Rationale
This module builds upon the foundations laid in the module Key Thinkers in Criminology and explores theoretical perspectives that influence criminology and social control. Early criminological theories will be explored, which with hindsight, may appear to offer little understanding the crime problems of the contemporary world however at the time, many of these perspectives were far from conventional. Indeed, the ‘scientific’ theories of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were crucial to the construction of a new ‘common sense’, in which the solutions of social problems would be found - it was believed - in an applied science and technology of social order and control. Thus, just as the natural sciences had promised to bring the productive power of nature under the control of ‘man’, so an applied technology of social order - premised upon a new ‘science of society’ - was apparently waiting to be found. This module highlights the importance of political and cultural concerns of the period when considering the search for the ‘causes’ of crime. This module is fundamental to all students as an important contribution to the dissertation which has to be completed in the final year of study, as it provides the opportunity to grapple with competing theoretical perspectives in depth.