Module SOCI3747: Disability Studies, Crime and Victimisation

Department: Sociology

SOCI3747: Disability Studies, Crime and Victimisation

Prerequisites

• at least 20 credits of level 2 modules from the Department of Sociology.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To provide an understanding of the key theoretical perspectives in the field of Disability Studies to critically interrogate the structural nature of disablism and ableism in society.
• To familiarise students with the history of disability, crime, and victimisation and how this shapes contemporary practices within the criminal justice system and its allied disciplines.
• To develop students’ sociological reasoning to critically assess criminal justice practices concerning disabled perpetrators and victims/survivors.
• To offer students a critical lens to critique the medicalisation/psychiatrisation of disabled perpetrators and victims/survivors

Content

• The module will be divided into three sections. Section 1 will focus on historical constructions of disability, crime, and victimisation. This section will conceptualise how links between disability, crime and victimisation have been historically medicalised and pathologised within the criminal justice system. There will be an acknowledgement of how European ideas of disability, medicine, and psychiatry were exported globally due to colonisation. This section will focus on the rise of secure asylums and hospitals for the criminally ‘disordered’, alongside specialist prisons designed for disabled people in the 19th and 20th centuries in the UK and globally. There will also be a focus on the rise of the eugenics movement and its implication for mass institutionalisation.
• Section 2 will introduce students to disability theory and link this to the development of criminological theory. The theoretical developments within Disability Studies which are founded on Marxism, symbolic interactionalism, critical realism, and post-structuralism will be interconnected to critical criminology, labelling theory, left realism and cultural criminology. This section will primarily focus on a structural and cultural examination of disability, marginalisation, and offender behaviours. The section will discuss the overrepresentation of certain disabled populations including, detainees in custody, the judicial system, and the prison estate.
• Section 3 will examine the cultural and media representations of disability, victimisation, and crime. The section will apply disability theory to conceptualise the structural nature of disability and victimisation. This will critique the medicalisation and pathologisation of victims and survivors of crime. This will explore the structural and cultural nature of disablism and ableism in society. The section will illustrate how the criminal justice system is inherently ablest and how disabled victims/survivors are often excluded from the justice system. Thus, it will move away from pathological understandings of disability and vulnerability to examine how neighbourhoods create spaces of vulnerability which leave disabled populations at risk of victimisation and exploitation within their communities

Learning Outcomes

• At the end of the course, students will:
• Understand key concepts and debates concerning the key sociological and legal frameworks regarding disabled victims/survivors and perpetrators.
• Be able to draw on the history of policies and legal frameworks that have led to the institutionalisation of disabled communities within society.
• Be able to articulate arguments about disability and social exclusion from empirical studies of past and present to inform their understanding of criminal justice practices and dis/ableism.

• By the end of the module the typical student will be able to:
• Evaluate sociological arguments and evidence about disability, crime, and justice.
• Employ numerous models of disability to critically assess legal frameworks, criminal justice practices and policy.
• Theoretically understand the structural nature of disablism and ableism and their impact within the criminal justice system.
• Recognise that Disability Studies is now a global movement and its key theoretical contribution, i.e., the social model of disability, is now enshrined in global policy in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
• Apply theoretical and empirical knowledge to conceptualise the overrepresentation of disabled perpetrators in the criminal justice system.
• Employ theoretical and methodological expertise to comprehend the impact of disability on experiences of victimisation and survival.
• Be able to convey, both orally and in writing, the meaning of abstract methodological concepts in ways which are meaningful to others concerning medicalisation and criminalisation.
• Perceive the relevance of, and relate their sociological knowledge, to contemporary issues of disability and social harm.

• Demonstrate a range of communication skills including the ability to: evaluate and synthesize information obtained from a variety of written sources; communicate relevant information in different ways.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of IT resources, including the ability to word-process, use and interpret basic statistical tables and graphs, and use web-based resources (Virtual Learning Environment).
• Demonstrate a capacity to improve own learning and performance, including the specific ability to manage time effectively, work to prescribed deadlines, engage in different ways of learning including both independent and directed forms of learning, and gather necessary information from a range of bibliographic sources.

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

• Lectures provide students with substantive information, indicate the main issues to be considered and introduce the main themes, interpretations and arguments of the subject material. They encourage students to develop skills in listening, selective note-taking and an appreciation of how information may be structured and presented to others.
• Seminars will be organised around themes for discussion and will have designated reading. They provide the opportunity for students to present and develop their own understanding of relevant materials, encourage them to develop transferable skills (e.g. oral communication, group work skills, information retrieval skills), subject-specific skills (e.g. competence in using theoretical perspectives and concepts in Sociology and Criminology, the ability to formulate sociologically-informed questions) and general skills (e.g. judging and evaluating evidence, assessing the merits of competing arguments and explanations, making reasoned arguments).
• Students will also spend time in self-directed study as they prepare for specific seminars and essay assignments.
• A summative essay requires students to demonstrate more detailed and extended knowledge of module topics. It also provides an opportunity for feedback.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

A group presentation on disability theory and its application to criminology.

■ 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