Criminology BA

The focus of this module is on contemporary theories in criminology. Leading theories will be considered in the context of the development of criminology and may include how they relate to earlier perspectives in the subject. The module will cover a range of topics through contemporary theories to explore the increasingly diverse, rapidly changing, and globalised world of the 21st century. Theories and topics may include:  

• social harm and zemiology
• state crime and denial
• cultural criminology
• green criminology
• risk and ‘net widening’ of punishment
• Southern, decolonised criminologies

You will be introduced to the principles of research design, practice and ethics in relation to qualitative research. The module has the dual aims of equipping you with both conceptual understandings of current academic debates regarding different qualitative methods, and the skills to put those methods into practice.  

By the end of the module, you will be able to appreciate the breadth of qualitative approaches available as well as the methodological challenges and ethical dilemmas associated with using them to generate qualitative data. 

This module will introduce you to the principles of research design and ethics in relation to quantitative research, and provides you with experience in designing and conducting your own small-scale research project.

This module emphasises sociological theories with reference to current events and social policy making in China. Topics change every year according to what is in the news, but in recent years we have explored ideas around nationhood and ethnicity, religious belief, the family, welfare provision, gender and sexualities, education, as well as crime and justice, to name but a few.

This module explores theory, research and illustrative media examples addressing the relationship between crime, justice and the media. Examining both factual and fictional representations of crime and justice, we reflect upon depictions of crime, criminals and victims in media and methods of analysing these representations.

Explore the core issues, debates and controversies surrounding the use of intoxicants, commonly referred to by ‘drugs’, and other chemical substances that find their way into the lives of people in contemporary society.  

The module has a developmental focus. It aims to maintain a consistent engagement with the long-term processes involved in the formation of a prevailing understanding, uses and experiences of certain psychoactive substances, food additives, and narcotic replacement therapies and the ways in which these are socially constructed as deviant acts or crimes. The module also explores the nature of addiction and examines the social and medical approaches to treatment of addiction.

This module is concerned with the sociology and politics of policing. The main focus will be on England and Wales but the module will draw on literature and experiences from other jurisdictions around the world and from the United States of America in particular. It will cover a range of topics such as:

• the meaning of, and differences between, police, policing and the police
• the history and development of policing and the police since the 18th century
• the occupational and organisational cultures of the police
• the governance and accountability of the police
• police powers
• specialisation in policing, for example, crime detection, traffic policing, public order policing, terrorism and political policing
• policing strategies and tactics
• policing and the media
• police ethics
• policing social diversity
• the pluralisation of policing

Study the relationship between imprisonment and society, paying specific attention to the England and Wales prison estate and UK society. This module addresses both incarceration (routes to, reasons for, and justifications given for enforced removal of liberty and confinement) and prisons (social and institutional characteristics of imprisonment).

The module requires reading, questioning, and evaluating of the following topics:

• The aims and organisation of the prison system
• The pains of imprisonment
• Prisoner societies and culture 
  
• Prisons and moral order
• Prison staff
  
• Prisons and the political economy of punishment
• Solitary confinement and the maximum security estate
• Indeterminacy and long prison sentences
• Prisons in international perspective

This course aims to develop critical understandings of the concepts of:

• ‘offender’ rehabilitation and the changing nature of rehabilitative enterprises over time
• the role of risk in the organisation of the criminal justice system and responses to offending
• research about desistance from crime and its relationship to rehabilitation and risk

The module will explore the role of key agencies involved in rehabilitation including the Probation Service and the experiences of those subject to community supervision.

This module provides an overview of socio-economic inequalities within and between societies, exploring major theoretical and practical issues regarding data analysis and policy evaluation. Key topics to be covered include:

• theoretical overview of social divisions and inequalities
• exploring patterns and measuring inequalities
• the impact of social inequalities on individuals and society as a whole
• major social divisions: class, gender and race
• other social divisions and intersectionalities
• space and inequalities: local, national and global perspectives
• the social construction and reproduction of inequalities: social control and the role of institutions
• how policy makes and unmakes inequalities
• resistance, alternatives and social change

All these aspects are discussed on the basis of a range of case studies, both national and international, historical and based on current affairs. These are also used to examine different approaches to evidence analysis and data presentation, thus supporting the development of the specific skills necessary to undertake the course assessment. 

We now live in a digital age where new technology, online platforms, applications and wearable devices are an indispensable and, in some ways, an inescapable part of our lives. New digital technologies enable us to track our daily lives and routines, to filter our realities, to present different versions of ourselves, to form attachments and intimacies, engage in politics and protest. From selfie culture, through Tinder love and Twitter revolutions, new digital technologies and social media shape not only our perceptions of Self but also our relations with others.

This module introduces you to the key debates in digital sociology, paying particular attention to the rise of new social media and how this affects identity, belonging, intimacy and civic participation. The main focus of this module is a critical engagement with how Web 2.0 has affected perceptions of self and social relations, exploring why some people engage with new technology whilst others actively resist it.

The Body, the Self and Others explores the ways in which social identities and subjectivities can be created, maintained and expressed through the body and with reference to 'Others'. It particularly considers the following:

• Existing sociological theories of identity and 'Otherness'
• The sociologies of various 'geographies' of the body, including the sociology of food and diet; body modification and adornment; extreme sport
• Presentations of 'self' through work, especially 'body work'
• The corporeal 'mapping' of class, gender, ethnicity and sexuality
• Surveillance discourses and embodied resistance

This module analyses religion and its relevance to contemporary society. Utilising sociological frameworks like secularisation and lived religion, students will be encouraged to think critically about how religion is experienced not only at the level of individual belief and practice, but also in understanding national and global debates. We will examine the dynamic ways religion impacts everyday life, and how it is mobilised in terms of power, inequalities and agency.

Topics may include religious transformation, religious and non-religious identities, fundamentalism, religious discrimination, gender and sexuality equality, education, youth religiosity.  In our analysis, we will draw on examples from various religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as non-religious belief systems like atheism. 

This module explores the phenomena of youth, crime and justice. Analysis of official statistics and self-report survey data will be placed within a broader understanding of the social construction of youth, drawing on political, media and other sources. The module will critically assess explanations of youth crime and desistance, including major theoretical explanations and developmental/life course perspectives.

The second half of the course considers social responses to youth crime and the role of the youth justice system in particular. This will consider the policing of children, culpability and criminal courts, and youth custody, amongst other things. The various discourses that inform youth justice will be examined, alongside critical examination of their policy and practice implications.

Finally, the module will explore key contemporary debates and issues in youth justice, including the over-representation of minoritised groups and the minimum age of criminal responsibility.