ßÏßÏÊÓƵ

Visual Criminology (Spr) (L2906B)

15 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

Visual culture is critical to understandings of criminology in the past and present. This is the starting point for this module, which will challenge you to think critically about crime, criminal justice and the development of criminology as a discipline through visual evidence.

From Lombroso’s sketches of Criminal Man to Netflix’s Making a Murderer, you’ll learn how visual cultures of crime have impacted criminological theories and criminal justice. We’ll discuss criminological meanings in art, photography, film, video games and documentaries, for examples, including how far criminologists believe these things influence people to participate in crime. But we will also explore the limits of visual evidence, and the implications for the future of crime and justice.

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 2025/26. 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.