Youth, Crime and Justice
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| SOCI2033 | Sociology and Social Policy | 2 | 20 | Autumn UK, Spring UK |
- Code
- SOCI2033
- School
- Sociology and Social Policy
- Level
- 2
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Autumn UK, Spring UK
Summary
This module explores the phenomena of youth, crime and justice. Analysis of official statistics and self-report survey data will be placed within a broader understanding of the social construction of youth, drawing on political, media and other sources.
The module will critically assess explanations of youth crime and desistance, including major theoretical explanations and developmental/life course perspectives. The second half of the course considers social responses to youth crime and the role of the youth justice system in particular. The various discourses which inform youth justice will be compared and the ways in which they have been applied in different jurisdictions will be assessed.
Finally, the module will consider the recent focus on early intervention, emerging arguments for minimum intervention and the potential for youth justice reform.
Target Students
Available to all level 2 and 3 students including subsidiary students from outside the school and exchange students.
Classes
This module is taught through a combination of lectures and seminars.
Assessment
- 50% Coursework 1: 2,000 words.
- 50% Coursework 2: 2,000 words.
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
The aims of this module are to:1. Develop students’ critical understandings of the way in which youth crime is constructed as a social problem;2. Develop an understanding of research on youth crime and the range of strategies developed to target this area;3. Develop an understanding of key concepts and theoretical approaches that have developed and are developing in relation to youth crimeLearning Outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able to:
- Appreciate the complexity and diversity in the ways in which youth crime is shaped by a wide range of individual, social and ecological forces;
- Be aware of how youth crime is constructed in the media and by agents and practices of crime control;
- Understand the relationship of social class, gender, age, race and other salient individual and social factors in relations to youth crime and youth justice;
- Appreciate the social and historical development of social policy responses to young people’s problem behaviour.