Handbook

This course examines shifting notions of crime and responsibility for crime within criminal justice. It considers multiple meanings of criminal justice, such as in governing law and order, as dispute resolution, and in managing risk. It encourages a critical appreciation of criminal justice system responses to crime and engages with the need for criminal justice policy to respond to economic, social, political and cultural issues. The course will examine selected recent developments and ongoing debates in criminal justice.

The course is an elective within the Master of Criminal Justice and Criminology degree and provides a good grounding for further studies, and for practice, in criminal law, criminology and criminal justice.

Main Topics

• Bail and other pre-trial developments;
• Compulsory treatment;
• Specialised courts;
• Restorative justice and other forms of alternative justice;
• Private and hybrid forms of security;
• The move towards ‘pre-crime’.