Global Criminology MA

The discipline of criminology traditionally focuses on “street crimes” committed by the poor and powerless such as shoplifting, burglary, robbery and selling illegal drugs in public. When looking at the causes and responses, criminology typically focuses on individual, group, family or community level factors, as well as the effectiveness of welfare and justice institutions such as local authority youth services, the police and prison systems. Critical criminology is a specialist area of the broader criminology discipline that investigates matters of crime and justice equally within the context of power relations and structural inequalities such as, class, gender, nationality, ethnicity, disability, age and sexuality. In this module, we’ll focus on the harms perpetrated by both states and corporations in private spaces, many of which are not prohibited under criminal laws or are criminalised under laws that are under-enforced.

This module looks at the theories and frameworks used by criminologists who take a global approach to the study of crime and justice. You'll focus on how law, crime and justice policies and practices differ between countries, and the extent to which what happens in one country is connected to what happens in another country. The module pays equal attention to criminological theories and concepts developed by researchers in both the global South as well as the global North.

In recent decades, policing practices have become more globalised and involved greater cooperation across borders. At the same time, policing has shifted away from a ‘law and order’ approach towards being more intelligence-led and framed around notions of both internal and global security. These two shifts have led to an increase in the actors, practices, technologies and referent objects involved in global policing and transnational security. This module draws on critical criminology, international relations (IR), sociology, anthropology and geography to critically investigate the actors, practices and technologies of global policing and security. You'll consider how different social and political issues such as mobility, global health, or digital technologies have become issues of policing and security, as well as what the political implications of these policing and security transformations are.

In recent decades, levels of pre-trial and immigration detention and imprisonment have increased across most of the world. While the physical conditions of detention have improved in many countries, most prisons still remain understaffed and offer little purposeful activity. This module investigates the worldwide use and abuse of the power to detain and imprison, the strategies employed by prison governors to manage their institutions, and the survival strategies employed by prisoners.

This module will extend and develop your competence in research design, data collection techniques and analytical skills in a range of diverse (qualitative, quantitative, and alternative) research methods. You’ll develop a conceptual, theoretical, and methodological understanding of these diverse research approaches. You’ll also develop research competencies by critically engaging with these diverse approaches, considering their strengths and limitations and by applying them in practice. You’ll employ advanced skills in practical activity-based learning, which will enable you to develop your understanding and analytical skills for each research approach. Learning will be delivered through lectures, seminars, and structured workshops, as well as individual supervision meetings. You'll also be expected to take significant responsibility for your own learning. The module is designed to provide you with advanced skills and understandings of research methods, so that you can produce a substantive and original piece of research.

Convict criminology is a former-prisoner-led research activist movement that started in the United States in the 1990s and reached the United Kingdom in the 2010s. This module will provide you with an insider perspective on crime and justice through the work of prisoners and former prisoners who are currently studying in higher education. You’ll also get the chance to study the work of established university scholars who have served prison sentences in the past. Since 2012 we have put together a convict criminology research group that has gone on to successfully initiate several higher education programmes that involve students working together with prisoners to study and co-author peer-reviewed academic papers and policy reviews.

This module is available to up to 16 students.

Gangs and the violence they commit have occupied social, political, and academic rhetoric for many years. Despite this, critical comparisons of gangs across the globe are still difficult to find. This module reflects on these gaps in knowledge and ensures students develop a critical and systematic understanding of global gangs. You’ll reflect on existing studies related to gangs, focusing mainly on work from the global North. Looking at gangs in the US and Western Europe, you’ll analyse the history of gangs and the ways in which gangs and the violence they commit have been born out of the ‘metropole’ (including social harm, feminist and cultural perspectives). You’ll then consider the limitations of these approaches, particularly in regard to gang research derived from the global South (including gangs in Asia, Africa and South America). These discussions highlight the problematic nature of existing gang research and the need to southernise and decolonise criminology in order to better reflect gangs across the globe. In the second part of this module you’ll reflect on the relationship between gangs and organised crime, drivers for violence as instrumental and alternative ways of conceptualising young people who become mixed up in the lowest levels of gangs and criminal enterprises. In doing so, you’ll develop a systematic understanding and critical awareness of discourse related to global gangs.

In recent decades private security companies have made inroads into the provision of criminal justice services such as the management of private prisons and the employment of private contractors patrolling public space. This has been a global phenomenon with the activities of the same private security corporation often spanning across both the global North and South. In this module you’ll examine the nature of privatisation and the factors that have led to its growth in recent decades. You’ll also consider the issues of legitimacy, efficiency and human rights which inevitably arise as a result of the privatisation of the justice system.

Terrorism and radicalisation have predominantly been studied according to state centric perspectives, which disregard any harm brought about by the state. This perspective has not only led to a partial examination of the root causes and consequences of terrorism, but in doing so has also dismissed the entities that have the most power to facilitate radicalisation and terrorism. This module will introduce you to the relationship between state crime, injustice, and radicalisation in the ‘war on terror’. It discusses how state crimes, including violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHR) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) perpetuate global and national injustices, facilitate radicalisation, and uphold the socially constructed ‘war on terror’ debate. The module contributes to the diversification and decolonisation of criminology through its exploration and use of post-colonial perspectives. You'll be introduced to post-colonial perspectives as not only equally valid discussions surrounding the ’war on terror’, but through evidence are also encouraged to recognise the value of post-colonial perspectives in reducing the perpetuation of harm within the ‘war on terror’. These new perspectives will encourage you to consider how discourses are constructed and their value and importance in relation to policies and legislation.