Module overview
This interdisciplinary module is concerned with the interrelationships between society, social change, and social censure. A central theme running the module is that we can only make sense of contemporary social change (and responses to it) today if we have an understanding of the past. Nevertheless, 'history' is presented throughout as contested terrain in which competing interpretations abound, especially in the study of deviance, conflict, crime and criminal justice.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Recognise the importance of the voices of ordinary people.
- Communicate ideas and arguments in a variety of written formats.
- Demonstrate a critical knowledge of historical and empirical studies in criminology and sociology.
- Understand the role of social change and its impact upon social life, conflict, crime and social control.
- Outline the historical development of key areas relating to social conflict, perceptions of deviance, and the criminal justice system.
- Work with others to investigate problems and to present arguments and evidence.
- Challenge ‘common sense’ arguments.
- Identify, select and draw upon a range of sources to support the development of an argument
- Describe and examine a range of key concepts and theoretical approaches in sociology and criminology, evaluate their application and use them to analyse social phenomena and crime, victimisation and deviance
- Assess the importance of history in understanding contemporary criminological and sociological issues.
Syllabus
Deviance and Historiography; Foucault: Genealogy, and the Discovery of Discipline; Exploring Social Control: The Birth of the Police; Contemporary Control: The Development of Policing; Evaluating the Just Measure of Pain: Punishment from the Pillory to the Prison; The Victorian Prison and its Critics; Manipulated Change: Exploring Consensus and the Culture of Control; Manufactured Conflict: Capital Punishment – Spectacle, Decline, Abolition; The Political History of Law and Order: Post war Consensus and Welfarism; The Political History of Law and Order: Getting Tough on Crime; Historical Reflections: Module Review and Assessment Planning
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Large group lectures, small group seminars and individual assignment clinics.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 24 |
| Independent Study | 126 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Michel Foucault (2020). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Penguin.
Christopher Hamerton and Sue Hobbs (2022). Privatising Criminal Justice: History, Neoliberal Penality and the Commodification of Crime. Oxford: Routledge.
Pearson, G. (1983). Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears. London: Pearson.
Clive Emsley (2010). Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. London: Routledge.
Barry Godfrey et al. (eds) (2003). Comparative Histories of Crime. Cullompton: Willan.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Extended Essay | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Extended Essay | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Extended Essay | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External