Undergraduate

Bachelor of Laws (LLB)

Laws modules

Criminology [2660025]

1. Objectives and methods of criminology. Defining crime: legal and criminological conceptions. Nature, scope and objects of criminology.
Historical development of criminology (in outline only). Classical and positivist schools. The idea of a science of criminology. Dichotomies/controversies in criminology: theoretical or applied criminology; treatment or punishment; free will or determinism.
Sources of data. Official statistics: uses, defects and limitations of official data for purposes of research. Measures of law enforcement. Moral panics and the media. Self report studies. Victimisation surveys. Crime prevention.
2. Criminological Theory
(a) Crime as an individual phenomenon: Twin studies; biochemical factors; chromosome studies. Psychological and psychiatric explanations: Psychopathy. Eysenck and ‘learning theory’. Theories of child development. Research on socialisation of children: school and home experiences.
(b) Crime as a social phenomenon: Social disorganisation and social ecology. Area studies. Class, culture and subculture. Gang studies. Anomie theory: Durkheim and Merton. Differential association theory. Matza’s theory of delinquent ‘drift’. Interactionist perspectives. Labelling theory. Control theories. Theories of corporate crime. Radical or Critical criminology. Marxism, Feminism and criminology. New Realism.
3. Institutional Framework of Law Enforcement
(a) Philosophy and aims of punishment. Developments in penal policy. Treatment model versus ‘justice’ model. Community and official attitudes to punishment and treatment of offenders. Role of imprisonment and its consequences. Conditions in prison. Alternatives to prison: sanctions in the community; strategies of constructive recompense.
(b) Police organisation and attitudes.