Course Description

The way we choose to look at a particular object, the position we take in looking, will always determine what it is we see. We may feel we have a 'focused' object before us and therefore we can confidently 'know' that object, but the minute we change our position or view the object from a different perspective the image suddenly becomes distorted and unfocused. Crime is an object that is particularly open to distortion. To view it properly requires a multi-dimensional lens and a number of different standpoints.

In this course we will view the object of crime and its subjects, the criminal and the victim, from a number of interesting and disparate positions. From the standpoint of the powerful, of the young, of the law enforcer, for example, and from the position of the street, the boardroom and the police station. In doing so we will build a complex picture of crime and criminals that crosses a number of different academic disciplines, including Criminology, Sociology, Psychology, Geography and Philosophy.

The course will be taught using University style lectures, seminars, discussion groups, presentations and projects.

Crime through the kaleidoscopic lens will have particular appeal to those interested in undergraduate study in Criminology and Sociology, but will also be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand how it is that we get to 'know' the objects before us in the social world.

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