LW4022 - Criminal Law and Procedure

The module will run across a 12-week semester with students learning through webcasts, lectures, seminars and tutor-guided and student-independent learning. The lecturer will use historical and current political developments, case law and academic writing to give context to core principles. The 12 seminars are reliant on you preparing answers and exercises using both tutor-guided and independent learning and research. You will be given directed learning to prepare for seminar tasks, which go beyond lecture content. Independent learning will include locating and reading relevant legal source material and will again go beyond both lecture content and directed seminar learning. In seminars students will be able to develop their knowledge by applying findings to factual scenarios and developing oral presentation skills by presenting research findings to the wider group.
The ‘’Criminal Law and Procedure’ eLP site contains a module handbook outlining the content of the module. Lecture slides, digital lecture recordings and seminar exercises will also be made available on the eLP site.
Formative feedback will be provided on knowledge and understanding of criminal justice and criminal law as well as a number of opportunities to engage with the method of assessment used in the module.

You will be supported through active participation and discussion during seminars. All lecture and seminar material will be available on the University’s eLearning Portal, supplemented with guidance on further reading relevant to the subjects.
Written assessment feedback will also be provided to allow you to understand how you performed and how you can build on this performance in subsequent assessments within your programme.

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:
By the end of the module you should be able to:
1. Demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of key principles of criminal law and procedure be able to apply those principles in the context of given scenarios encountered by police.

2. Demonstrate your ability to identify, explain, evaluate and interpret relevant law and other guidance, particularly in relation to policing.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
By the end of the module you should be able to:
3. Communicate your knowledge and understanding of key principles of criminal law and of relevant case law to policing and statutory authorities accurately.

4. Understand PACE the work of other agencies intersecting with the police in the criminal justice system.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

By the end of the module you should have developed the ability to:
5. understand and put into practice the fundamental responsibility of the police service to identify and support those who are vulnerable or at risk and also conduct a lawful, safe and effective investigation.

Formative assessment

During the semester you will have two formative assessments. (1) A written exercise analysing a problem scenario relating to policing and criminal offences.
This will be marked by your seminar tutor and you will receive written feedback on your answer. (2) A mock examination to be made available via the eLP and completed in your own time. You will receive written feedback in the form of a model answer and oral feedback in the form of a discussion of the examination in one of the workshops.

Summative assessment

This will take the form of a 2 hour unseen examination. The examination will require you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of key principles of criminal law and procedure. It will also include a problem scenario.

Summative feedback will be available in written form on scripts, via the eLP as notes for guidance and orally from module/seminar tutors.

Assessment Criteria and Grade-Related Criteria will be made available to you to support you in completing assessments. Grade-Related Descriptors are descriptions of the level of skills, knowledge and/or attributes that you need to demonstrate in order achieve a certain grade or mark in an assessment, providing a mechanism by which the quality of an assessment can be measured and placed within the overall set of marks.

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Understanding the criminal law and procedure, including how the criminal justice system operates, is key to policing. It is vital to understand how policing fits within the criminal process, and how professional and ethical policing is maintained and ensured. In this module you will study a number of key criminal offences, and will consider what must be proved in order to establish liability for a criminal offence. You will examine how crimes are investigated and proceed to court, ethically and respecting human rights and other professional obligations. You will develop the ability to locate relevant criminal law and other guidance documents and to understand and explain the information so obtained. You will also develop the ability to explain principles of criminal law and professional policing by forming structured and coherent arguments, using correct legal terminology, and to problem solve by applying your knowledge of criminal procedure to given factual scenarios.