Understanding Crime

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
• Convenor: to be confirmed
• Assessment: two skills workbooks (25% and 75%)

Regardless of our own status as victims, offenders, practitioners or observers, issues of crime and theories about crime pervade our lives on a day-to-day level. Television, newspapers, the internet, conversations with friends, families and colleagues all play their part in constructing discourse about crime. Throughout our lives we develop differing levels of conformity and convention in relation to issues of crime and we develop various understandings and assumptions about how crime is the same or different from harms.

In this module we introduce you to the study of crime and help you develop the skills needed to study criminology effectively. By looking at a range of criminological case studies and topics, you will build the skills and knowledge necessary for developing cogent arguments and analyses as prerequisites to further study. By carefully examining key criminological topics, questioning popular assumptions about these topics and developing a set of critical analytical skills, you will develop an awareness of the issues involved, without assuming any of the answers.

The skills component of the module also provides you with a comprehensive introduction to studying criminology at higher education level. You will learn practical, hands-on, transferable skills, such as critical reading, researching, note-taking, referencing and writing.