Criminology and Sociology BSc (Hons)

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.

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.

The module provides an opportunity for you to independently pursue your own piece of research based on work experience with an agency or organisation such as a police force, prison, youth offending team or voluntary sector organisation. You can also gain experience of research by working with a member of academic staff. With the support of a dissertation supervisor, you will seek to answer a research question either by collecting your own data, using existing data sets or by engaging in an analysis of the research literature. Your chosen topic will be linked to your work experience. You will draw on and develop your research skills and on completion of the module you will be able to demonstrate the following: an extensive knowledge on your chosen dissertation topic, successful execution of a research project, the ability to set and explore a focused research question, the capacity to develop a structured and analytical argument; an aptitude for the application of theory and methodology; and an understanding of the ethical considerations of conducting your own research.

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.

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.

This module will provide you will with an opportunity to independently pursue your own piece of research on a criminological or sociological topic of your choice. With the support of a dissertation supervisor, you will seek to develop and answer a research question either by collecting your own data, using existing data sets or by engaging in an analysis of the research literature.

As a result, you will draw on and develop your research skills and on completion of the dissertation module you will be able to demonstrate the following:
• an extensive knowledge of your dissertation topic
• having successfully executed a research project
• an ability to ask and respond to a focused research question
• the capacity to develop a structured and analytical argument
• an aptitude for the use of theory and methodology
• an understanding and experience of the ethical considerations of conducting research.

This module demonstrates the distinctive character and power of Sociology as a discipline for understanding, critically analysing and intervening within the most pressing and contemporary social issues, such as ‘new terrorism’, human migration, the global financial crisis and contemporary human slavery. You will explore theoretical and empirical sociological material, delivered by the module team, and a range of (other) eminent sociologists from the UK, lying at the cutting-edge of contemporary sociology will be discussed and critically analysed in terms of its significance for understanding, and intervening, within contemporary society and social life.

The British working class has long been of fascination to Social Scientists from Marx and Durkheim to Bourdieu and Gorz – each in turn have focussed on the question who and what is the working class and what is their likely part in the making of human history? This module critically and theoretically explores the origins of this class, its diversity and evolution and the efforts of that class to bring about social change. It critically explores the changing composition, organisation and power of that class in the 20th and early 21st century. This is a cutting edge module as it examines contemporary debates led by cultural commentators, politicians, researchers and theorists surrounding the nature and existance of class itself. Specifically the module seeks to explore the contemporary cultural and political assault on the working class, its power and legitimacy and questions how the class has gone from a cultural portrayal as ‘salt of the earth’ to ‘scum of the earth’ (Jones, 2011). This is achieved through an examination of the nature and impact of a neoliberal assault on the existance of the notion of social class on working class power, identity and organisation and on the working class experience of work and employment.

You will be introduced to the sociological study of happiness and wellbeing, posing questions about how we analyse notions of a good life and the efforts people make to flourish. We draw on sociological research as well as work from psychology, economics and philosophy to explore the significance of happiness for people’s identities and life course transitions. We discuss some of the traditional concerns of sociology such as social divisions and inequality (working through class, gender, ‘race’ and sexuality) relating these to the experience of happiness and the structuring of wellbeing. We draw on several case studies (such as wellbeing in other cultures, aging and young people) to illustrate how happiness functions as a social process that can be a site of struggle and conflict that features in many different aspects of life through families, friendships, intimacy, work and leisure.

On this module we will examine the connections between gender, violence and abuse. These are topics that have come to the fore of public debate in recent years, especially because of the #MeToo movement and high profile cases such as Harvey Weinstein's and Jeffrey Epstein’s. However, gender-based violence (GBV) has a much longer history; in this module we will study that history and why it is only recently that wider publics have become aware of GBV. The early classes will cover issues around terminology, definitions, and theoretical frameworks for understanding GBV. Later classes will cover a series of 'case studies', such as: rape and sexual violence; intimate partner violence; online abuse and image-based violence; GBV in higher education. For each case study we will examine the nature of the problem as well as the responses and remedies to it. This will include examination of the activism and social movements that have developed in response to GBV, as well as the state and agency responses. Overall, this module will give you knowledge and understanding about this highly topical issue; it will also introduce you to opportunities for employment and activism in the field, should you wish to pursue your interest in the topic after graduation.

Sociology has, in recent years, grappled with the social nature of the body, showing that the examination of bodies belongs as much to sociology as to the biomedical and natural sciences. On this module you will learn about how social worlds shape bodies and bodies shape social worlds. You will critically and creatively examine the body in ways that allow you to engage with and develop rich sociological understandings about how social worlds, and the web of relations that create them, shape the ways people live in and manage human bodies.

You will look at how social worlds stratified by intersecting differences and inequalities of ‘race’, gender, class, disability, health, age, and sexuality inform how bodies come to ‘matter’ and how bodies get ranked along lines of appearance, fitness, form, and ability. You will explore the social worlds - the relational and discursive spaces (such the media, schools and workspaces, gyms, beauty therapists, toilets, and care settings) - that shape how bodies get used, styled, scrutinised, policed, or catered to, and ask how social worlds create possibilities for different bodily performances and practices as they establish differing conventions of bodily comportment, appearance, productiveness, affect and style. You will be supported to engage in theoretical discussions about how people ‘live’ with, in, and as bodies as sites of action, expression, and feeling at the same time as bodies are sites of medical, legal, cultural, and social regulation.

A core theme that you will address across the module, linked to discussions of inequalities, differences, and the regulation of diverse embodiments, is the intimate politics and practices associated with the social shaping of bodies, asking how bodies matter, which bodies thrive and flourish, and which bodies feel the weight of an uncaring social world. An additional thread throughout the module will be how media images and representations of bodies, and their currency in everyday interactions, influence - but do not necessarily always determine - our understanding of them and their diversity within social worlds.

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.