University of the West of England
MODULE SPECIFICATION
(Revised October 2005)
Code: UPSNLD-30-1 Title: Introduction to Criminological Theory Version: 5
Level: 1 UWE credit rating: 30 ECTS credit rating: 15
Module type: Standard
Owning Faculty: Social Sciences and Humanities
Field: Sociology
Valid from: September 2008 Discontinued from:
Contributes towards: Awards up to BA (Hons)
Pre-requisites: None
Co-requisites: None
Excluded combinations: None
Learning outcomes:
Students are expected to demonstrate:
1. A grasp of key concepts and theoretical paradigms in criminology (assessment components A and B)
2. A grasp of the methodological limitations of official statistics in providing a reliable or accurate grasp of the dimensions and distribution of crime (assessment components A and B)
3. An appreciation of the differences between sociological and non-sociological approaches to crime and deviance (assessment components A and B)
4. A comparative and historical understanding of crime and criminal justice (assessment components A and B)
5. An ability to relate key contemporary issues of crime and criminal justice to theoretical approaches in criminology (assessment components A and B)
6. A critical appreciation the social policy applications and implications of criminological theories in historical context (assessment components A and B)
7. An ability to report and interpret survey findings and to understand their limitations (assessment component A and B).
8. An ability to develop and present a coherent, analytical, theoretically-informed argument in essay form (assessment component B)
9. An ability to make an informed contribution to group work and seminar discussions
Syllabus outline:
The aim of this module is to introduce students to key concepts, methods of data collection and theoretical approaches in criminology. The module will commence with an exploration of the distinctive ways that crime and criminal justice are socially constructed in modern and pre-modern societies, and of the socio-historical roots of criminology. The module will then briefly address the issue of what official statistics and other techniques of data collection (such as victimisation surveys) can tell us about empirical crime patterns and distributions in contemporary UK society. The main theoretical paradigms of deviancy theory (sociological and social-psychological) will then be investigated and related to selected key social policy issues and contexts of criminal justice. The course concludes by investigating the origins and development of key modern institutions of law-enforcement and penal justice (i.e. the police and the penitentiary).
Topics covered in the lecture programme will include:
• Crime and social control in historical context
• Modernity and the origins of criminology
• Official statistics and post-war crime trends
• Classical criminology
• Positivist criminology
• Social-psychological perspectives in criminology
• Sociological perspectives in criminology (structural and interactional)
• Modernity and law enforcement: origins and culture of the police
• Modernity and penal justice: origins and development of the penitentiary
Teaching and learning methods:
• Weekly lectures
• Weekly seminars based on a combination of small group discussions, set presentations, and collaborative reading of key texts.
Reading Strategy:
In order to maximise access to relevant resources, to protect and maintain library resources, and to encourage students to regularly visit UWE library sites, this module has a reading strategy. There are a number of strands to this. First, wherever feasible, at least one copy (and occasionally multiple copies) of the key reading for each seminar (specified in the module handbook) have been allocated to the Student Reserve Collection (Short Loan) in the relevant UWE libraries. Second, where this has not been possible, or sometimes in order to supplement the library stock, certain recommended seminar readings are available as electronic files stored in the Course Materials folder on the module’s website (UWE online). Third, details of web-links to additional useful resources are provided in the Module Handbook (also available on UWE online). Fourth, a couple of main texts are recommended for this course, which provide adequate coverage for the major part of it, either one of which would make a useful purchase. Finally, extensive additional lists of reading are provided for each seminar. This is not only in order to give an indication of the range of library resources in a particular topic-area, but to provide a range of alternative readings that will substitute for others that are unavailable. Students are not expected to engage with the full range of recommended reading each week, but to select resources judiciously from those available.
Indicative sources:
The following list is offered to provide validation panels/accrediting bodies with an indication of the type and level of information students may be expected to consult. As such, its currency may wane during the life span of the module specification. However, as indicated above, CURRENT advice on readings will be available via other more frequently updated mechanisms.
Christie, N. (2000). Crime Control as Industry: Towards Gulags Western Style, 2nd edition, London: Routledge.
Downes, D. and Rock, P. (2003). Understanding Deviance: A Guide to the Sociology of Crime and Rule Breaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hopkins-Burke, R. (2005), An Introduction to Criminological Theory, 2nd edition, Cullompton: Willan
Innes, M. (2003). Understanding Social Control, Buckingham: Open University Press
Maguire, M., Morgan, R. and Reiner, R. (2002). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, 3trd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jones, S. (2005), Criminology, 3rd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, I., Walton, P. and Young, J. (1973). The New Criminology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Young, J. (1999). The Exclusive Society: Social Exclusion, Crime and Difference in Late Modernity, London: Sage
Walklate, S. (2003). Understanding Criminology: Current Theoretical Debates, 2nd edition, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Walker, A. (1995). Interpreting Crime Statistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Assessment:
Weighting between components A and B (standard modules at levels 0-3 only)
A: 50% B: 50%
ATTEMPT 1
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A
Description of each element: 1 x 3 hour examination Element weighting: 50%
Component B
Description of each element: Element weighting: 50%
Element (1): Skills Exercise (500 words) 10%
Element (2): 2 x 1500 word Essays 20% each
Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes is not required)
Component A
Description of each element: 1 x 3 hour examination Element weighting: 50%
Component B
Description of each element: 1 x 3000 word essay Element weighting: 50%
SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT Attendance at taught classes is not required.
Specification confirmed by ………Approved at VARC meeting…Date ………30.05.07………
(Associate Dean/Programme Director)