AbstractWhile the availability of undergraduate courses in criminology and criminal justice has experienced a boom in British universities, various criminological commentators lament what they perceive to be the marginalisation and even demise of theory within courses. As a field of study criminology is susceptible to becoming preoccupied with topics relating to criminal justice, offending and crime control whereas broader theoretical examinations of these matters are vulnerable to being denuded. That this is the case is attributed to courses not comprising a self- contained discipline but an area of study that because of having relevance to policy and practice has a predisposition towards being concerned with utilitarian and applied matters. The following research seeks to offer an account of the emergence of undergraduate courses in criminology and criminal justice in British universities. It will be shown that teaching in criminology commenced sporadically, was underpinned by social science, and was typically concerned with liberal and progressive ideals. During the 1970s criminology was taught by sociological criminologists as a strand within sociology degrees. It was during this period that theoretical debates, provided by sociology, were injected into criminology and provided it with its academic and intellectual credibility.
It is argued by various commentators that since this time criminology’s theoretical and sociological underpinning has undergone a gradual process of erosion. These commentaries are largely based on the observations of the authors rather than have an empirical basis. The following research seeks to empirically ascertain the veracity of this argument. This is done by utilising two research phases. The first phase involved conducting a content analysis of the core modules of 83 full-time criminology and criminal justice courses offered by British universities. This phase of research provided a snapshot of the proportion of core modules that address theory compared with non-theory. In addition, this phase of the research involved identifying the type of university according to whether they were founded as universities or following 1992 were given university status having formerly been polytechnics and the type of department or school where courses were delivered. The purpose here is to explore what bearing these factors might have on the courses that are offered. The second phase of the research, which was informed by the findings from phase one, involved 20 semi-structured interviews with academic staff with experience delivering teaching on criminology and criminal justice courses. The purpose of conducting semi-structured interviews with academic members of staff was to gather their views regarding the pressures and influences that exist concerning the inclusion of teaching theory in criminology and criminal justice courses.
The following research couches developments and maturation of courses in criminology and criminal justice in relation to reforms and changes affecting higher education. These reforms have resulted in the funding, ethos and purpose of universities being radically altered. Since the 1990s successive British governments have implemented reforms to higher education that have resulted in a mass higher education system where students pay course fees themselves and where ‘the quality of courses’ is increasingly judged in terms of how well they prepare students for employment. It is within this neo-liberal context in which higher education exists that the research found that although not felt with equal measure interviewees did perceive that pressures exist that have had a detrimental effect upon the presence and place of theory, particularly critical and sociological theories, within courses they have experience teaching on.
Date of Award | 9 Oct 2024 |
Original language | English |
Awarding Institution |
Supervisor | Dennis Gough (Supervisor) & Sarah Charman (Supervisor) |