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Criminology | www.essex.ac.uk/sociology | E admit@essex.ac.uk | T +44 (0)1206 873666


Why study criminology? Criminology involves the study of crime, criminals and criminal justice within wider social contexts. It is a fast-growing discipline attracting students from across the world. Global ideas about these issues are continually changing.


Criminology demands a critical engagement with some of the most pressing issues, decisions and dilemmas facing societies today. There are many different approaches to criminology and the subject itself has been shaped by many different academic disciplines over the years. Regardless of their specific orientation, criminologists set out to challenge taken-for-granted ‘common sense’ ideas about crime.


What is distinct about


criminology at Essex? Criminology is very well established at Essex. We have been offering modules in crime and deviance for over thirty years and criminology courses for over ten years. These are based in the Department of Sociology, rated top in the UK in the last Research Assessment Exercise (2008), with a number of staff now specialising in criminology.


The areas covered by our recent books show something of the breadth of our research expertise and the kinds of issues we teach: Eamonn Carrabine, Power, Discourse and Resistance: A Genealogy of the Strangeways Prison Riot (2004) and Crime, Culture and the Media (2008); Pam Cox, Gender, Justice and Welfare: Bad Girls in Britain 1900-1950 (2003) and Becoming Delinquent: British and European Youth, 1650-1950 (co-ed 2002); Maggy Lee, Youth, Crime and Police Work (1998) and Human Trafficking (edited 2007); Nigel South, The New European Criminology, (co-ed 1998) and Drug Use and Cultural Contexts: Beyond the West (2004); Darren Thiel, Policing Terrorism (2009); Jackie Turton, Child Abuse, Gender and Society (2008).


In addition to our more formal academic research, many staff have worked as consultants and researchers with, for example, the Home Office, the Police Foundation, local authorities, local justice councils, public policy organisations and voluntary agencies (such as Drugscope


98 | Undergraduate Prospectus 2012


and Plan International). We draw on this in our teaching and believe that this helps our students better understand some of the pressures and opportunities that careers in these sectors can entail. We are developing an innovative partnership with our local authority allowing students to gain practical experience of local criminal justice interventions as part of their assessed work.


Essex criminology is very collaborative. We have worked together to produce two textbooks and accompanying websites: Crime in Modern Britain (2002) and, more recently, Criminology: A Sociological Introduction (2009).


We also look for opportunities to work with others around the University and have links with the Human Rights Centre (see page 149) and the Children’s Legal Centre (a leading child rights’ organisation based on our Colchester Campus). Some of our modules encourage you to work with crime-related data held by the UK Data Archive (also based on the Colchester Campus). This includes the British Crime Surveys which are used by many policy makers. To study criminology at Essex is to gain rare first-hand access to these key national resources.


Criminology students at Essex benefit greatly from their location in our Department of Sociology – a large, friendly, diverse and academically outstanding place (see page 203).


A sociological view of crime and control holds that these are primarily social issues best understood when considered alongside issues of power, resources, rights, (in)equality, governance and culture. A sociological view also suggests that ‘personal’ issues are often inseparable from ‘public’ issues. This might lead us to ask why certain groups of people are more likely than others to become offenders, why certain kinds of offenders are more likely than others to be caught and punished, why certain kinds of victims are more likely than others to be treated sympathetically and why so many people are simultaneously fearful of, yet fascinated by, crime.


Which course should


I choose? You can opt to study BA Criminology or criminology alongside other subjects. These include social psychology, media, history or American studies. We currently


First in the UK for research.


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