Final Year Choices: Cultural Poet or Justice Critic?

The right combination of 3rd Year optional modules can be chosen for effectiveness or personal preference.

Phrases like ‘political brick’ and ‘mediated mirrors’ take me back to open mic nights with the Band and Gig Society  or creative speaking at Everybody’s Reading Festival. Although you have a choice between these Criminological poets and the Critics of Criminal Justice, it can also depend on your dissertation topic or personal preference, but you don’t need to pick a side. While Criminology may be divided at times; it isn’t a sport. Our choice of 3rd year optional modules are as follows:

Semester 1- Sociology Option Modules 

Culture, Identity and Representation

Football and Society

City Life and Social Order

Global Poverty and Development

Gender, Work and the Family

Semester 2- Criminology Option Modules

Crime, Law and Justice

Crime and the Media

Hate Crime

Cultures of Crime

Terrorism

Forensic Science and Criminal Justice

You choose one Sociology module for the first semester and two Criminology modules for the Second. You will also study Clinical Criminology which adds a scientific flare by analyzing the criminal mind and prepares you for the MSc in this research area.

If you want to be a Critic of Criminal Justice then you could study Crime, Law and Justice with Forensic Science in your second semester since these modules do as mention, they criticize the law and the use of Forensic Science  in the Criminal Justice System. Or if you’d prefer to tackle the more sensitive topics of Hate Crime and Terrorism then these modules would go well together. It helps to match your Criminology Modules with your Sociology module in the first semester, hence I choose Culture and Identity because I’m taking Cultural Criminology in my second semester. Although I also attended Neil Chakraborti’s Research Seminar on Hate  Crime, which demonstrated that his module was worth taking, along with the 3rd year students who also convinced me. My initial Dissertation title is ‘The Policing and Victimization of Homeless People’ which covers homeless people as a culture and as victims. Hence Hate Crime and Cultural Criminology are useful because they cover Victimization and Subcultures of crime. Combine this with Identity and Representation in the first semester and I should be in a good position to study homeless people.

While the above is perhaps the most effective way to reach the fabled 2:1 degree you should also consider your personal preferences. After studying here for two years certain lecturers are going to appeal to you for there teaching style or sense of humor. This is absolutely fine, there’s no point in taking a module that you believe is relevant if it doesn’t appeal to you. I considered tackling the in depth module of Crime, Law and Justice by Professor Carol Hedderman because I fancy a career with the Police. Then realized that most jobs require additional training and that a lifetime in the library can flyby like the breeze when the reading appeals to your personality. Whilst I wonder the library I tend to get distracted by books that have in fact appeared on the reading list for Cultural Criminology, as if by a wish… In the end, modules can be chosen for their effectiveness but also for their personal appeal.

Study for a good time not a long time.

For more info on optional modules give the brochure a read, if you haven’t already 🙂