Level 3 Criminology Diploma

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Course Content

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 1 – What is this thing we call ‘crime’?

The first module highlights the fact that comprehensions of some social phenomenon such as crime are dependent upon the concepts of the day. Over time attitudes and beliefs have changed and the above view of crime and criminality also changed due to advances in science and empirical enquiry. This change was brought about during the period of enlightenment and the rise of rationalism throughout the eighteenth century when people moved away from superstitious thought and demonology to questioning why certain things occurred to certain people as it was not possible to prove or disprove effects of, or even the existence of, divine factors. The modern approach to addressing crime and criminality is based upon facts and scientific enquiry often resulting in the use of statistics and the conclusions that are drawn from the results.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 2 – Sociological Explanations of ‘Crime’

In this module the student will focus on the sociological theories of crime, theories that concentrate on extraneous variables as the causes of crime such as poverty, unemployment, exploitation and labelling. This approach started to gain popularity in Britain after a change within the whole social structure caused by the industrial revolution, when life changed dramatically from the rural lifestyle of extended families and close knit communities who were relatively self sufficient and worked towards common aims.

The more modern approach to the life that we live now involves smaller, nuclear families, reconstituted families and the displacement of people who moved to the cities looking for work and a better quality of life. These changes brought about mass urbanisation bringing together communities with different beliefs, customs and personal goals. In pre-industrial Britain crime was more dispersed than it was in post-industrial times and sociologists argue that during more modern times the phenomenon of such things as ‘crime hotspots’ coupled with the fact that statistics now show that there is far more crime occurring in heavily built up areas highlights the changes brought on by industry and a more capitalist lifestyle. However it is these changes to the population of Britain that has shaped our modern society and the modern sociological theories of the causes of crime.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 3 – Psychological Approaches to ‘Crime’

This module looks at developmental psychology, gender, social psychology, biological psychology, individual differences, personality, social learning theories, moral development, cognitive and decisions making processes, theories of aggression, sexual deviation, and mental disorders as explanations of criminal activity. The psychology of crime is becoming increasingly an important aspect of crime prevention and detection, movies and television now turn to the psychologists as the new age detectives, but this is reflected in the real world.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 4 – Offender Profiling and Eyewitness Testimony

This module looks at the early work of the FBI and the methods employed in the latter part of the last century. The module then looks at the work of David Canter a UK psychologist now famous as a profiler since he aided in the capture of John Duffy the ‘Railway Rapist’. Finally the work of Brent Turvey a forensic scientist from the United States is considered. Turvey developed the Behavioural Evidence Analysis method of criminal profiling. We will then ask the question ‘is profiling as great as we are led to believe or is profiling not to be trusted’. Eyewitness testimony will then be dealt with highlighting the pros and cons of this very complex issue.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 5 – Representing ‘Crime’

On completion of this module you will realise that there are many problems with the way that statistics are gathered and the pictures that they portray and also how crime is problematic to society when represented by the media. We will look at the ‘dark figure’ of crime which is not some sinister character but a theory that postulates that we do not know how much crime is out there and with current methods of studying the phenomenon of crime we have no way of knowing the truth. Politicians use these statistics to fuel their political manifestos, the police use them to inform the public of their success rates and in turn the court system uses these statistics to inform itself and the general public about the state of crime in this country. This method of using police statistics and court statistics is referred to as official statistics but as you will see it can quite easily be argued that these statistics carry very little weight and can be very misleading. It could be said that these raw figures that are being collated are used purely to make assumptions but assumptions do not help to win the war against crime.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 6 – Environmental Criminology

If patterns of criminality and victimisation were consistently random there would be no need for crime mapping or even environmental criminology for that matter. However crime and victimisation do fit into patterns and the geographical concentration of crime coupled with other criminological research such as that done on repeat offenders highlights the need for criminological investigation of crime and the social environment. This module will look briefly at the history of this approach to studying crime starting with its birth in the nineteenth century and finish on more modern theories of environmental criminology that attempt to explain the spatial distribution of offences and the spatial distribution of offenders.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 7 – Crime Prevention and Community Safety

Firstly this module looks at the perceived failures and limitations of traditional approaches to crime prevention. Moving on the module then looks at more contemporary approaches to crime prevention and community safety and explores the philosophy of ‘what works’ in the UK and other countries.

Crime prevention and community safety have been transformed over the last twenty-five years and this transformation has impacted on academic study, policy and practice. This module looks at the history of crime prevention and community safety policies in the modern era, the rise of the ‘what works’ approach in the UK and the possible future developments in both practice and theory to do with prevention, safety and risk management. On completion of this module you will be able to understand the key concepts and research findings that allow for new directions to be taken, understand the main trends in crime prevention and community safety within the UK.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 8 – Women and ‘Crime’

Criminology has been developed based on male subjects and male victimisation and the relevant theories have been generalised to include all criminals. This sexist approach influences the sentencing, punishment and imprisonment of women and also with the help of the media, the public is led to believe that these women are not bad rather they are mad. Women are judged to the level of appeared conformity to the image of a wife, mother or obedient daughter who contribute to society in a beneficial way. Women who do not conform to this ideal are said to go against their natural biological traits of passivity and compliance are seen as mentally ill. This module takes a brief look at the plight of women that for whatever reason fall foul of the criminal justice system.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 9 – Green ‘Crime’

This module highlights the ways in which criminology is developing and looks at a relatively new addition to the field of criminology called the greening of criminology. Green criminology looks at the causes, and culpability of environmental disasters, an environmental is a disaster that has happened due to human activity and should not be confused with natural disasters. Green crime occurs through violations of local and international regulations, agreements and laws designed to protect the environment. Or they happen because of some type of exploitation, corporate crimes and corruption. Examples used in this module are the Union Carbine disaster at Bhopal India and Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster.

Level 3 Criminology Diploma Module 10 – White Collar ‘Crime’

Whenever we think of crime and criminals we think about burglaries and car crime, thieves and junkies. How much does this type of crime cost the country? The people that take the blame for the state of the country tend to be poor people who commit crimes out of opportunity but are these people really costing the country the most money when it comes to crime, are they the real problem to the British economy? This module looks the problem of white collar crime from the criminological perspective starting with a definition of the term, statistics that highlight how bad the situation is, types of white collar crime and theories that attempt to explain this type of crime.