Module: CRI6102-20 Narratives of Crime

Level: 6

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Rosalchen Whitecross

Module Tutor Contact Details: r.whitecross@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module: 

This module explores the subjective dimensions of crime. What might it feel like to be an offender, a victim, a police officer? We will search beyond the hard data and statistical measures of quantitative research in order to get to the very heart of the criminal experience. Using theoretical perspectives from interactionist, cultural, narrative and convict criminology we will investigate how words themselves and the stories they tell may have a far greater impact on crime than you ever imagined. The module will offer an introduction to ethnographic research methods which allow researchers to study crime from street level and there will be an opportunity to work with the authentic narratives of offenders. As well as individual biographies, this module will investigate the collective narratives created by popular culture; the films, TV programmes and news media that all contribute to the story of crime, allowing you to explore both the fact and fiction of offending and the shady places in between. The module will enable students to develop key transferable skills in communication, IT and self-management.

2. Outline syllabus: 

The curriculum will be drawn from topics which may include:

▪       The ethnographic tradition in criminology

▪       Cultural criminology - hegemony, edgework, carnival and seductions of crime

▪       Convict criminology and offender education as narrative

▪       Offender (auto) biography

▪       Stories of desistance

▪       Crime as text - the linguistic construction of crime

▪       Crime in popular culture

3. Teaching and learning activities: 

This module will be delivered through a series of workshops combining lecture content group work and discussion based on preparatory reading and materials supplied in the seminar and practical reading and writing activities. Guest speakers will support development of critical understanding of crime as narrative/text.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Critical and narrative analysis of interview data (2500 words)

• % Weighting: 50

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Narrative of crime (written, filmed or audio record) (2500 words equivalent)

• % Weighting: 50