Adventures in Crime News and Criminology

This module will invite you to question how crime and deviance have shaped our thoughts, drawing upon its portrayal in the media-news, as well as fears of crime, political responses and crime prevention initiatives. The module aims to introduce you to concepts that contribute to the social construction of crime, such as 'newsworthiness', 'criminogenic media' and moral panics, as well as some basic building blocks of Criminology itself. You will examine and discuss the types of crimes that are prevalent in the media news and consider current criminal justice issues and cases. In addition, you will decipher official statistics, such as those emerging from the British Crime Survey, Police recorded crimes and conviction data, in order to establish a balanced view of the extent of crime in England and Wales. You will examine crime data (statistics, case studies, crime rates etc) and the sources from which they are gathered. Such data analysis will provide a framework for contextualising material that is frequently (partially and mis) represented in the media, within an academic and realistic context.

Political Ideologies and Social Controversies

This module offers a grounding in major political ideologies and key political concepts that will form the foundation for future study in practical and theoretical aspects of social science. The module introduces you to the study of various political ideologies and helps you develop appropriate knowledge and understanding of key features of political ideas and behaviour. Through study of the core elements of ideologies you will have the opportunity to engage in basic comparative study and some degree of historical analysis. You can then utilise this understanding of key political ideologies in order to explore different political environments. In pursuit of this aim the module will reflect on forms of classical political thought and locate these in contemporary political settings.

Researching Social Issues

This module introduces you the range of research instruments available to social scientists. The module explains the value of empirical research as a means to understand social issues. It does this through sustained consideration of one such issue: the policing of ethnic minorities. The module shows how police-minority relations can be analysed using a variety of methods including observation, experiment, quantitative surveys, official statistics, qualitative interviewing, ethnography, archive research, case studies and life histories. Via discussion of these approaches, you come to understand the potential contribution and limitations of each method, the practical issues around effective data gathering, sensitivity to cultural difference, and the ethical and political dimensions of the research process. Throughout the module emphasis is placed on giving you skills and knowledge that will enable you to locate, use and evaluate research findings appropriately.

The Sociological Imagination

Sociology as a discipline focuses on the relations that connect individuals, groups and institutions within societies. This module introduces you to the sociological 'cast of mind' and explores the specific contribution of sociology to understanding the past, present and possible future of modern societies. The module is divided into two parts: 'sociological thinking' and 'sociology in action'. The module begins by introducing you to the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. We will examine how these thinkers analyse work, power and politics, as well as how they each seek to explain and remedy the social and psychological burdens placed on individuals by living in modern societies. The second part of the module introduces you to the ways in which sociologists combine theory and research to make sense of contemporary social life. In particular it will focus on how detailed, systematic observation and analysis of the everyday allows us to explore key questions such as the relationship between individuals and groups, inequality and conflict, and the causes and consequences of social change. These defining questions for the sociological imagination will be approached through sustained discussion of a central feature of society - gender difference.

Theories of Deviance, Crime and Social Control

Individual and Society

Major Project in Criminology or Sociology

Comparative Criminal justice

Basic Criminalistics

Researching Social Issues

Media and Crime

Conflicts and Contradictions in Crime

Sociology of Globalisation

Anglia Language Programme

The Enforcers

Trials and Errors

Just War

Contemporary Explanations of Crime

Violent Crime

Retribution, Restoration and Rehabilitation

Social Divisions

Knowledge and Belief

Social Research Methods

Applied Ethics

Anglia Language Programme

Invisible Crimes

Sex, Sex Offending and society

Terrorism in context

Gender Relations

Sexuality and Social Control

Race, Racism and Identity

Sport, Globalisation and International politics

Anglia Language Programme