module specification

This module will provide students with an critical understanding of criminological theories and effective practice in relation to public protection and those at risk or posing a risk in society. By exploration of the main theories and key policy issues and debates in relation to crime, risk, offender behaviour and the management of offenders/ vulnerable people in the community, the language and practice of risk management will be critical evaluated.

• To demonstrate and illustrate the links between criminological theory and research in respect of public protection.
• To acquaint students with major practice issues and debates on public protection.
• To identify key issues that criminologists need to explain and evaluate in terms of multi-agency working with dangerous offenders.
• To outline key processes in criminal justice, including risk assessment, pre- and post sentence report writing and the planning and delivery of interventions to tackle dangerous offending.
• To critically review the evidence as to what works and what doesn’t in terms of interventions with dangerous offenders.
• To explore related areas of how early intervention can be used to minimise risk to and from vulnerable people: including areas such as mental health problems, housing, young people, drugs/alcohol, poverty and education/employment.

1. Introduction to Module
2. The Language of Risk, criminological theories explaining risk and dangerousness
3. Mentally disordered offenders and mentally vulnerable adults in the community
4. At risk or risky: Young People on Road
5. Working in child protection
6. Multi-disciplinary issues arising from working with mentally disordered offenders and/or cases involving child protection
7. Working with dangerous offenders.
8. Housing and Homelessness: an issue for public protection?
9. Education and Employment. Are we failing and increasing risk?
10. Drugs and alcohol: increasing the risks in society?
11. Presentations of poster design and class discussion
12. Presentations of poster design and class discussion  continued.

Each week, this module will be delivered through a one-hour lecture, and a one hour seminar or workshop. The reading and workshops will be support by weblearn and students will be encouraged to engage in debate, presentations and web materials as well as attending lectures and seminars.

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate critical understanding of the major theories advanced in working with vulnerable and / or dangerous offenders.
2. Provide evidence of what constitutes good and effective practice and what are the guidelines that practitioners must follow.
3. Deconstruction of cases that have gone wrong to understand the difficulty in formulating assessments on dangerous offenders.
4. Analyse and evaluate current policies in criminal justice and related fields and practice using reasoned arguments based on appropriate sources.
5. Identify the constituent elements and the principles underpinning MAPPA and risk management in general.
6. Understand current controversies and debates around the effectiveness of MAPPA when managing serious and dangerous offenders.
7. Critically evaluate current ways of working with serious and dangerous offenders with particular emphasis on multi-agency approaches.
8. Critical understanding of the importance of language within risk debates.

Assessment consists of one poster presentation supported by 1,500 word report on the content and rationale behind the poster (100% of marks). The assessment is predicated upon thorough academic analysis, and appropriate student reading and research.

Batchelor, S. (2011) Beyond dichotomy: Towards an explanation of young women’s involvement in violent street gangs in B.Goldson (ed) Youth in Crisis. Routledge: London.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (M. Ritter, Trans. First ed.).
London: Sage Publications.
Crisp R. (2008) Motivation, morals and justice: discourses of worklessness in the welfare reform green paper. People, Place & Policy Online: 172-185.
Hallsworth, S. and Young, T. (Eds.) (2008). Confronting Youth Groups and Group Delinquency. In Gerald, K. Practical Interventions for Young People at Risk . London: Sage.
Hallsworth, S. and Silverstone, D. (2009). ‘“That’s life innit”: A British perspective on guns, crime and social order’, Criminology and Criminal Justice 9(3): 359-377.
Hudson, B. (2003). Justice in the Risk Society. London: Sage Publications.
Fitzgibbon, D. W. (2004). Pre- emptive Criminalisation; Risk Control And Alternative Futures London: NAPO ICCJ Monograph.
Fitzgibbon, W. (2011) Probation and Social Work on Trial: Violent Offenders and Child Abusers Basingstoke: Palgrave
Fitzgibbon, W.  and Lea, J..(2010) ‘Police, probation and the bifurcation of community’. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 49(3), 215-230
Fitzgibbon, D. W. (2007a) ‘Institutional Racism, Pre-emptive Criminalisation and Risk Analysis’. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 46(2), 128-144.
Fitzgibbon, D. W. (2007b). Risk analysis and the new practitioner: Myth or reality?
Punishment and Society, 9(1), 87-97.
Fitzgibbon, D. W. (2008). Fit for Purpose? OASys assessments and parole decisions.
Probation Journal, 55(1), 37-51.
Fitzgibbon, D. W., & Green, R. (2006). Mentally Disordered Offenders: Challenges in
using the OASys risk assessment tool. British Journal of Community Justice, 4(2), 35
46.
Garland, D. (2001). The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary
Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Goldson, J. (2002) 'New punitiveness: The politics of child incarceration', in J. Muncie, G. Hughes and E. McLaughlin, eds., Youth Justice: Critical Readings, London: Sage Publications
Goldson, G. (ed) (2011) Youth in Crisis? Gangs, Territoriality and Violence. Abingdon: Willan Publishing
Lea  J. (2002) Crime and Modernity London :Sage
Littlechild, B. (2008). Child Protection Social Work: Risks of Fears and Fears of Risks – Impossible Tasks from Impossible Goals? 42(6), 662–675. Social Policy & Administration 42(6), 662–675.
Maurutto, P., & Hannah-Moffat, K. (2006). Assembling Risk and the Restructuring of
Penal Control. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 438-454.
Measham, Fiona C. (2004) ‘Play space: historical and socio-cultural reflections on drugs, licensed leisure locations, commericialisation and control’. International Journal of Drug Policy, 15 (5-6). pp. 337-345.
Nash, M., & Williams, A. (2008). The Anatomy of Serious Further Offences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nash, M., & Williams, A. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of Public Protection.
Collompton: Willan.
Sanders, B. (2005) ‘In the Club: Ecstasy Use and Supply in a London Nightclub’, Sociology, 39 (2), p. 241-258