| Unit name | Inequality, Harm and Public Policy |
|---|---|
| Unit code | SPOL30061 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Mike McBeth |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School for Policy Studies |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
This unit addresses the relationship between state, society and the production of crime and harm. The unit is concerned with understanding how crime and social harms can be understood as products of the ways different societies are organised. It focuses on the role and impact of the inequality to address a key question of whether unequal societies produce higher levels of crime and social harm than more egalitarian societies. From this, further questions are raised about specific processes, policies and interventions which make crime and social harms less likely to occur in more egalitarian societies. Public policy interventions towards a crime and harm-free society are thus explored.
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
1.demonstrate a sophisticated understadning of how crime and social harms can be produced through the different ways societies are organised
2. use and interpret the empirical evidence and synthesise the theoretical debates on the relationship between inequality and crime and social harm
3. critically evaluate how crime and social harm can be reduced through public policy interventions in different country contexts.
Lectures (20 hours) and Seminars (10 hours) plus 1 reading week and 1 revision week.
Summative:
Braithwaite, J. (2013) Inequality, Crime and Public Policy, London: Routledge
Chasin, B. (2004) Inequality and Violence in the United States: Casualties of Capitalism, Humanity Books
Hillyard P, Pantazis C, Tombs S and Gordon D (eds.) (2004) Beyond Criminology: Taking Harm Seriously, London: Pluto
Iadicola, P.and Shupe, A. (2012) Violence, Inequality and Human Freedom, Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield INC.
Leonard, E. (2015) Crime, Inequality and Power, London: Routledge
Pantazis, C. & Pemberton, S. (2009) “Nation States and the Production of Social Harm: Resisting the Hegemony of ‘TINA’”, in R. Coleman, J. Sim, S. Tombs & D. Whyte (eds) State, Power, Crime, London: Sage (pp214-233)
Pemberton, S. (2015) Harmful Societies: Understanding Social Harm. Bristol: Policy Press
Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2010) The spirit level : Why equality is better for everyone. Penguin: Harmondsworth
