Introduction to Criminal Justice Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course introduces students to criminal justice systems, focusing on the US and UK examples. Students will explore criminal justice policies and be introduced to the role, application and evolution of rights in the criminal justice system. The course also explores various components of the criminal justice system, including the police, prosecution, courts, and corrections. The focus of these explorations lies on the effects of each component and on the role of discretion in each component.

Course Aims

This course aims to provide:

• Introduce students to criminal justice systems and encourage a critical understanding of criminal justice systems and their component institutions
• Provide a critical appraisal of the role, application and evolution of rights in relation to the criminal justice system and its operations

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Professional Skills

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include: 

A minimum of 36 contact hours, typically to include interactive group teaching, co-curriculars, individual meetings, in-class presentations and exams.

Course information and supplementary materials are available on the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Students will receive individualised developmental feedback on their work for this course.

Students are required to attend and participate in all the formal and timetabled sessions for this course. Students are also expected to manage their directed learning and independent study in support of the course.

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed in class through class activities, and during office hours. Formative assessments are ones that do not count towards the final grade but will provide students with developmental feedback.

Summative

Further information on the structure of summative assessment elements can be found in the Summative Assessment Briefs.

Feedback

Students will receive feedback in a variety of ways: written (including via email correspondence); oral (within office hours or on an ad hoc basis) and indirectly through class discussion.

Feedback is provided on summative assessment and is made available to the student either via email, the VLE or another appropriate method.

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

Books

Cole, George F., Christopher E. Smith & Christina DeJong. (2017). The American System of Criminal Justice, 16th Edition. Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.

Anthea Hucklesby, Azrini Wahidin (2013). Criminal Justice, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Journals

NA

Electronic Resources

NA

Indicative Topics

• Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law
• Policing powers in the US and the UK
• The objectives of punishment and sentencing