Module SOCI2211: CRIME, POWER AND SOCIAL INEQUALITIES

Department: Sociology

SOCI2211: CRIME, POWER AND SOCIAL INEQUALITIES

Prerequisites

• SOCI1391 Understanding Crime

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To outline and examine sociological accounts of the links between social divisions and social diversity and the experiences of law-breaking, criminalisation and victimisation.
• To explore and evaluate sociological analyses of, explanations for and approaches to understanding the relationships between crime, deviance, victimisation and dominant social divisions.

Content

• In the course of this module, students will be introduced to:
• sociological and criminological concepts of social stratification, social control and social order, the state, criminalisation and victimisation;
• and, sociological and criminological accounts of the relationships between dominant social divisions and law-breaking, criminalisation and victimisation.
• These concepts and accounts will be used to explore:
• law-breaking, criminalisation and victimisation in relation to age, race and ethnicity, gender and class.
• and, in relation to the crimes of the powerful including examples such as corporate crime, crimes of the state, human rights abuses, crimes of violence and hate crimes.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module, students should be able to:
• understand the relationship between the dominant social divisions and law-breaking, criminalisation and victimisation;
• provide a critical and analytical account of social inequalities, social diversity and their effects on law-breaking, criminalisation and victimisation.

• By the end of the module, students should be able to:
• identify and assess the relative merits of various sociological and criminological explanations for differential criminalisation and victimisation in relation to social divisions and inequalities.

• This module will provide students with the opportunity to develop their key study skills in the following areas:
• gathering and processing information from a range of academic sources;
• using IT resources in the production of written work - including word processing packages, electronic bibliographic databases to search for academic sources and virtual learning environments (i.e. DUO);.
• discerning between different electronic sources of information particularly in relation to non-academic electronic sources such as Wikipedia and blog websites;
• working and managing their time effectively, through the timely completion of assessed work and active participation and demonstration of reading in seminars.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• This module will be taught using a combination of lectures and seminars. Lectures will introduce students to the basic concepts, argument and literature for each topic. Seminars will provide an opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of the concepts, arguments and debates as well as develop some of the key skills through the presentation of information, discussion and debate.
• Students will be assessed through a combination of formative and summative assessments (both in the form of an essay or similar piece of written coursework) and an examination. Students will be provided with feedback on the formative and summative assessments in order to enable continuous development of both the knowledge outcomes and key skills.
• The formative assignment will enable students to present information on social divisions, power and crime and receive feedback in order to develop their knowledge and key skills before they are formally assessed.
• The summative assignment will provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate in a more sustained fashion their competency in relation to the knowledge outcomes of this module and the key skills.
• The unseen examination will test the breadth and depth of the students' understanding of the key knowledge outcomes of the module.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One optional written assignment up to 1,500 words.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University