered as an optional subject to students on the Standard Entry and Graduate Entry LLB programmes. It is also offered for study as an Individual Module. Credits from Individual Modules will not count towards the requirements of the LLB.

Criminology is a wide term covering a large discipline. As a single 30 credit module within an undergraduate course of study this module concentrates on criminological theory as a discipline and in confronting which a way in which students diversely located can challenge the presuppositions they have about crime and offenders.

The student is asked to think about their own situation, where they are located in the global order and how they can use criminology to challenge their own ideas and to better understand the formal and informal sources of knowledge about crime, the grounds for public policy, labelling of offenders and responses to crime.

Topics covered

Objectives and methods of criminology. The idea of a science of criminology. Basic dichotomies/controversies on nature and scope of criminology, crime as a social problem verses crime as inevitable and a reflection of social order. Developing a criminological imagination in conditions of globalism. Defining crime (legal and sociological conceptions, the role of the nation state and the need for different focus, social harm and violations of human rights). Historical development of criminology (in outline only). Classical and positivist schools. Criminology beyond the nation state and the case of State crime. Sources of data: Official statistics and alternatives (e.g. self-report studies and victimisation surveys); media images of crime and offending and ‘moral panics’. Uses, defects and limitations of official data for purposes of research. Challenges of gender, transnational crime and trafficking.

Criminological Theory. Orientating perspectives in studying crime such as correctionalism and appreciation, crime as an individual phenomenon verses crime as a social product: legacies of classicism and positivism, rational choice, biological, psychological and psychiatric explanations, including idea of psychopathy, the importance of the situation. Crime as a social phenomenon: Anomie theory, Durkheim and Merton. Social disorganisation and social ecology. Concept of spatial justice. Matza, techniques of neutralization and ‘drift’. Interactionist perspectives. Labelling theory. Control theories. Marxism. Feminism. Crime as a cultural phenomenon: cultural criminology, moral panics and the media, Katz and seductions of crime, existentialism.

Institutional Framework of Law Enforcement. Philosophy and aims of punishment, including deterrence, treatment, ‘justice’, communicative and restorative models. Whether actual systems of punishment can be explained by philosophical justifications or sociological approaches (in outline). Community and official attitudes to punishment and treatment of offenders.

Learning outcomes

If you complete the module successfully you should be able to:

• Understand the inter-disciplinary heritage of criminology and the influence this has had on the various schools of thought
• Describe the different sources of information available to academics, policy- makers and the public on crime
• Understand the contested nature of what is (and is not) considered to be ‘crime’
• Describe the main arguments of the various schools involved in explaining crime and critically analyses their differences
• Describe perspectives on the role of punishment and the different functions that it might be thought to serve. Distinguish between different conceptual frames of reference and compare and contrast their strengths and weaknesses
• Engage with definitional and conceptual issues relating to crime, deviance and control
• Analyse popular perceptions of crime and punishment and subject these to critical analysis
• Utilise a range of tools and resources available for the study of crime and its control.

Assessment

Timed unseen examination

Essential reading

• Hopkins Burke, R. An introduction to criminological theory. (Routledge: àËÅöÊÓƵ, 2018) fifth edition [ISBN 9781138700215].