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Criminal Justice Institutions and Processes

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
  • Convenor: Dr Amy Kirby
  • Assessment: a 1200-word workbook (40%) and 1800-word essay (60%)

Module description

In this module we introduce you to real-world criminal justice institutions and processes and highlight the lived experiences of people who are delivering and on the receiving end of these. We will also introduce you to the dynamics of power and inequalities, and questions of rights, which are intrinsic to key criminal justice institutions and processes. We also offer you practical insights into potential employment options within criminal justice institutions.

Indicative syllabus

  • Overview of criminal justice institutions and processes
  • Public perceptions of criminal justice institutions and processes
  • Power, inequalities and rights in criminal justice institutions and processes
  • The police
  • The pre-trial process
  • The courts and the trial
  • Sentencing and prison
  • National Offender Management Service and probation
  • Community sentences
  • Case studies (e.g. youth justice, victims’ experiences)

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • understand and describe the key institutions, processes and people intrinsic to criminal justice institutions and processes, primarily in the UK context
  • compare and contrast the ‘ideal’ of how the criminal justice process ‘should’ operate with the lived realities of it, including evaluating the lived experiences of people subject to criminal justice institutions and processes
  • evaluate the role of power and inequalities within the structure of the overall criminal justice process and the individual institutions and people within it
  • evaluate key debates and thinkers associated with explanations and critiques of criminal justice institutions and processes
  • evaluate key tensions associated with the formulation and delivery of criminal justice policy
  • analyse relevant knowledge sources and methods appropriate to critically analyse criminal justice institutions and processes, including AI.