Criminology and Forensic Science BSc (Hons)

This module will provide you with the practical attributes of forensic science from the onset of a case through to the presentation of evidence in a court of law. It expands upon core forensic science disciplines and processes taught in previous years and focuses upon the strategy setting, examination and the delivery of interpretation and evaluation of forensic evidence within the context of complex case situations. You will study the importance of working together with key stakeholders (police, forensic pathologists, crime scene managers) in determining forensic strategy and prioritisation of key exhibits prior to commencing their practical examination. Whilst the emphasis on this module will be practical based with you undertaking the examination of forensic exhibits, it will be underpinned through taught lectures and seminars.

By the end of this module you will have gained an understanding of the difficulties of complex casework and conveying complex scientific information to the lay person.

You will learn how advances in forensic interpretation can be applied to support the Criminal Justice System in decision making. You will learn how to use the Casework Assessment and Interpretation (CAI) model in the evaluative stage of crime investigation, as well as the use of the Bayesian approach to evaluate the strength of evidence and the conclusions/limitations that can be drawn from the analytical results. Embedded throughout the module will be case studies from violent, sexual and major crime used to supplement and underpin your learning.

This module will provide you with an opportunity to independently review and evaluate a research question that encompasses both the criminological and scientific disciplines. You will independently examine the historical and contemporary theories that are currently applied to explaining crime from the perspective of the victim, offender and the environment. You will evaluate the effectiveness of the subsequent prevention strategies and appraise how these are complemented by the scientific and innovative technological approaches to detect crime. In doing so, you will adopt a critical and analytical approach to support innovative solutions for regulating, policing, preventing and detecting crime.

With the support of a dissertation supervisor within each discipline, you will seek to develop and answer a research question using research enquiry and tutored based techniques, for example collecting your own data, using existing data sets or by engaging in an analysis of the research literature. You will apply your information retrieval and critical appraisal skills with discussion of your results culminating in the production of a written dissertation that appraises criminological theory and scientific practice.

From being a relatively marginal political issue, modern policing and security has risen rapidly up the social and political agendas of western societies. As inequalities have increased, so the actual and perceived risks of crime and other social ills have grown rapidly for all sections of society: the management of crime has become a central concern.

In this module you will develop your critical understanding, analysis and interpretation of the key themes, theories, issues and political debates concerning the development and contemporary nature of modern policing and the delivery of security in England and Wales. Where appropriate, you will be directed to comparative material from other countries and our discussions will draw upon these comparative dimensions to contemporary policing and security.

Given the ‘contemporary’ nature of this module and the continually evolving nature of policing and security, the content of this module is revised each year. Examples of topics covered in previous years include:
• The changing role and function of the police
• Policing and Mental Health
• Terrorism and Insecurity
• Technology, Surveillance and Society
• Policing Globalisation
• Victimology and Policing
• Conducting Research in Policing and Security Settings

On this cutting-edge module you will explore two important cities – Newcastle and Amsterdam – to compare and contrast key criminological and sociological issues in both places. The module offers important insights into the city in which you study (Newcastle) and, in Amsterdam, a city that features regularly in the media and academic literature – a place often portrayed as innovative, liberal, sometimes controversial and somewhere other cities could learn lessons from . On the module you will consider several important issues such as the way in which both cities have developed and evolved; the relations between both cities; the way crime and society operates in both cities; and how crime and other social issues are governed. A key part of the module is the Amsterdam fieldtrip where you visit Amsterdam, be taken on tours of the city, and conduct small group fieldwork on an important issue in the city (for instance, sex work, drugs, policing, the night-time economy, and tourism), and consider whether Newcastle should emulate ‘Amsterdam-style’ policies.

Crime just doesn’t happen on the streets. It takes place in homes, in offices, in natural habitats – places hidden from view and scrutiny. Often it is kept hidden because of powerful actors. You will examine a range of criminal and harmful behaviours, as well as deviant and anti-social activities under the organising theme ‘crimes of the powerful’. The module situates and understands crimes and victimisations within a framework where questions of structural relationships and personal power in society are key to why some crime is visible and some is not. You will be expected to challenge orthodox representations of crime and demonstrate an intellectual openness to new ideas, whilst adopting a critical and analytical approach to the control, regulation and prevention of invisible and hidden crimes and/or victimisations.

Mentally disordered offenders: “mad, bad and dangerous to know”? During this module you will begin to explore who ‘they’ are, what ‘they’ do, why we are afraid of ‘them’, how we identify ‘them’ and what we are doing about ‘them’.
You will learn about and critique mentally disordered offender theory and practice, including: developing a critical understanding to the concept of ‘mentally disordered offenders’; the links between mental disorder and crime; the links between the mass media and the public in the development of the concept of the ‘dangerous offender’; the development of Forensic Psychiatry and its impact on the concept of ‘risk’ and ‘risk assessment’; and a critical assessment of the impact of policy developments on approaches to the care and/or control of mentally disordered offenders.

Is there a relationship between violence against animals and violence against humans? Why is it okay to kill certain animals, but a crime to kill others? How do large corporations get away with polluting the planet? How can we address crimes against animals and the environment? These are all questions we will attempt to address on this module. As part of your studies you will learn about the emerging and competing perspectives and frameworks regarding the neglected topic of crimes and harms against animals and the environment. In a module offered at very few universities, you are introduced to the philosophies and perspectives of Green Criminology and Critical Animal Studies. You will develop skills that enable you to critically analyse notions of crime and harm, and social and ecological justice in relation to animal abuse, deforestation, wildlife, pollution and many other areas that pertain to green and environmental crime and victimisation. While honing verbal and written skills, this module will give you the working knowledge to discuss the type, scope, and impacts of green and animal-related crimes and harms and how this is different from street and ‘traditional’ volume crimes. This module provides a fresh new area of criminological scholarship which you will contribute to in discussion and debate with the module tutors and fellow students - examining crime from new and cutting edge perspectives.

This module looks at three distinct but inter-related aspects of violence: structural violence, symbolic violence and subjective violence. Analyses of structural violence looks principally at the violence of systems. It is the unseen violence that occurs every day; the violence that needs to take place so that contemporary western consumer societies to continue onwards in their present form. Analyses of symbolic violence focus on the violence of language and symbols. Bourdieu’s account of symbolic violence, for example, addresses the ability of the powerful to deny the working class a language that might allow them to understand their true value and social position. Analyses of subjective violence focus on forms of violence committed by clearly identifiable ‘subjects’, or individuals. In this module, we will use psychoanalytic theory to identify the fundamental forces that drive the violent individual to inflict harm upon others.

Do children who break the law always turn into adult offenders? What might help someone change their behaviour? Is it always the impact of a criminal justice intervention that makes someone desist from crime? This module will look at all of these questions.

The first part will track the nature and complexity of criminal careers. It will demonstrate different ways in which offenders come to be engaged in crime and the extent to which starting early is a predictor of a criminal career. After considering the different ways in which criminal careers are sustained and developed, you will look at the interventions criminal justice and aligned organisations put in place to change offenders’ behaviour.

We will investigate forms of restorative justice and reparation, and question whether, and how, they might fit within different criminal justice systems around the world. For example, what might the role of ‘circles of support’ be in a risk adverse society? The module will also look at whether some activities in prison might have a role in desistance after release. For example, are creative, artistic, spiritual and sporting activities a hook for changing offending behaviour after release?

Throughout the module we will consider UK and international criminal justice practice, and question the impact of social, political and cultural contexts of restoration, rehabilitation and desistance. You will be encouraged to explore all of these elements from cultural and critical criminological perspectives.

This course aims to enhance the students’ understanding of surveillance, esp. the role of technology here, and their link to crime and social order. What is the meaning of technology and of surveillance in society? How do we conceptualise contemporary surveillance strategies? How have technologies been developed and used for such purposes? The students will reflect on such questions and engage with critical discussions from the fields of surveillance studies, science and technology studies, and social studies of forensic science.

Throughout this module, the students will be looking at different issues that relate to surveillance and crime control practices in an age of uncertainty; namely how contemporary surveillance strategies and technologies shape notions of identity and lead to (new/old) forms of inclusion and exclusion. By adopting a critical position, we will explore the impacts of a range of technologies in Criminal Justice settings and in societies more widely.

For instance, with the development of emerging technologies and crime control practices in a global world, we must critically engage with the notion of global surveillance and the various forms of technological innovation (for example, the process of border control and the use of biometrics). The module will also consider the wider significance of analysing the impacts of surveillance not only on specific criminal justice related-contexts (such as policing) but also on our everyday lives. This will help us to better understand the social, legal and ethical issues that arise with the use of surveillance technologies in different settings.

Module content will be updated annually in order to provide up-to-date research-led teaching and learning.

Since the late 1990s, the study of legal-but-harmful social, cultural, environmental, and political-economic practices has exploded. Some of the most significant problems facing contemporary society not only lie beyond the present scope of legal prohibition but are thoroughly normalized and integral to the functioning of liberal-capitalist political economy. Our current period in history is one beset by a range of interconnected and overlapping crises. Climate change; crises in housing, employment, and homelessness; resource wars; a libertarian financial elite generating widening gaps of inequality both globally and domestically; global pandemics; and a socially corrosive consumer culture generating harsh interpersonal competition, indebtedness and significant mental health issues. These issues are, for the most part, not criminal or caused by criminal behaviour. They are normalised social harms that are, in various ways, embedded within and caused by our current political-economic, cultural, and ecological way of life. Consequently, social harm is one of the most potentially potent and transformative concepts currently available to the social sciences.

The first part of the module will equip students with a detailed understanding of the criminological and philosophical underpinnings of the concept of social harm, how it can be deployed, and how it is rapidly expanding the boundaries of criminology as a discipline. The second part of the module will then focus on various specific areas of social harm, attempting to understand what is causing them, and considering on what grounds we can legitimately call these things harmful. Harms such as climate change; housing crises; unemployment and precarious hyper-exploitative employment; food poverty; indebtedness; mass depression and anxiety; and a self-destructive and socially corrosive consumer culture. In the third part of the module, we will consider what political, economic, and cultural changes are required to address these issues, and what tools are already available to us. Overall, the module endeavours to equip students with a better understand of the world they live in and some of the frustrations and harms that blight our collective lives.

The module provides a critical analysis of contemporary debates about intimate partner violence. Its focus is primarily the UK, with some consideration of the situation in the USA and other countries. On the module, we will draw primarily on criminological, sociological, and feminist analyses, with some consideration of other disciplines (such as psychology). We will examine theoretical explanations of intimate partner violence in the social sciences, the policy and legal responses to it, and the social movement that has developed in response to it. You will gain an understanding of the causes and consequences of intimate partner violence, and the policy and activist responses to it, including relevant methodological issues.