BASS Politics and Sociology / Course details

Year of entry: 2023

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Course unit details:
Policing and the Police

Course unit fact file
Unit code	CRIM20051
Credit rating	20
Unit level	Level 2
Teaching period(s)	Semester 1
Offered by	School of Social Sciences
Available as a free choice unit?	Yes

Overview

This course provides students with a critical, research-based appreciation of the police, police-work and policing.

Indicative content: (1) Introduction to the course; (2) Police reform; (3) Discretion, discrimination, diversity; (4) Understanding police powers; (5) Street policing; (6) Police occupational culture; (7) Covert policing; (8) Police misconduct & complaints; (9) Public order policing & human rights; (10) Course overview and assessment preparation.

Aims

The unit aims to (1) introduce students to the area of police, police-work and policing; and, (2) provide students with a critical understanding of research as applied to these topics.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this unit successful students will be able to: (1) understand the contested dynamics of police-work and policing; (2) appreciate classic and contemporary research on policing; (3) develop a clear understanding of the nature of contemporary debates on policing and the police.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods will be flexible and allow us to adapt to changing conditions, however, the common intention across units is to provide a blended offer of the best in online and on-campus teaching that includes: (1) whole-class sessions used for a range of exercises and activities; (2) high quality online learning materials; (3) a tutorial; (4) 1:1 support via a subject-specific contact hour.

Employability skills

Other: (i) analyse, critique and (re-)formulate a problem or issue; (ii) rapidly and thoroughly review/rate argument and evidence from targeted bibliographic searches; (iii) plan, structure and present arguments in a variety of written formats and to a strict word limit, (iv) express ideas verbally and organise work effectively in small teams for a variety of written and oral tasks; (v) obtain, manipulate and (re-)present different forms of data; (vi) manage time effectively; (vii) reflect on and improve performance through feedback.

Assessment methods

Method	Weight
Written exam	100%

Feedback methods

Formative feedback (both individual and collective) will be given on (1) on tasks and contribution in class, (2) the mock exam essay. In addition to individual marks, class-level feedback will be given on the exam.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures	20
Tutorials	10

Independent study hours
Independent study	70

Additional notes

Across their course units each semester, full-time students are expected to devote a ‘working week’ of around 30-35 hours to study. Accordingly each course unit demands around 10-11 hours of study per week consisting of (i) 3 timetabled teacher-led hours, (ii) 7-8 independent study hours devoted to preparation, required and further reading, and note taking.

Information

Assessment

Students will be provided with a preliminary examination paper at the end of teaching (mid-December) containing eight questions. When candidates sit their examination in January, three of these questions will have been removed from the Examination Paper and they will be required to answer three of the remaining five questions. SUBJECT TO COVID19 DELIVERY. SO ANY EXAM WILL BE ONLINE WITH AN EXTENDED COMPLETION

Restricted to: BA (Criminology) and LLB (Law with Criminology) students for which this subject is compulsory, Law School students, BA (Econ) students (all pathways) and BA Social Sciences (BASS).

This course is available to incoming study abroad students university wide.

Pre-requisites: None.

Timetable
See Law School timetable

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