CM1S020 - Exploring Crime and Deviance 01 Sep 2024 - 31 Aug 2030 | Version 1

Associated Module Information

Module Code: CM1S020
Module Title: Exploring Crime and Deviance
Faculty: Faculty of Life Sciences and Education
Faculty Group: Policing and Criminology
Faculty Sub Group: Criminology
Module Leader: Janine Jackson, Ian McKim
Module Team: Daniel Welch, Helen Martin, Nerys Musgrove, Liane Dent, Louise McGibbon, Glyn Garner, Kirsty Richards, Hayley Jenkins, Janine Vickery, Anthony Lloyd, Eva Bird, James McCormack, Hayley Jenkins, Hannah Seale, Niamh Breslin, David Morgan
First Intended Intake: SEP 2024 Final Year of Intake: 2029
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 20 Credit Level: 4
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes:
HECOS Code Weighting:

Document Version Information

Version 1
Valid From 01 Sep 2024
Valid To 31 Aug 2030

Module Aims

The module aims to embed knowledge and understanding of the evolution of criminological theory. The module aims to provide students with an understanding of the nature and extent of crime and deviance by exploring historical and contemporary developments.

Content Summary

This module charts the birth and growth of Criminology and considers some of its major theoretical concepts.

The module focuses upon contemporary sociological and developmental theories of crime against a background of the classical ideas within the field, this module will provide undergraduates with an opportunity to engage with the most up-to-date debates in an area of great interest in contemporary society, using criminology concepts and theories. This module will introduce and explore sociological understandings of crime and deviance. It will help students explore how crime is socially, culturally and historically constructed and will therefore demonstrate how crime varies from time to time, place to place and is dependent upon context. It will examine the relationship between crime or criminalisation and a range of other social factors such as power, poverty, wealth and status. It will explore the impact of social processes on how crime is defined, laws are developed and enforced as well as how crime is measured and recorded. It will introduce students to a range of sociological, developmental, biological and psycho-social theories used to explain criminality, along with considering evidence-based interventions intended to achieve a reduction in reoffending.

This module will also provide students with the opportunity to become active Criminologists as they consider why people commit crime, from the developmental, biological and psycho-social perspectives. This module will also challenge students to consider how explanations for criminality have evolved through time.

Some of the indictive content for this module will include the following:

Major theoretical perspectives:

  • Rational Choice Theory

  • The Classical School

  • Developmental, biological and psycho-social theories

  • Durkheim

  • Chicago School

  • Sociological explanations such as strain theory

  • Critical criminology (Marist & Feminist)

  • Neutralisation Theory

  • Social disorganisation and differential association

  • Bonger and the political economy

  • Hirschi and control theory

  • Subcultures and delinquency

  • Beckers labelling theory.

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Lecture 24
Practical Classes and Workshops 24
Independent Study 74
Directed Study (including online independent learning) 78
Total Hours Selected 200

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Discuss a range of criminological, sociological or developmental, theories of crime.
LO2 Discuss a range of criminological, sociological or developmental theories of crime which could be used to explain a range of offending.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Report 1 Students are required to produce a report based on criminological, sociological , and biological theories 0 1500 50 No 40
Synchronous Onsite Oral Assessment Oral Assessment (Internally assessed, Onsite) 1 Group Presentation on an evidence-based argument on how the concept of power and criminological, Sociological, or biological theories have an impact on crime and criminality – either in person or online (student choice). 10 N/A 50 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Report 1 ✔ ✔
Oral Assessment (Internally assessed, Onsite) 1 ✔ ✔

Reading List

Amatrudo, A. (2009) Criminology and political theory. Los Angeles, [Calif.] ; London : SAGE. 

Burke, R. H. (2019) An introduction to criminological theory /. London ; New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 

Carrabine, E., Cox, A., Cox, P., Crowhurst, I., Di Ronco, A., Fussey, P., Sergi, A., South, N., Thiel, D. and Turton, J., 2020. Criminology: A sociological introduction. Routledge.

Kloppenburg, S., & van der Ploeg, I. (2018). Securing identities: Biometric technologies and the Enactment of human bodily differences. Science as Culture, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2018.1519534

Ling, S., Umbach, R., & Raine, A. (2019). Biological explanations of criminal behaviour. Psychology, crime & law : PC & L, 25(6), 626–640. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2019.1572753

Lloyd, S., & Müller, R. (2018). Situating the biosocial: Empirical engagements with environmental epigenetics from the lab to the clinic. BioSocieties, 13(4), 675–680. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-017-0094-8

Lynch, M. J. & Stretesky, P. (2017) Radical and Marxist theories of crime. London: Routledge.

McLaughlin, E. (2010) The SAGE handbook of criminological theory /. Los Angeles : SAGE,.

Scraton, P. (2007) Power, conflict and criminalisation /. London ; New York, N.Y. : Routledge,.

Snipes, J. B. et al. (2019) Vold’s theoretical criminology. Eighth edition. New York: Oxford University Press.