CRI-30041 - Module Specification
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

This module is intended for students with an interest in punishment and penality in general and the death penalty in particular. It would also be of interest to those students who wish to gain a more in depth understanding of the US criminal justice system and provides opportunities for engaging in comparative criminology. Through a combination of lectures and seminar activities students will be encouraged to develop a critical and detailed appreciation of the philosophical, political, legal and cultural contexts of current practices of the death penalty (with a focus on the US).
The module is assessed by a case study and seminar activities are designed both to develop students' skills in researching and writing up their case study but also to facilitate the identification of the range of issues encountered in such cases.

To enable students to develop a critical understanding of the philosophical, political, legal and cultural contexts within which the death penalty either survives or is abolished.
Subsidiary aims:
To provide an overview of the current scope and use of capital punishment around the world and with specific focus on the US and the influence of international law and the human rights movement.
To provide a framework for the comparative study of the death penalty and the politics of abolition in national and transnational penal politics
To explore the place of the death penalty in the philosophy and sociology of punishment.
To develop a detailed and critical understanding of the application of the death penalty in the US and attendant questions of arbitrariness, discrimination and error/miscarriages of justice.
To explore key cultural sensibilities relating to executions, pain and witnessing.
To enable students to appreciate the methodological and interdisciplinary challenges in the study of the death penalty and other extreme punishments.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate a critical appreciation of key features of the global politics of the death penalty and the role of international law and the human rights movement: 1
Critically discuss current debates/controversies surrounding the application of the death penalty in the US through relevant criminological and legal literature and through contested determinations of guilt and deadworthiness
: 1
Critically evaluate the repertoires and futures of national and regional abolitionist politics.: 1
Situate US penal practices in their wider social, historical, political and cultural contexts: 1
Use internet resources to locate legal and contextual information relating to:
1. Case Studies on specific death row prisoners/issues.
2. The diversity and scope of state law and practice in relation to the death penalty
3. The arguments of anti-death penalty and pro-death penalty groups.
And evaluate, summarise and synthesise the information to provide coherent and up to date accounts of issues, cases and developments
: 1
Evaluate the place of the death penalty in the philosophy and sociology of punishment: 1

Study hours

22 hours contact - 11 lectures &11 seminars
48 hours seminar preparation
30 hours independent study
50 hours assessment preparation

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment