Content:

This module will complete the strand of modules on the criminal justice process from profiling and suspicion to arrest, the courtroom, incarceration and post-prison care. It introduces students to a range of ways that the nature of criminality has been related to the process of punishment, both historically and in a global context.
The first part of the module explores a range of readings in penal theory and explores the diverse ways in which punishment has functioned within socieites, as a social warning to others, as a means of reforming criminal behaviour, and as a way of removing anti-social elements from society. Case studies will be used to relate theory to practice, but also to help identify ways in which key social perspectives about punishment are at once historically related to governmental policies and the organisation of key institutions, but also persistant across time and place.
The second part of the module will explore ways in which governments have sought to reduce the use of prisons, either through alternative forms of rehabilitation or social punishments, such as community service. The conflicting justifications for these initiatives are related to the present prison 'crisis' and students will be expected to deploy ethical and critical insight to analyse the difficulties facing penology today.

Learning and Teaching Information:

The module will be taught through a combination of seminars and workshops. Lecture material will be pre-recorded and placed on the VLE in advance of the relevant seminars, which will focus on student-led development towards the two assessment points. The students will have a core bibliography, but will be expected to demonstrate research skills in locating resources specific to their chosen argument. There will be opportunities for regular formative feedback through the workshops sessions.

Seminars/workshops
Hours: 32
Intended Group size: 30

Guided independent study
Hours: 168

Further details relating to assessment
Assessment 1 - the case study form of assessment has been used and explained in earlier modules (SOC 4032 The Criminal Justice System in L4, and again at L5, in SOC 5032 Policing and PSY 5202 Forensic Psychology in Theory and Practice). In this module greater independence and proficiency than previously expected is required in the use of this assessment format, in line with the requirements of L6 for specialisation and personalisation of study.

Assessment 2 – the presentation is to test the ability to synthesise diverse critical viewpoints and to identify a policy recommendation in an area of ethical complexity and so in full awareness of the inevitably controversial nature of that recommendation.

Assessment: