Criminal Law and Political Justice

Criminal law has a central importance in criminology, since it is the criminal law which determines the legality or illegality of behaviours. This subject studies social and political dimensions of the criminal law as it governs institutional processes and the construction of criminality. The first section of the course covers differences in the ways that criminal law and criminology construct social issues as crime, with particular emphasis on the legal processes of criminal justice. The next sections provide substantive examinations of different aspects of the social and political dimensions of criminal law with particular emphasis on topical areas currently subject to contestation and change: such as the regulation of public space; and the ways in which the criminal law seeks to regulate the production of images.

探讨刑法与政治正义的相互关系。

• 1Have familiarity with the processes and categories of criminal law
• 2Have the ability to describe and analyse some ways of regulating crime through criminal law
• 3Understand some of the political and social dimensions of the institutions and practices of criminal law
• 4Understand some of the ways in which criminal law produces and regulates everyday life in the contemporary city
• 5Have the ability to explain some aspects of the role and construction of gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity in the criminal law
• 6Communicate effectively in oral and written formats.