Criminology

This course combines the social sciences with a criminal focus. You will explore the process of investigations from the crime scene to the courtroom, research theories or crime and apply these to actual criminal cases. This is a course aimed at developing your knowledge and understanding of a wide range of crimes and work done in the criminal justice system. The course incorporates elements of psychology, law and sociology, covering a wide variety of crime-related topics including psychological, biological and sociological theories of criminality, processes used for law making and media representations of crime, amongst others.

Units:

Changing Awareness of Crime

In this unit you will explore the many different types of crime whilst planning for a campaign for change relating to crime. Knowing about the wide range of different crimes and the reasons people have for not reporting such crimes will provide an understanding of the complexity of behaviours and the
social implications of such crimes and criminality. At the end of this unit, you will have gained skills to differentiate between myth and reality when it comes to crime and to recognise that common representations may be misleading and inaccurate. You will have gained the skills to understand the importance of changing public perceptions of crime. You will be able to use and assess a variety of methods used by agencies to raise awareness of crime so that it can be tackled effectively. You will have gained the skills to plan a campaign for change in relation to crime; for example to raise awareness, change attitudes or change reporting behaviour.

Criminological Theories

At the end of this unit you will have gained the skills to evaluate some criminological theories and know there are debates within the different theories. You will understand how changes in criminological theory have influenced policy. You will also have gained the skills to apply the theories to a specific crime or criminal in order to understand both the behaviour and the theory.

Crime Scene to Courtroom

A miscarriage of justice occurs when an innocent person goes to prison and when the guilty person is still free and unpunished. At the end of this unit, you will have gained the skills to review criminal cases, evaluating the evidence in the cases to determine whether the verdict is safe and just. You will also investigate the roles of personnel involved when a crime is committed such as the CPS and Scene of Crime Officers and the techniques used to gather evidence from a crime scene.

Crime and Punishment

Through this final unit, you will learn about the criminal justice system in England and Wales and how it operates to achieve social control. You will have gained an understanding of the organisations which are part of our system of social control such as prison and probation services and their effectiveness in achieving their objectives. As such, you will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the process of social control in delivering policy in different contexts.