Crime (21079)

Year: 2
Term: 3
Number of ECTS credits: 4

Syllabus

This course approaches the study of crime from a comparative and international perspective. Crime rates in general and for different types of crime in different societies are examined (with special emphasis on violent and organised crime) together with the factors associated with social structure and the legal and punitive traditions that best explain these differences.

Background information: the course follows on from first year courses that served as an introduction to criminology and also goes into more depth, acting as a bridge between these and the methodology courses through the comparison of international crime and sentencing statistics and the factors associated with them in each country.

Course typology and focus: this is a comparative and applied course which aims to investigate the adaptation of the major criminological theories to the empirical manifestations of crime and its sanctions in different developed societies.

Key aspects of the course: the course underlines the need to contextualise the study of crime and punishment according to each country's cultural and socioeconomic patterns.

Contents section 1. The first part of the course centres on explaining to what extent and how criminology theories explain the differences in crime rates and types between countries. To this end, the available empirical evidence on crime rates in Western societies are examined, differentiating between what could be termed the Anglo-American world (the USA, Great Britain etc), Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, etc.), the Continent (Germany, France, etc.) and the Mediterranean (Spain, Italy, etc.). The risk factors associated with different types of crime are analysed (factors related to family, social class, the environment, etc.) as they are presented in the major criminological theories, whose main characteristics are also reviewed. Finally, the socio-demographic distribution of these risk factors is discussed, together with their possible differential impact on Anglo-American, Scandinavian, Continental and Mediterranean societies, showing how they can help to explain the differences in crime rates in general and for different types of crime.

Contents section 2. The second part of the course discusses the importance of cultural factors and the typical responses to delinquency and crime found in the punitive systems of advanced societies. The Anglo-American traditions, which give preference to retributive justice in accordance with the principle of individual responsibility, are compared with Scandinavian traditions, which emphasis reinsertion in accordance with the principle of shared responsibility, and with the Continental and Mediterranean traditions, which emphasise formal and informal punitive reciprocity in accordance with the principle of class responsibility ("classes" of criminal) respectively. Finally, the efficacy of each approach for crime reduction is assessed.