CRI-10026 - Module Specification
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2025/26

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2025/26

This module introduces you to the ways in which criminologists and criminal justice professionals attempt to theorise, contextualise and respond to the most serious forms of criminal and harmful behaviour in society (including murder, other forms of homicide, ‘public’ and ‘hidden’ forms of violence and abuse, state violence, and environmental crimes). You will be applying theory to current real-world incidents and engaging with issues such as age, gender, ethnicity, social exclusion and inequality, media representations, legal and evidentiary challenges, and preventative approaches. 

• To introduce students to key criminological theories and frameworks that help to understand and contextualise serious forms of criminal and harmful behaviour, focusing on issues such as violence, abuse, and state or environmental crimes.
• To develop students' understanding of various forms of violence and harm, including but not limited to homicide, 'public' and 'hidden' forms of violence, state-sanctioned violence, and environmental destruction, exploring both historical and contemporary perspectives.
• To encourage critical engagement with real-world events and case studies, enabling students to apply criminological theories and theoretical approaches to contemporary issues such as gender-based violence, racial violence, and environmental crimes.
• To foster interdisciplinary thinking by engaging with a range of social factors, including age, gender, ethnicity, disability, social exclusion, inequality, and media representations, in the context of criminal behaviour and justice responses.
• To develop students' analytical skills in examining legal, evidentiary, and procedural challenges within the criminal justice system, and to understand how these challenges intersect with broader social issues like inequality and systemic exclusion.
• To enable students to critically evaluate the role of the media, public discourse, and legal systems in shaping societal understandings of crime, violence, and justice, with an emphasis on both preventative and reactive responses.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Identify and assess criminological explanations of various forms of violent and harmful offences- extreme and serious- both as trends and in the case of specific incidents.: 1,2
Recognise and account for the ways in which violent occurrences and offences against human and non-human species are defined, represented, explained and responded to in law, by society, the state and its institutions, in statistical data, by social and natural scientists, and in the media.: 2
Work with theories and concepts drawn from across academic disciplines in an applied way in relation to cases and examples discussed in class, including in relation to charging decisions, defences, investigations, punishment and prevention.: 1,2
Make use of research evidence, other data and social sciences theories in developing arguments and making judgements about criminological issues.: 2
Communicate effectively in oral and written forms across the following: interpreting and explaining crime statistics and other forms of data; assessing and presenting different legal perspectives; describing and applying different explanations; considering and evaluating policy responses.: 1,2

Study hours

24 hours of lectures
24 hours of seminars/tutorials
48 hours of engagement with online resources and readings to prepare for lectures and seminars/tutorials.
48 hours of preparation and production of summative assessments.
28 hours of work for formative assessment.
128 hours for directed independent study.

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment