SOCI3290 Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice

Essay task:
Write an essay on one contemporary issue in relation to punishment or rehabilitation, explaining how this has emerged as an issue over time.

 

Word count:
For students enrolled on the year-long CR2008 version: 3000 words (excluding reference list)
For students enrolled on the semester-long CR2027 version: 1500 words (excluding reference list)
We do not operate a ‘10% word limit policy’ – you should aim for as close to the word count as possible

 

Formatting:
Standard formatting guidelines apply. Essays should be:
Word processed
Line spaced 1.5 lines
Font size 12 (Arial or Calibri are standard font types)
Essays should include an introduction, main body, and conclusion.

 

Step 1:
You will need to decide on a topic to focus on for your essay. The essay task is deliberately broad to give you the opportunity to write about something that is relevant to the module that is of interest to you. 

A broad essay task does not mean you should write a broad essay in response. Make sure that you focus on a specific topic that relates to punishment and rehabilitation. It needs to be a contemporary issue, but ‘contemporary’ in this instance can be interpreted quite broadly – something that has been an issue within the last 20 years would be fine. 

 

Here is a list of example topics [NB: this list is not exhaustive, and you do not need to choose a topic from this list. There are other topics we have looked at within the module, or you may have your own ideas for what you want to focus on]:
• Capital punishment (the ‘death penalty’)
• Prisons crisis (overcrowding)
• Global punishment
• Punishment in the community
• Impact of prison on motherhood
• Experiences of punishment for the wrongfully convicted
•Punishing and rehabilitating sex offenders
• (Un)equal punishment? Sentencing consistency
• Rehabilitating intimate partner abusers
• The role of the Prison Governor
• Experiencing long-term imprisonment
• Chemical castration and rehabilitation
• Youth imprisonment
• The effect of imprisonment on fatherhood
• Electronic monitoring of offenders
• Experiences of being a prison officer
• Privatising punishment and rehabilitation
• Art therapy and rehabilitation

 

You may find it useful to turn your topic into an essay question – e.g. ‘Should capital punishment be reinstated?’, or ‘Are prison sentences in England and Wales an effective form of punishment?’.

If you are in any doubt as to whether your topic would be suitable, feel free to get in touch with one of the module team and we can advise you accordingly. 

 

Step 2:
Once you have decided on your topic you should begin researching the literature relating to it. Some of this will be on the recommended readings (and make sure you check the ‘key references’ at the end of lecture slides for further reading suggestions), but you will need to identify sources yourself that will be useful in constructing your essay.

In addition to books and journal articles, you may also want to make use of official statistics (where relevant and appropriate). There is an abundance of official statistics available online, but it will depend on your chosen topic as to what will be relevant to you. Some examples that you may want to consider include [NB: this is not an exhaustive list – there are many other useful sources – but this should hopefully give some guidance on identifying useful sources]:

 

For updated information on criminal justice statistics (including: figures for particular types of sentence, average length of a custodial sentence, sentencing patterns

 

For data on the performance of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) (including: proportion of prisoners in crowded conditions, percentage of prisoners with positive drugs tests, number of prisoners working

 

Step 3a:
Once you have gathered some information from existing literature, you should be ready to make a plan. Essentially this is where you are starting to figure out what the structure of your essay will be. The following advice, offered by Student Learning Development, may be a useful way of thinking about planning the structure of your essay:

By creating a relevant structure, you make it much easier for yourself to present an effective argument. There are several generic structures that can help you start to think about your essay structure e.g.:
• chronological;
• thematic;
• by context;
• comparative.

These can be useful starting points, but you will probably decide to work with a more complicated structure e.g

• overall chronological structure; broken down by comparisons according to the elements of the title;
• overall thematic structure; broken down by sub-themes;
• overall comparative structure; broken down by context.

 

Step 3b:
Related to Step 3a, you will need to decide what you want your overall argument to be. It may be the case that you know this already just from having decided on a topic, or it may be that you need to give this some further thought. It is important to ensure that you have a balanced argument in your essay (i.e. consider different perspectives on key issues), but having an overall argument can help to create a powerful essay. Spend some time thinking about what you want to get across to the reader of your essay in relation to the topic you have chosen. For example: 

I want to argue that capital punishment should not be reinstated.
I want to argue that the current state of prisons denies many the opportunity to be rehabilitated.
I want to argue that community sentences should be made more widely available, particularly to non-violent offenders.
You wouldn’t include these sorts of statements in your essay, but it can be a useful way of thinking about what argument you want to put across which, in turn, can help you to determine how your essay needs to be structured in order to make that argument

 

Step 4:
Once you have decided on a structure for your essay, you may be ready to start writing. The key thing to remember here is that writing essays is an iterative process – as you write, you may find that there are gaps where you need to do some further reading, or areas where you need to give some more thought to what your argument will be. Don’t let this slow you down too much when writing – make a note of where there are gaps, or leave a note to remind yourself to come back and develop a particular part of the essay further.