Module SOCI43530: Prisons, Crime and Justice

Department: Sociology

SOCI43530: Prisons, Crime and Justice

Prerequisites

• Successful completion of prison security vetting. Students are advised to audit an alternative module until they receive confirmation of their security clearance.

Corequisites

• None. However there is an interview process to establish all students suitability for the module.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• This module is designed to:
• Provide students with depth of 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 and current research approaches relating to the causes of crime.
• Debates around current issues, for example gender, crime and justice, ethnicity and justice, the regulation 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 theoretical, policy and research 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 at an advanced level.
• Formulate and interrogate informed questions with specific reference to criminal justice-related issues and debates.
• Communicate complex debates and arguments to peers via dialogic exchanges, group work and reflective papers.

• By the end of the module, students should be able to demonstrate:
• an ability to gather and process complex and advanced information from a range of academic and policy sources;
• ability to plan workload and manage time;
• ability to construct systematic and coherent oral arguments.
• ability to reflect critically on their own learning.
• ability to operate independently and cooperatively, exercising appropriate judgment, in novel or complex contexts.
• to understand the importance, and demonstrate compliance with the ethical and professional codes of practice relating to working within prison establishment.

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).
• The module normally takes place in prison, subject to prison regulations.
• In addition, the students will be required to attend 2/3 days training, as required by HM Prison Service. The training includes various components, including prison security procedures; conditioning; fire training; counter terrorism; hostage training and a tour of the prison estate.
• Throughout the module students will complete several pieces of work which together form a reflective learning journal on which they will receive interim formative feedback.
• The reflective learning journal 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 3 summative reflective essays which together will form a reflective learning journal (total 5,500 words).

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students will submit 1 x 1000 word reflective essay during the course of the module on which they will receive interim feedback to inform their 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