Module SOCI2281: Sociological Approaches to Violence and Abuse

Department: Sociology

SOCI2281: Sociological Approaches to Violence and Abuse

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To facilitate an understanding of key sociological and criminological theories put forward to explain the continued existence of violence and abuse in society;
• To enable students to develop a critical understanding of the causes, nature and extent, and consequences of violence and abuse in society;
• To be aware of experiences of victim-survivors and responses to them;
• To be aware of the motivations and behaviours of people who commit acts of violence and abuse and responses to them;
• To be able to understand and critically evaluate holistic approaches and policy responses to violence and abuse in society.

Content

• The module will be divided into five overlapping blocks of lectures/seminars as follows:
• Theorising violence and abuse;
• The nature and extent of different forms of violence and abuse;
• Understanding and responding to victim-survivors (including visits to projects or guest speakers);
• Understanding and responding to people who commit acts of abuse and violence (including visits or guest speakers);
• Policy responses/holistic approaches.

Learning Outcomes

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will have demonstrated:
• an understanding of cross-national and comparative sociological and criminological debates and perspectives around violence and abuse;
• an understanding of the complex methodological and ethical issues involved in researching violence and abuse;
• a knowledge of the different forms of violence and abuse and the ability to critically evaluate their extent, motivations and consequences;
• a knowledge of the different responses to victims and to perpetrators of violence and abuse; and
• an understanding of different holistic responses/policy frameworks in understanding and responding to violence and abuse.

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
• critically assess the ways in which research design influences incidence and prevalence figures;
• critically evaluate sociological and criminological concepts, argument and evidence;
• select an appropriate topic and focus for the assignment, which demonstrates skills of critical analysis, evaluation and conceptual argument; and
• analyse the role and importance of different historical, social, legal and political contexts to forms of, responses to, violence and abuse.

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will have/be able to:
• independently gather appropriate information from a range of sources and to make competent judgments about the relative worth, relevance and appropriateness of a range of sources;
• a deep engagement in reasoned arguments;
• an ability to reflect on learning journey;
• an apply academic theories to ‘real world’ problems; and
• an ability to evaluate research findings and to assess the strength of the methodologies employed, whether quantitative or qualitative.

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

• Teaching and learning will consist of one weekly lecture and one discussion based seminar every two weeks. The assessments will be discussed as an ongoing project throughout the year and supported through the seminars.
• Summative assessment: The summative assessment will be in two parts. The first part is a hard copy or online ‘scrapbook’ where students will be supported to apply academic theory and research to one form of violence and abuse. Students will be encouraged to think about how their chosen form of violence and abuse are portrayed in everyday life (in the news, in social media streams, in documentaries, in books, in dramas, on the radio etc.) and compare and contrast this with academic theory and research. The second part, submitted at the same time, will be a reflective essay on this process.
• Formative Assessment: The presentation of one scrapbook page to their seminar class.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Presentation of one page from ‘scrapbook’ (optional)

■ 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