CRI-20042 - Module Specification
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

This module's aim is to look at lethal interpersonal violence from a range of perspectives in law, the natural and social sciences, as well as from a more applied criminal justice perspective. We will consider why some forms of violent killing are treated as murder while others are not; how murder and homicide are currently defined in English law (and why); how criminologists and other social and natural scientists have attempted to explain murder and homicide and understand those who commit it; how a case (and an offender) are constructed and processed by the criminal justice system; how murder and homicide are reported in the media; and how such incidents might be prevented. By putting all these perspectives together, students will gain a more complete understanding of murder, and violent crime more generally, and why they occupy such a prominent place in the politics and culture of the early 21st century. The module involves a range of activities including lecture and seminar classes which will equip students with a range of academic and more broadly transferable skills.

The module allows students to explore and reflect on the ways in which criminology draws on related disciplines in the social sciences, natural sciences, and law in defining, explaining and responding the most extreme forms of harm - murder and homicide. It does this by engaging students with examples of current events, providing a link between interdisciplinary approaches and explanations, and real-world incidents. In doing so it aims to foster interdisciplinary engagement with social problems and to enable students to develop a range of study and employability skills (including understanding and interpreting statistics, designing policy, report writing). The module design allows students to engage with issues such as age, gender, social exclusion, media representations, legal and evidentiary challenges, and preventative approaches meaning that it spans and combines both a criminology and criminal justice focus.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Use murder and homicide as a way of identifying and assessing the contributions of the social sciences, natural sciences, law, and humanities to explaining offences of this type, both as trends and in the case of specific incidents
: 1
Recognise and account for the ways in which murder and homicide are defined, represented, explained and responded to in law, by society, the state and its institutions, in statistical data, by social and natural scientists, and in the media.
: 1
Work with theories and concepts drawn from across academic disciplines in an applied way in relation to cases and examples discussed in class, including in relation to charging decisions, defences, investigations, punishment and prevention.: 1
Understand and explain how current events and incidents can be interpreted using both theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and via an appreciation of political and popular cultural influences.
: 1
Communicate effectively in written form across the following: interpreting and explaining crime statistics; assessing and presenting different legal perspectives; describing and applying different explanations; considering and evaluating policy responses.: 1

Study hours

12 hours of lectures; 11 hours of workshop/seminar contact
25 hours of directed preparation for lectures and seminars via engagement with online asynchronous activities and information specific to each activity.
102 hours of private study (including additional self directed preparatory reading for assessments and assessment writing).

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment