Criminology Major (Level 2)
Criminology Minor (Level 2)
Criminology Single Honours (Level 2)
Law Single Honours (Level 2)
Policing and the police are constantly in the news. Police investigations of serious crime - terrorism, murder, rape and robbery - make the headlines every day. They are also a staple of crime fiction on television, in films and print. But media headlines and TV cop shows tell us very little about what policing is really like. While the media concentrate on the police as crime fighters - the thin blue line between order and chaos - the reality of policing is both more varied and more challenging.
This module aims to go behind the headlines and to answer some basic questions. What do we mean by policing? How does it relate to experiences and feelings of security? Who does 'policing', and who are 'the police'? How do the people and institutions responsible for policing relate to each other? What do the people we think of as 'the police' actually do? And how is all of this changing as societies become more diverse, the threats to security more global in their origins and ways of responding to them more varied?
The main focus of the module is on policing in England and Wales but in answering these questions we will draw on an international literature written by scholars and researchers from many other jurisdictions including the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa. We will also look in detail at: the structure and organisation of the police; the development of policing both before and since the establishment of the 'new' Metropolitan Police in 1829; the main characteristics and conditions for existence of a distinctive culture within police organisations; and the powers of the police and how they are held to account for their use.
Apart from criminology this module draws on insights and concepts from several other disciplines including law, sociology, social policy, psychology and anthropology and will be of interest to students with backgrounds in any of these subjects. If you are thinking of a career in policing whatever your background this is very much the module for you.
Teaching is based on a course of ten weekly lectures, regular tutorials, online formative feedback on work in progress and dedicated one-to-one consultation sessions. Assessment for the module consists of a reflective analysis based on a series of blog postings and a conventional coursework essay.
Trace and account for the historical development of, and current trends in, policing, primarily in England and Wales will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
Critically engage with scholarly and policy debates about policing and the police will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
Assess the role and contribution of the public police and other institutions through which policing is provided and how they relate to each other will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
Identify and evaluate the range of different strategies and approaches by which policing is undertaken, and the debates and controversies to which they have given rise will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
Distinguish between the mechanisms and institutions through which policing provision and the use of police powers are governed and held publicly accountable will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
10 hours tutorials
70 hours assessment preparation
55 hours preparatory reading etc. for lectures and tutorials
Students will be asked to analyse and reflect on selected readings during the course of the module. They will do this by posting to their own blogs on the KLE and contributing comments to blogs maintained by their peers. At the end of the module, students will be asked to submit a selection of postings to their own and other students' blogs for assessment together with a short reflective summary. The blog postings submitted will be limited to a maximum of 2,000 words and the reflective summary to 500 making a total word limit of 2,500.
This document is the definitive current source of information about this module and supersedes any other information.