Unit information: Digital Technologies, Harm and Criminal Justice in 2022/23

Unit name	Digital Technologies, Harm and Criminal Justice
Unit code	SPOL30078
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Milivojevic
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	School for Policy Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Unit Information

This unit investigates key concepts, debates, and challenges linked to crime-technology nexus. It looks at the development and impact of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoT), autonomous mobile robots, quantum computing, blockchain, and other emerging frontier technologies on offending, crime control, the criminal justice system, and the discipline of criminology.

In this unit, we consider:

• Criminological, ethical, legal, and policy questions associated with development of frontier technologies;
• The influence of digital frontier technologies on offending, victimization, crime prevention, policing, judiciary, and corrections;
• The impact (both harmful and beneficial) of technologies on everyday life of citizens, non-citizens, offenders, victims of crime, media, civil society, and vulnerable categories such as minority communities.

In this unit, we start the conversation about challenges we face now, and will be facing in the future, and how best to address them.

The aims of this unit are:

• To examine how crime, harm and technology intersect in contemporary society;
• To understand the relevance of different theoretical and inter-disciplinary approaches and their application to our understanding of crime-technology nexus;
• To evaluate the impact (harmful and beneficial) of technology on offending, victims of crime, criminal justice system, disadvantaged people, and our society as a whole.

Your learning on this unit

At the end of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate critical understanding of the nature of crime-technology nexus in online and real-life settings.
2. Analyse challenges in development and deployment of new technologies and their impact on crime and offending, including practical, political and ethical hurdles.
3. Evaluate theoretical approaches and arguments about the role of technology in offending, victimisation, and the criminal justice system.
4. Identify how technology informs policy and academic debates in criminology.

How you will learn

This unit will draw on a blended learning approach. Students will engage with taught content and other teaching and research materials and will be tasked to complete activities in preparation for synchronous sessions to present and discuss ideas and clarify learning. Students will undertake formative assessment in preparation for their assessed work.

How you will be assessed

3000 word Policy Report (100%)

Assesses Learning Outcomes 1-4.

Final year students are not usually given the opportunity to retake assessments, if they do need to submit in a reassessment period due to ECs, the reassessment would be the same as the original assessment.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. SPOL30078).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.