This unit provides an examination of research methods in the context of criminology. The relationship between theory and methodology is explored. The production of knowledge about crime is critically assessed. Sources and forms of crime data are discussed and their significance is assessed. Research design, evaluation and analysis are also studied.

This unit examines the relevance of theory to the process of explaining crime as a social phenomenon. It will selectively analyse the history of criminological thought. Special attention will be given to the cross-disciplinary nature of efforts to understand crime, criminality and their causes. A significant section of the unit will deal with contemporary approaches to criminological explanation including the influence of feminism and postmodernism. Contemporary theorists such as Foucault, Garland and Braithwaite will also be considered. The unit will endeavour to make explicit the links between criminological theory and the development of public policy.

This unit examines the relevance of theory to the process of explaining crime as a social phenomenon. It will selectively analyse the history of criminological thought. Special attention will be given to the cross-disciplinary nature of efforts to understand crime, criminality and their causes. A significant section of the unit will deal with contemporary approaches to criminological explanation including the influence of feminism and postmodernism. Contemporary theorists such as Foucault, Garland and Braithwaite will also be considered. The unit will endeavour to make explicit the links between criminological theory and the development of public policy.

This unit provides an examination of research methods in the context of criminology. The relationship between theory and methodology is explored. The production of knowledge about crime is critically assessed. Sources and forms of crime data are discussed and their significance is assessed. Research design, evaluation and analysis are also studied.

In this unit, students will gain an appreciation of how gender impacts the ways that the criminal law and justice system contend with accused persons and their victims. The Law's claims to equality and neutrality will be scrutinised, as will perceptions of discrimination based on gender. The ingredients of particular personal violence offences (assault, sexual assault, the homicides) and related defences (provocation and self-defence, 'insanity' and substantial impairment, automatism, infanticide, intoxication, necessity and duress) from historical, theoretical and practical context perspectives will be examined.

This unit looks at the ways in which the exercise of discretionary judgment arises for consideration in the course of the criminal justice process and the ways in which that judgment should be exercised at each step. It deals with each stage from the reporting or observation of crime, through investigation, arrest, charging, bail, plea, hearing, appeal, retrial and publicity. It describes how actors at each step (citizens, police, prosecutors and judges) confront decision making, the laws (legislation, common law) and rules (prosecution guidelines, memoranda and procedures) that apply and provides examples of the exercise of such discretions. It also looks at the place of public commentary (personal, the media and political) in the process. The unit explores nuances in the conduct of any criminal prosecution aside from the application of the letter of the law.

This unit of study examines the socio-legal complexities of responding to child sexual abuse in society. The unit presents students with a theoretical and multidisciplinary framework for understanding and evaluating contemporary issues relevant to child sexual abuse. More specifically the unit of study will analyse the nature of child sexual abuse and the underlying dynamics of such victimisation. Students will critically evaluate different strategies and models directed at identification and prevention of child sexual abuse and critically analyse legal responses to child sexual victimisation.

The unit aims to provide a broad overview of the functioning of the juvenile justice system and its relationship to juvenile offending. There is a specific emphasis on NSW in terms of understanding the operation of a particular system, however reference is frequently made to the wider Australian and international context. The unit analyses the historical development of a separate system of juvenile justice and the system of ideas about juvenile delinquency as distinct entities separable from broader notions of criminality and criminal justice. The unit also analyses the contemporary nature of juvenile crime and specific issues in relation to offending, policing, community-based corrections and detention centres. Social relations which mediate between the juvenile justice system and young people will be investigated through a focus on gender, race and class. The broader political determinants surrounding the operation of the juvenile justice system and moral panics in relation to juvenile offending will also be examined. The unit aims to develop a critical understanding of the link between theory and juvenile justice policy, and to develop an appreciation of the multi-disciplinary nature of criminological explanation.

This unit examines responses to crime and crime prevention with reference to shifting notions of crime and responsibility for crime. It encourages a critical appreciation of the limitations of criminal justice system responses to crime and the necessity to develop a broader approach to crime prevention policy which responds to economic, social and cultural issues. The unit examines different ways of thinking about criminal justice, such as a means of order maintenance, dispute resolution, or risk management, and the shifting focus towards the prevention of future harms. Specific topics may include: restorative justice specialist courts, privatisation and contractualism, security, policing, and approaches to crime prevention and community safety.

This unit critically examines the power relations that are policing (public and private). It recognizes and builds upon the essential and often problematic role of policing in crime control and security. Major aspects of police work and the discretion on which it depends, are analysed in order to understand the dynamics of social control in an age of risk and security.

This unit critically explores the complex cultural social and popular intersections between media and crime in the broadest sense Topics covered include news reporting of crime media constructions of offenders and offences moral panic and labelling media and policing reality crime shows surveillance and social control crime television and film crime and social media

This unit critically examines the development of the modern criminal law and process broadly since end eighteenth century. In terms of process, topics to be considered may include: the development of the adversarial trial system, the decline of capital punishment, the formalization of rules of evidence and proof the growth of the summary jurisdiction and the appearance of hybrid civil criminal procedural forms. In terms of criminal law topics may include: non-fatal offences against the person sexual offences possession and endangerment offences. The discussion of these topics is set in the context of legal scholarly discourse criminal law theory and the unit provides opportunity for reflection on the contemporary challenges of coordination and legitimation facing the criminal law. This unit adopts an explicitly critical sociohistorical approach to the study of law. Discussion of relevant legal theoretical scholarship forms a core part of the subject matter of the unit.

This unit examines various perspectives on the recognition of victims of crime as participants in the criminal justice system. This unit examines the victim of crime as a dynamic agent of justice by considering the role of the victim in the development of criminal law, the removal and exclusion of the victim in criminal justice, the rise of the victim rights movement, the development of victim rights and human rights and the contemporary relocation of the victim in common law and statute and as a participant of the criminal trial. It encourages a critical appreciation of the criminal justice system by examining competing theories of victimisation and the attempt to place these theories into a particular policy context. Through a discrete examination of the needs of particular victim groups law reform inquiries and commissions and reforms to the criminal trial, this unit will challenge the major assumptions of the removal of the victim from the criminal justice system and will critically evaluate the often incomplete and fragmented way in which victims are granted a level of recognition in the modern justice system on a domestic and international basis.

New digital technologies are rapidly emerging as conduits for criminality as well as tools of policing and criminal procedure, and in the infrastructure of punishment. In this unit of study, students will learn about the impacts of technologies on crime and justice: in the commission of new crimes, in law enforcement and regulatory challenges, national security, and digital transformations in court procedure and court space, algorithmic risk assessments, corrections, and in the supervision of offenders. This unit of study draws from socio-legal literature and the emerging field of Digital Criminology to understand the profound shifts occurring in the move from terrestrial to digital environments, and from human 'reality' to augmented, virtual and artificial platforms in the criminal justice system.

This unit explores how international law has confronted terrorist violence from the mid-19th century to the present, including under transnational and international criminal law, the law on the use of military force, the law of armed conflict, human rights law, measures adopted by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, and the law of state responsibility. It considers controversies about the (in)adequacy of the law in areas such as `targeted killings' (or extrajudicial assassinations?), aerial drones, detention and trial of suspects, `irregular renditions' (illegal abductions?), `enhanced interrogation' (torture?), `shoot to kill' policies, foreign terrorist fighters and citizen stripping, mass surveillance and privacy, and public emergency laws. Selected regional laws (in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa) and national laws (particularly in Australia, the UK and the US) implementing international obligations are also considered. The study of terrorism, and the law's response to it, is ultimately a study of when violence is justified, against whom, and for what purposes ¿ whether it is `freedom fighters' or `state terrorism', or extreme religious challenges to secular norms, at issue.

Hate crime has emerged as a global problem in the last few decades. Yet the concept itself is controversial. This unit aims to trace the development of the socio-legal concept of hate crime, causal explanations for hate crime and the different ways in which it is regulated. The unit will examine some the major forms of hate crime, including racist, ethno-religious and homophobic violence, with a focus on contemporary debates, such as: is violence against women a form of hate crime; should paedophiles be a protected category; should hate crimes attract higher punishment than other crimes? The unit will critically assess the international geography of hate crime law, making comparisons between Australia, the UK and the US. The unit will seek to provoke debate about how we should define and combat the problem of hate crime.

This unit deals with the law relating to mental health issues in Australia including human rights principles. Background material on the nature and incidence of mental illness, psychiatric and medical issues, as well criminological and public policy literature will be considered where relevant. The unit covers substantive issues from civil treatment, welfare law, and criminal law. Topics covered will include: the social context of mental illness and the current and historical approaches to treatment of the mentally ill; contemporary State, Territorial and Federal involvement in mental health policy and legislation; the present framework of NSW mental health law and related welfare law including the Mental Health Act, Guardianship Act, Protected Estates Act and Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act; the process of scheduling persons with a mental illness; review mechanisms including the roles of the medical superintendent, magistrates, the mental health review tribunal and the Supreme Court; longer term detention of the mentally ill; community treatment and community counselling orders; protected estates and guardianship orders; electroconvulsive therapy; consent to surgery and special medical treatment; the defence of not guilty on the grounds of mental illness, the review of forensic patients and the exercise of the executive discretion; the issue of unfitness to be tried; the involuntary treatment of prisoners in the correctional system; and proposals and options for reform.

This unit considers the significance of anxiety, 'fear of crime', risk and insecurity in the late modern world. It uses sophisticated analytical tools to discuss both the supposed growth in 'fear of crime' and the emergence of an array of technologies aimed at the reduction of crime risks. It also critically examines just what 'fear of crime' might actually be and how newspapers, security products, and insurance can be sold to us using the hook of our own anxieties. It also examines the anxieties related to terrorism and threats to national security and sovereignty.

Western attitudes toward death have undergone a remarkable transformation in the last century. For many, death now takes place in the hospital or the hospice following the decision of a doctor to cease providing treatment. As the management of death has passed from the family to health care professionals, it now makes sense to regard the moment and circumstances of death as largely medical phenomena. Moreover, as 'autonomy' has taken a dominant place amongst ethical values, it also makes sense to describe and measure death in terms of its 'acceptability' both to the dying person and his or her survivors. In tandem with these changes, technological innovations have transformed the dead or dying body into a potential source of valuable (and recyclable) biological material. These developments have thrown up new and urgent challenges for legal understandings about the timing of, and criminal responsibility for causing, death both within and outside medical settings. These developments have also disturbed conventional understandings of the corpse as sacred. Topics to be covered may include: death in contemporary Australia, the legal definition of life and death, medical futility and the concept of 'lives not worth living', euthanasia (with and without request), physician-assisted suicide, refusing and withholding life-prolonging treatment in adults and children, the Shipman/Patel scandals, ownership of the corpse and body parts, dead donor organ transplantation, organ sale and theft, posthumous reproduction, 'mercy' killing outside medical settings and the jurisdiction of the Coroner. The unit will interrogate these and other contemporary challenges for the law relating to death and dying both within Australia and, where appropriate, other selected comparator jurisdictions (US, UK and Canada). These will be mapped against socio-historical understandings of the changing meaning of death, dying and serious disability in Western societies, and students will be encouraged to reflect on the broader legal implications of these developments.

The unit examines traditions of criminological theorising, research and public intervention that focus on the socio-spatial context(s) and determinants of crime and its governance. It explores the principal sources of data collection, the methodologies and theoretical underpinnings concerned with the spatial and social ecological dispersion of crime and deviance and its techniques of management and control. It also explores the relationship of public safety and crime prevention to public policy/interventions in areas such as urban and regional planning, housing, local government and community services.

Forensic psychology is the application of psychological knowledge and theories to all aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems. It is currently one of the fastest developing and most popular aspects of psychology. In this unit we will draw upon psychological evidence to explain and understand some of the people and processes involved in the legal system. Through a series of interactive seminars, we will discuss topics such as lie detection, profiling, interviewing, jury deliberation, eyewitness memory, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and police officers.

The Criminal Justice Internship provides an opportunity to experience the working environment of criminal justice agencies. Experience gained through placement with a relevant agency will be complemented by attendance at intensive seminars. These seminars will provide opportunities to reflect on the role of the host agency, the policy context within which the host agency operates, the ethical challenges associated with the work of the agency and the specific skills and knowledge gained through the Internship. The Internship will be especially beneficial to those students with limited work experience or those pursuing or contemplating a career change.

The goal of this unit of study is to provide Master of Criminology students with an opportunity to pursue advanced research in an area of their choosing, under the limited supervision of a School member. The unit is only available in special circumstances, and with the approval of the Program Coordinator.

Please refer to LAWS6233 Criminology Research Project A.