SC655-7-SP-CO:
Current Controversies in Criminology
2024/25
Sociology and Criminology
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
20
07 February 2024
Requisites for this module
(none)
SC555
(none)
(none)
(none)
MA M90012 Criminology,
MPHDML9048 Criminology,
PHD ML9048 Criminology
This module aims to provide students with an in-depth and critical understanding of contemporary criminological discourse and the role of criminology in today's understanding of different forms of crime, control and criminal justice policy in an increasingly globalised world.
Students will be introduced to various approaches to the interpretation and the governance of crime in order to critically examine criminological discourses and policies related to globalisation, migration, crimes of the powerful, online and offline media representation, mass incarceration, and state crimes. Criminology has undergone a striking expansion in recent years, giving rise to the development of a number of distinct specialisms and the invention of an entire tradition within the wider social sciences. This module explores the implications of such growth and differentiation, and the challenges these present.
The aim of this module is:
- To provide students with an in-depth and critical understanding of contemporary criminological discourse and the role of criminology in today’s understanding of different forms of crime, control and criminal justice policy in an increasingly globalised world.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Engage with some of the most pressing challenges in contemporary criminological research and criminal justice practice.
- Analyse these at the local/global level and the micro/macro level.
- Gain an insight into the range of contemporary advanced research methods used by practitioners, criminologists and other social scientists.
- Develop practical research skills (through weekly presentations and other structured seminar tasks) that you will be able to apply in your MA thesis.
Lecture List - Spring Term
- Public Criminology: Challenges, Issues and Prospects.
- Disreputable Pleasures: Transgression and the Subcultural LegacySeminar.
- Punishment and Social Theory.
- Mass Incarceration and the New Penology.
- Reading Week – no seminar.
- Crime and the City.
- Geographies of Crime.
- Crimes of the Powerful.
- Crime, Media, and Popular Culture.
- Visual Criminology.
This module will be delivered via:
- One 2-hour seminar each week.
Attendance in person is expected.
-
Loader, I. and Sparks, R. (2010) ‘What is to be done with public criminology?’,
Criminology & Public Policy, 9(4), pp. 771–781. Available at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2010.00669.x.
-
Tidmarsh, M. (2023) ‘A pedagogy of “public criminology” as a counter to marginality? Lessons for community sanctions and measures from the Pedagogy of the Oppressed’,
Probation Journal, 70(2), pp. 179–198. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/02645505221105394.
-
Blackman, S. (2014) ‘Subculture Theory: An Historical and Contemporary Assessment of the Concept for Understanding Deviance’,
Deviant Behavior, 35(6), pp. 496–512. Available at:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639625.2013.859049.
-
Reid, E. and Ilan, J. (2024) ‘Deen and Dunya: Islam, street spirituality, crime and redemption in English road culture’,
Theoretical Criminology, 28(2), pp. 232–249. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/13624806231184172.
-
David Garland (no date) ‘Sociological Perspectives on Punishment’,
Crime and Justice, 14, pp. 115–165. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1147460?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
-
Brangan, L. (2024) ‘States of denial: Magdalene Laundries in twentieth-century Ireland’,
Punishment & Society, 26(2), pp. 394–413. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745231218470.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Report |
14/03/2025 |
30% |
| Coursework |
Essay |
25/04/2025 |
70% |
Additional coursework information
Assessment details can be found on Moodle.
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Eamonn Carrabine, email: eamonn@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Eamonn Carrabine
socpgtad@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
Yes
Prof Benjamin Bradford
University College London
Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 18 hours, 18 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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