CR5001 - Concepts, Perspectives and Theories in Criminology

The module aims to consolidate your skills in areas such as team work and critical evaluation of research.
There will be weekly lectures over the course of the semester with essential information about criminological concepts, theories, and perspectives. Weekly seminars will discuss and critique this material, so it is essential for you to prepare beforehand. .

This is a team taught module with three or four staff members available to support you via email, in seminars, and during scheduled office hours. There is also substantial support from your fellow students during seminars and outside of class.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Assess the ability of the range of criminological perspectives and theories to explain and understand types of crime, harm and control
2. Critically evaluate the history and contemporary nature and impact of criminological perspectives and theories
3. Recognise the complexities of explaining crime and harm and the various internal and external factors that impact upon explaining crime, harm and their control


Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
1. To search for and marshal evidence to form a compelling argument.


Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
1. To have confidence in your own thinking and assessment of theories and perspectives, but also to be open to challenge and debate too.

There are two forms of assessment for this module. The first will take the form of a 1500-word literature review. This will be submitted half way through the module. In the literature review, students are asked to describe in detail a criminological theory. Students can choose a theory from a list that will be posted on the blackboard site. Students are required to identify and use appropriate literature to display a comprehensive understanding of their chosen theory. The second assessment takes the form of a traditional 1500-word essay. Students are required to apply a criminological theory to an appropriate crime form. It is expected that students will use the knowledge and expertise they developed in the first assessment to construct their essays. For example, a student may choose to write a literature review on cultural criminology in first assessment, and then use cultural criminology to explain gang violence in their second assessment.

Assessment 1 addresses points 1 and 3 from the ‘Knowledge and Understanding’ section.
Assessment 2 addresses point 1, 2 and 3 from the ‘Knowledge and Understanding’ section, point 1 from the ‘intellectual/professional skills and abilities’ section, and point 1 from the ‘personal values and attributes’ section.

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Why do people commit crime? Why does crime increase or decrease? What should be considered a crime and how can we prevent it? You will explore these and other questions through an evaluation and assessment of the different disciplinary contributions to the study of crime and its control. The module locates criminological concepts, perspectives and theories in an integrative framework that borrows from a number of disciplines and research areas, as well as within their historical and political contexts. The emphasis is on understanding explanations of crime, of harm and their control through the application of different conceptual and theoretical approaches to specific forms of criminality, victimisation and injustice.