Crime and Society Assessment: Instructions and Learning Outcomes

Programme Assessment Scheme

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Crime and Society assessment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

After completing the module, you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of patterns of crime and the significance of crime in society.
2. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the respective institutional roles in the criminal justice system and their relationships with each other, and with society.
3. Demonstrate a basic understanding of criminological theories and their relationships to each other.
4. Demonstrate a basic ability to analyse social, philosophical and legal issues relating to crime, criminal justice and social policies.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the need to consider issues of globalisation, ethics and diversity in relation to criminology and criminal justice policy.

Please note that exceeding the word count by over 10% will result in a reduction in grade by the same percentage that the word count is exceeded.

You must not include your name in your submission because Arden University operates anonymous marking, which means that markers should not be aware of the identity of the student. However, please do not forget to include your STU number.

You should complete any one of the questions below.

1. To what extent is there an identifiable ‘underclass’ in the UK that is disproportionately involved in crime?
2. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of control theory, and also assess the view that its weaknesses mean we should no longer consider it valid in any circumstances.
3. Levels of violent crime change over time by significant amounts. How well does this fit with the idea that much violent crime is committed by people with serious mental illnesses?