191-414 Psychology, Crime and the Criminal Justice System

Note

Available as 191-314 at 3rd-year level.

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

3rd year: Any two second year level Criminology subjects; 4th year: Admission to Criminology Honours.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Psychology, Crime and the Criminal Justice System aims to provide criminology students with an introduction to psychology as it has been applied to crime and criminal justice. It is not necessary that students have studied psychology prior to taking this course. The course is divided into two parts. The first examines psychological perspectives on the offender, ranging from the examination of offenders' individual characteristics, such as intelligence, to integrated theories of offending behaviour. The second part of the course turns attention to the criminal justice system itself, the actors who work to make the system function and the perspectives that shape the system's operation. By the end of the course students should be familiar with the psychological perspective on human and organisational behaviour and be able to critically evaluate the contribution of psychological theory to the understanding of criminological phenomena.

Assessment

Up to 5000 words of written work at 3rd year level and 6000 words at 4th year level. An examination may be substituted for part of the written work.