1. Handbook
  2. Bachelor of Arts
  3. Majors, Minors and Specialisations
  4. Criminology

Criminology

Bachelor of ArtsMajorYear: 2021

You’re viewing the 2021 Handbook:
Or view archived Handbooks
You’re currently viewing the 2021 version of this component

Overview

Criminology draws knowledge and perspectives from a range of disciplines such as law, sociology, psychology, psychiatry and history. Initially, criminology had a strong practical focus: its role was to advise governments on issues such as policing, the management of prisons, sentencing and offender treatment. Concern with policy and practice remains, but criminologists now work in a much wider range of fields including crime prevention, corporate and white-collar crime, business regulation, drug policy and consumer and environmental protection. Criminology doesn’t take crime and criminal law for granted. As an academic discipline it continually questions why different societies define and respond to crime in different ways, and why approaches to punishment and other forms of social control have varied so much from era to era. Increasingly criminologists also study the ways cultures depict crime: whether in newspapers, television and other mass media or in films, novels and art.

Intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this major, students will be able to:

  • understand the socio-economic, political, cultural and historical conditions influencing crime, justice and deviance, the criminal justice system, and crime control mechanisms from an Australian and international perspective; and
  • critically discuss criminological and socio-legal theories and concepts; and
  • understand the relationship between the institutions and practices of criminal justice and wider social control; and
  • evaluate social, cultural, historical and legal responses to criminalisation, criminality and crime control from an interdisciplinary perspective; and
  • demonstrate an understanding of research processes in the social sciences including design, methodology and methods, analysis, interpretation, and the diversity of approaches to research; and
  • recognise the importance of ethical standards of conduct in the research and analysis of social and political phenomena; and
  • work productively in groups; and
  • communicate effectively in oral and written formats.

Last updated: 3 May 2024