Year three provides the opportunity to develop your skills and knowledge through researching for and writing a dissertation on a topic of your choice.
There will also be a choice of optional modules allowing you to specialise in your areas of interest.
Another Country: Crime and Crime Control in South Africa
This module looks at crime and ways of controlling it in South Africa (SA), a country with a different history and social structure to the UK. The focus will vary from year to year but is likely to include the:
- impact of colonialism and white minority rule on crime and crime control in SA since the country's transition to democracy in 1994
- relationship between forms of criminal and transitional justice and the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in coming to terms with violations of human rights under apartheid
- nature and extent of crime in contemporary SA with a focus on contemporary problems such as gangsterism and organised crime, (sexual) violence against women and children and violent xenophobia
- usefulness of criminological theories developed in different social contexts (primarily in the US and the UK) in understanding and explaining crime in SA, and in suggesting ways of controlling it
- political economy of crime and crime control in one of the most unequal societies in the world and the relationships between crime and other forms of social harm, criminal justice and social justice, crime prevention and social policy
- history and development of policing and the response to crime including the reform of the state or public police, the pluralisation of policing and the 're-segregation' of South African society since the end of apartheid 1620
Contemporary Developments in Welfare Policy
This module will explore the contemporary developments and debates in the provision and delivery of welfare services. It will examine theories of welfare, the funding of the welfare state and key changes in welfare policies, such as the increasing focus on markets and consumer choice, partnerships, the personalisation of service delivery, and the increasing role of the not-for-profit sector in service delivery.
Crimes and Harms of the Powerful
This module will cover the following broad themes:
- State crime, corporate crime, state-corporate crime, harm, green crime
- State-facilitated and state-initiated corporate crime
- Capitalism, neoliberalism, austerity and indifference
- Crimes of commission and omission
- Command and control regulation vs. business self-regulation
Cults and New Religious Movements: Power, Belief and Conflict
This module serves as an introduction to the study of new religious movements, including groups sometimes referred to as 'cults', and the theoretical concepts used to understand them. A particular focus will be on the degree of tension such groups exhibit with their broader social and religious environments, as well as how they are conceived, both in academia and the media.
It will also consider how issues discussed more broadly in sociology, such as deviance, authority, violence, modernity, globalisation, sex and gender, and group dynamics, bear on our understanding of new religious movements.
Cyber Crime
This module introduces you to the criminological study of cyber crime. It draws on key literature and current research to consider the ways in which new and emerging forms of digital media and information and communication technologies provide opportunities for a variety of deviant and criminal behaviours. The module will typically cover the following broad themes:
- Criminological definitions and theories of cyber crime
- Case studies of types of cyber crime, including, for example: fraud, identify theft, hacking, revenge porn, sexting, online harassment, trolling and cyberstalking
- Victims’ experiences of cyber crime
- Why individuals commit certain types of cyber crime
- Cyber crime in a global world
- The policing, surveillance and regulation of cyber crime
- The implication of the ‘internet of things’ for privacy and security
Education and Society
This module seeks to connect the historical and more contemporary debates in education to a critical understanding of society. The main focus is through a discussion of sociological, philosophical and policy based issues to explore the purpose of education in a modern globalised world. This however only becomes possible if we question more neutral and instrumental approaches to education and seek to more explicitly explore its connection to more normative values and concerns.
In this respect, the module will seek to connect ideas in education to a diversity of ways of conceiving of citizenship now and within the past. Most of the module is informed by European, North and South American traditions within sociology although it will also draw on examples and ideas from elsewhere.
Exploring Social and Cultural Life Through Films
Using different genres of film, this module examines contemporary theoretical and empirical debates in relation to a host of issues closely associated with the production and contestation of identity, culture, and everyday life, by underpinning the central theoretical theme of cultural production, consumption, and practices.
The module will illustrate the problematics of culture through the sociological exploration of social condition; identity; consumerism; consumption; consumer culture; slavery; choice; voluntary simplicity; intimacy; body; embodiment; sexual culture; desire; sexuality; bisexuality; transgenderism; dress; fashion; multiculturalism; human rights; and social inclusion/exclusion.
Gender, the Family and Social Policy
Introducing feminist approaches to social policy, this module considers how social policy and the development of the welfare state have been underpinned by ideas around gender difference and the structure and responsibilities of the family.
We will examine feminist perspectives on welfare, considering how policy might reflect and perpetuate the gendered division of labour in the family and society more broadly. For example, we will examine whether the 'male breadwinner' model has been replaced by a policy commitment to gender equality.
The module will thus examine how social policy excludes or incorporates women at the intersection of the public/private divide, problematising the terms 'justice', 'citizenship' and 'inequality' in relation to gender. Throughout, we will also consider how gender intersects with other axes of difference and inequality, such as 'race' and class.
Migration and Transnationalism
This module examines key issues and concepts connected to the movement and settlement of people in Europe and beyond. Informed by a transnational studies perspective, the module considers migration debates and practices in a critical, comparative and historically informed manner.
The first part of the module explores the political, social and economic factors that cause people to move in an increasingly interconnected world. The second part of the module is dedicated to the examination of the different theories of integration and settlement and processes of inclusion and exclusion.
The key issues and concepts addressed will include those of transnationalism and diaspora; gender and intersectionality; transnational families and global care chains; multiculturalism, integration and assimilation; identity, home and belonging.
Rehabilitation, Risk and Desistance
This module aims to develop critical understandings of:
- the concepts of 'offender' rehabilitation and the changing nature of rehabilitative enterprises over time
- the role of risk in the organisation of the criminal justice system and responses to offending
- research about desistance from crime and its relationship to rehabilitation and risk
The module will explore the role of key agencies involved in rehabilitation including the National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies and the experiences of those subject to community justice.
Victimology
This module will chart the evolution of the social construction of the victim and presence in criminal justice policy by examining the historical, theoretical and research material in victimology. The module will cover the following broad themes:
- Theoretical underpinnings of ‘victimology’
- The victim’s movement
- Key issues and debates in the field of victimology
- Various approaches to responding to victim needs by both governmental and non-governmental organisations