What you will study
You'll learn about a range of criminological perspectives and be introduced to a number of key concepts to help explore the relationships between crime, harm and the state. Many of these are at the cutting edge of contemporary criminology, including, for example, zemiology, decolonial perspectives, and green criminology. You'll undertake a detailed interrogation of some key issues in contemporary criminology – through a variety of topics, including the global pharmaceutical industry, food production, harm to non-human animals, the global tourism industry, international warfare, the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, climate catastrophe, sexuality and eugenics – and all through the lens of social harm. In so doing, you'll interrogate key social scientific concepts such as discourse, power and the state.
This module is divided into the following blocks:
In Block 1, you'll be introduced to the concept of power to explore how and why certain harms come to be criminalised while others do not.
Through Block 2, you'll explore the concept of discourse as an aid to investigating how and why some harms come to be constructed as crimes while other harms are, at best, neglected and, at worst, denied.
In Block 3, you'll develop a deeper understanding of the concept of the state and examine further the role of states in both preventing and producing harm.
Finally, Block 4 gives you the opportunity to synthesise your understanding of the empirical, conceptual and theoretical material you have explored to this point. It introduces the concept of resistance and encourages you to consider the interactions between power, discourse, the state and resistance for understanding the relationships between crime and harm.
Due to the nature of exploring criminal harm and state violence, you may find a number of the topics discussed in this module difficult and challenging. If you feel that increased awareness of such issues will be unduly distressing, then please think carefully before enrolling for this module.
Vocational relevance
This module is relevant to a wide range of jobs in the public, voluntary, community and commercial sectors. The module content is directly relevant to a variety of jobs in public administration, social and welfare services, criminal justice services and community support services, among others. The key skills you'll develop are relevant to any job context. Among these ‘transferable’ skills are the ability to:
- identify, select, interpret, analyse and critically evaluate evidence
- communicate information about crime and criminalisation accurately and effectively to different audiences
- plan, conduct and present an independent investigation of an issue in a reasoned and coherent way
- work cooperatively with other learners in a group
- reflect on your learning and apply it to non-module provided examples and situations.