Criminology PgDip/MRes
The Ends of Punishment: Rehabilitation, Desistance and Abolition SOCIO5022
- Academic Session: 2023-24
- School: School of Social and Political Sciences
- Credits: 20
- Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
- Typically Offered: Semester 2
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
Short Description
The Ends of Punishment
Timetable
10 x two-hour sessions
Excluded Courses
None
Co-requisites
None
Assessment
One reflective text of 1,500 words (35%)
One essay of 3,000 words (65%)
Course Aims
The module aims to develop critical understandings of (1) rehabilitation and its contested role within theories and practices of punishment (2) how punishment is left behind by individuals - drawing on research about desistance from crime and (3) how punishment might be left behind by society, with a focus on arguments about abolition and possible alternatives.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course students will be able to:
■ Recognize and critique the arguments for and against rehabilitation as a penal strategy and practice
■ Review and assess research evidence about desistance from crime
■ Evaluate the capacity of and prospects for contemporary forms of rehabilitation and desistance under conditions of late modernity
■ Integrate and synthesize normative and empirical arguments about the need for radical change, alternatives to punishment and the abolition of prisons, the police and/or the criminal justice system.
Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits
None