Punishment and Penology (L3114)

15 credits, Level 5

Spring teaching

This module will examine both the theory and practice of punishment, and will encourage you to take a critical approach to analysing these. The focus will mainly be on England and Wales, but comparison will be drawn with other countries, such as those in Europe, North America and Australasia, where relevant.

After exploring a range of theoretical approaches in relation to the justifications for and purposes of punishment, you will consider a range of empirical examples. The latter will be largely contemporary, but historical examples will also be used.

Topics will include:

• justifications for punishment
• Durkhemian, Marxist and Foucauldian perspectives on punishment
• Garland's (2001) culture of control and the new penology (Feeley and Simon, 1992)
• contemporary imprisonment
• women in prison
• children and young people in custody
• immigration detention centres
• alternatives to imprisonment
• radical critiques, such as abolitionism and feminist jurisprudence.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.