Youth Justice, Community Safety and Applied Criminology MA

Course content

What will you study on the MA Youth Justice, Community Safety and Applied Criminology?

The course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills required to investigate and analyse contemporary problems of crime, disorder and community safety and to evaluate current policies and practices designed to address them. The core modules focus on applying criminological theory and research to policy and practice, youth offending, disorder and gangs, interpersonal violence and hate crime, and community safety and public protection. The remainder of the programme is made up by studying optional modules which examine particular aspects of crime and criminal justice in depth or through a work-based learning or internship project.

Students must complete 180 credits. In addition to the 20-credit core modules and a Dissertation, students make up the remaining 40 credits of study by choosing either one or two of the optional 20-credit modules and/or one of the work-based learning options.

Not all of the optional modules listed will be available in any one year. Module availability is dependent on staffing and the number of students wishing to take each module.

In this module you will focus upon the applied nature of research and policy-making in the criminal justice system and the application of research in policy implementation. Your studies will acquaint you with major theoretical positions and debates in applied criminology in a real-world practice setting. This module will demonstrate and illustrate the links between criminological theory and research, and you will explore the relationship between criminological theory and research and criminal justice policy and practice. Your studies will also acquaint you with the principal ways in which research is deployed in a variety of settings, such as child protection, youth justice and community safety. This part of the course aims to equip you with the practical skills and knowledge required to work effectively in a criminal justice policy setting.

In this module you will explore issues under the inter-related headings Interpersonal Violence and Hate Crime ranging from domestic violence to far right extremism in both real world and virtual settings. The late twentieth and early twenty first century has seen a growing focus on these issues and in this module you will examine why this is the case, highlighting transformations in the economy, technology, social structure and social relations, the emergence of identity politics and the development of new academic discourses and theoretical perspectives. Within this overarching context, you’ll examine different forms of interpersonal violence and hate crime. This will include analysis of the contested knowledge base from which estimates and accounts of their nature and extent can be drawn. Finally, you will also critically evaluate policy and practice relevant to these issues, questioning the extent to which existing responses are adequate and effective.

In this module you will explore the theoretical background to crime and disorder reduction and provides practitioner based examples and solutions to alleviating it. You’ll study crime and disorder from a socio-spatial perspective, scrutinise contemporary partnership arrangements and assess the problems and merits of implementing local and national governmental policies.

In this module you’ll critically examine contemporary social problems that are often said to threaten the fabric of society, are subject to intense media exposure and scrutiny, involve the deployment of significant resources via schools, the police, the courts, charities, independent commissions etc. and which have also attracted considerable attention from criminologists in recent years. These problems include street crime, night-time disorder, riots and riotous behaviour, the sexual exploitation of young women, cyber-bullying, the use and misuse of drugs and alcohol, most of which are commonly associated with youth in general and youth gangs in particular. The module takes a realist, applied but critical approach in analysing these issues, drawing on official as well as more critical accounts and research studies for understanding them, and investigating existing and alternative strategies for addressing them.

The dissertation is an original piece of work based on a topic negotiated between you and your supervisor. It provides you with the opportunity to explore in some depth a topic in which you have developed an interest in as well to apply the skills, knowledge and methods learned in preceding modules. In recent years, students have conducted research on stop and search policy, the role of gangs in the London riots, preventing domestic violence, risk assessment in youth justice and drugs in prisons, to name just a few.

Students who choose a 40 rather than a 60-credit dissertation must also do at least 20 (but up to 60) credits of work-based learning. This is undertaken either in your own workplace (if appropriate) or else through an internship, and requires you to submit a written report documenting and critically reflect upon your work and that of the host organisation, drawing on the academic learning you have gained through studying on the course.

The module will be delivered at HMP Wandsworth and provides a unique experience that involves reflection on the learning journey and the meaning of learning with, and from others. Using the criminal justice system to examine contemporary issues and debates relating to crime control, the criminal courts and sentencing, and theories of punishment and imprisonment the module focuses on the criminal justice system as a series of interlinked institutions in which ideas of rehabilitation, system reform, and social justice are embedded.

This module is core on the MSc. Criminology with Forensic Psychology and uses the criminal justice system and its different institutions to critically examine contemporary issues, debates and policy relating to crime control, the processing of defendants through the criminal courts, sentencing and punishment. It explores shifts and changes in criminal justice responses to assess whether we are witnessing an era of tightening and punitive crime control policy. The module takes as a central underpinning that we live in a world of enhanced ‘securitisation’ along with emerging and sophisticated ‘risk’ identification and offender management strategies; in turn having a bearing on who, and how people enter the criminal justice system. It incorporates the intersections of migration and criminal justice, how gender, race and class interact with the criminal justice system, sentencing and imprisonment trends, and new considerations of restorative and integrative justice. The module takes a comparative perspective to assist an understanding of different approaches and responses to crime, offenders and criminal justice in other European and international jurisdictions, and to consider whether they provide ideas for alternative policies in this area. You’ll study this module alongside the core module ‘Psychological Interventions and Responses to Offending’ and complete visits to the criminal courts and one of HM Prisons to embed your learning across both modules.

With increasing amounts of social activity taking place on the Internet cybercrime is becoming an important area of study. By exploring the history, nature and patterns of cybercrime this module will introduce you to the sociological and criminological study of crime on the Internet. Through a series of examples and case studies of Internet related crime you will consider the diversity of cybercrime as well as its prevention and detection. What is cybercrime? What criminological theories can we use to explain cybercrime? What harm does cybercrime cause? How do people become victims of cybercrime? How is cybercrime policed? How can cybercrime prevented? These are some of the questions that will be tackled in class. This module is designed to provide a critical analysis of selected issues in the study of cybercrime and its control.

This aim translates into the following objectives:

• To provide you with a critical introduction to the concept of cybercrime;
• To examine the impact of cybercrime on contemporary society;
• To help you develop an understanding of the relationship between developments in information technology and social harm;
• To understand how the study of cybercrime challenges existing criminological theories and criminal law;
• To develop your critical and written communication skills in relation to cybercrime issues;
• To develop independent research and learning

This module aims to help you develop advanced skills in the application of criminological theories and concepts in relation to drugs, drug use, and drugs control and in critically analysing the relationship between drugs and crime. You will critically evaluate the laws, policies and institutions of drugs control within their social, political and economic contexts and compare and contrast the role of the criminal justice system in responding to drugs in various countries. The module also aims to foster a critical interest in the reform of drugs control policy and institutions at both national and international levels.

This core module on the MA Environmental Law and Justice critically evaluates perspectives on green criminology, and crimes against the environment (including animals). It considers contemporary perspectives on green offending, the regulation of environmental problems, and global perspectives on green crimes, green criminality and the effectiveness of justice systems in resolving environmental problems. It also adopts a critical approach to theoretical debates on animal rights, the legal personhood of animals, and the tension between the continued exploitation of natural resources and the prosecution of environmental crime. In this module you will also critically examine the link between environmental offending and mainstream crimes, including the link between violence towards animals and violence towards humans and the extent to which corporate environmental crime constitutes a ‘crime of the powerful’ or a corporate-state crime. The module will require you to critically examine theoretical concepts and practical considerations in environmental justice and consider how examining environmental harms inevitably results in a wider definition of green ‘crime’ than simply considering those activities defined as such by the criminal law. The module will also help you to develop knowledge and skills appropriate to working in the environmental justice sector with NGOs, local authorities and other policy and enforcement bodies.

This core module on the MA Criminology course aims to engage you in exploring criminological issues from a global perspective, particularly in respect of contemporary debates on the policing of transnational problems and the development of global policing. The module considers policing in a wide rather than narrow context identifying that the changing nature of crime and crime control in a 'globalised' world and the emergence of crimes which transcend national borders requires a globalised approach to crime and justice. The module provides you with a comparative analysis of different countries' approaches to and systems for dealing with crime and the 'globalisation' of criminal justice and explores global policing systems. The module seeks to equip you to undertake your own international and or comparative research and analysis informed by the overarching and illustrative themes and questions raised in lectures and seminars.

In this core module on the MA Criminology you will critically evaluate contemporary perspectives on human rights and justice systems. You will critically explore concepts, debates, literature (i.e. recent research and policy material) related to the operation of human rights within the British criminal justice system and internationally. You will start to foster engaged and critical thinking about human rights in terms of its impact on the operation of the criminal justice system and the wider application of human rights discourse to issues such as free speech and environmental protection and ecological justice. In this module you’ll consider the apparent conflict between contemporary perspectives on human rights and the administration of justice systems as well as wider issues relating to how both theoretical and practical conceptions of human rights impact on the extent to which respect for rights is embedded into justice policy. You will also adopt a critical approach to theoretical debates on human rights, justice, and the tension between state justice policies and the rights of individuals and marginalized groups.

The module aims to allow you to engage with a range of issues that you are likely to encounter in contemporary practice settings. The module will require you to critically examine theoretical concepts and practical considerations in human rights and will appeal if you are seeking an academic and technical exposure to human rights prior to undertaking doctoral work. The module also helps develop your knowledge and skills appropriate to working in the NGO sector, local authorities and other policy and enforcement bodies within the public justice sector that are bound by the provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998 and whose decisions and actions are ultimately amenable to challenge on human rights grounds.

This core module on the MA Criminology will introduce you to key debates about political violence and contemporary terrorism. You’ll be required to consider a range of perspectives emerging from the study of the different forms of political violence, including terrorism and war. It also adopts a critical approach to theoretical and contextual debates on the use of the term terrorism as shorthand for a range of issues relating to political violence. Both institutional and anti-institutional violence will be discussed, along with critical analysis of the controversies surrounding the definitions of violence and terrorism in the different epochs. In the module you’ll examine in detail the contributions of the major schools of thought, along with the most recent sociological-criminological analysis of authorised and unauthorised political violence. The module requires you to critically examine theoretical concepts and practical considerations in contemporary political violence and terrorism discourse drawing on a range of case studies.

This module is core to the MSc. Criminology with Forensic Psychology programme and aims to develop your understanding of how psychology interacts with the criminal justice system. You will consider the psychological and psycho-social dimensions of crime and offending, and the psycho-judicial reactions to it. The module will require you to look at key contributions psychology makes to criminal justice and its related institutions – from delinquency interventions, ‘therapeutic jurisprudence’ and specialist courts, how we understand offenders’ experiences of prison, and specialist offender assessment tools and behavioural treatment programmes both within the community and in prison settings. Through an analysis of the relationship between decisions made at different stages of the criminal justice system, such as by the police, the courts, the parole board, and the implications of those decisions at subsequent stages in the legal process, you’ll be encouraged to reflect upon the application of psychology to the practice of criminal justice.

This module asks you to critically consider the methodological and philosophical context of social research, relationships between different paradigms, methodologies, theories and research designs. You will develop research design skills and become familiar with ethical and governance frameworks within which social science research takes place in contemporary Britain. You will develop an appreciation of the key issues, problems and controversies involved in designing and implementing a research project in different work and research environments is central to the module.

This module aims to permit you to maximise academic value from your everyday employment by allowing you to make explicit links between your university and workplace activities, particularly relating theory to practice. The module enables you to enhance the value of both your university and career work by focussing on relevant areas of knowledge and developing these through a reflective review of learning in your normal everyday work setting. You’ll incorporate specific aims and rationale into a negotiated learning agreement. You’re expected to organise your own learning to reflect the nature of your work-based situation, its constraints, and the goals you’re trying to achieve and your personal work and learning style. This will involve reading, negotiating, research and relevant practical activities.