Sociology and Criminology

Criminology of Violence and Death

Module code: L5104B
Level 6
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Workshop
Assessment modes: Essay

On this module, you’ll examine the criminology of violence and death.

You’ll understand the motivations for violent crime and assess appropriate justice responses. Topics include:

• violent crime including hate crime, gendered violence, state violence and murder
• which crimes are increasingly talked about in culture and policy
• these crimes against the policy and the lived reality for victims and offenders
• different victim groups within victimology – such as ethnic minorities, the disabled or women 
• the motivation of offenders, from people who commit ‘everyday’ violent crime to extremism
• cultural and media representations of violent crime and death.

Module learning outcomes

• Deploy established criminological and victimological techniques of analysis and inquiry to examine crimes of violence and approaches to death; case studies; policy and practice.
• Devise and sustain arguments about the criminology of death and violence and situate them within a conceptual understanding of crime.
• Be critically aware of cultural and media representations of crimes of violence and approaches to death, and employ criminological and victimological concepts and techniques of inquiry to analyse these.
• Be able to comment on key case studies and their influence on criminal justice responses, drawing on a developed conceptual understanding.