Module SOCI3341: ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Department: Sociology

SOCI3341: ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Prerequisites

• At least 40 credits of level 2 modules from the Department of Sociology. Combined Honours Students (LMVO, LMVA and LMVP) must be affiliated with the Department of Sociology.

Corequisites

• At least 20 credits of level 3 modules from the Department of Soociology. There is an interview process to establish all students suitability for the module. All students must successfully complete HMPPS Security Vetting

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• This module is designed to:
• Provide students with knowledge of the criminal justice system in terms of its institutions, policies and practices.
• Develop a deep and critical understanding of debates relating to crime and criminal justice, processes and issues.
• Locate current issues in criminal justice within criminal justice theory and practice.

Content

• The criminal justice system: its institutions, policies and practices.
• Theoretical debates relating to the causes of crime.
• Debates around current issues, for example gender, crime and justice, ethnicity and justice, the regulatation of drugs, and role of prisons within the criminal justice system.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this module, students should be able to demonstrate:
• Knowledge of the institutions comprising the criminal justice system.
• Knowledge and critical understanding of the complexities of debates relating to crime and criminal justice theories, processes and issues.
• Up to date knowledge, and a critical understanding of a selection of issues in criminal justice.

• By the end of the module students will be able to:
• Critically evaluate social science arguments and evidence.
• Formulate informed questions with specific reference to criminal justice-related issues and debates.

• By the end of the module, students should be able to demonstrate:
• an ability to gather and process appropriate information from a range of academic sources;
• ability to plan workload and manage time;
• ability to construct systematic and coherent oral arguments.
• ability to reflect critically on their own learning.

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

• This module will be delivered in 10 block sessions of 4 hours (approximately as prison conditions may vary this) and will advance critical engagement with the academic material (to be provided) through a dialogical interaction between 'Outside' students (from Durham University) and ‘Inside' students (from the prison population).
• Throughout the module students will complete several reflective essays on which they will receive interim formative feedback.
• The reflective essays will allow students to reflect on their knowledge of criminal justice issues and themes, as well as assessing their critical engagement with these issues with classmates within the Inside-Out prison classroom and their ability to synthesise sources, plan and manage their own time and construct a coherent written argument. As a progressively developed piece, the assessment is designed to allow students to demonstrate their critical reflection on the Inside-Out Programme as a distinctive mode of learning across 1 formative and 2 summative pieces which together will total 4,000 words.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students will submit approximately 1 x 1000 word reflective essay during the course of the module on which they will receive interim feedback to inform production of their two summative reflective essays.

■ 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