Course Catalogue

Justice Studies

The module aims to develop student's ability to identify good and best practice in the generation of evidence-informed policy and practice in criminal justice. Students will be encouraged to explore the role of evidence-informed practice in fields across the criminal justice sector and propose new directions for practitioner-led research activity to take in the future. Sessions will be delivered by research-active University staff, by former students (who have completed academic research whilst employed as criminal justice professionals), and by current practitioners These inputs will help contextualise the nature of current and future challenges within the sector and begin to explore the capacity of research evidence to help support policy and practice development. In sequence, the students will look at criminal justice responses to young people engaged in criminal and anti-social behaviour; vulnerable people; victims of crime; and, prolific offenders. The ambition is to bring together a range of criminal justice professionals to collectively explore a series of criminal justice challenges and to draw on each others professional knowledge and judgment to help shape future agendas for research activity.

Outline Syllabus:Establishing good and best practice for the evidence-based practice in Criminal Justice - reflecting on the skills and credentials of the good evidence-based researcher - identifying and overcoming ethical and practical challenges in work-based research activity - identifying mechanisms and bodies for supporting and promoting evidence-based thinking - critically assessing techniques for presenting research evidence and communicating with user audiences - engaging with the politics of research and the eliminating bias - critically reflecting upon the relationships between policy makers and research communities Peer reflection and review of delivering and implementing research-informed practice - inputs from criminal justice practitioners involved in decision and policy making - students will present and discuss their work-based research projects and outline the contribution to knowledge they make - exploring the organisational dynamics of engaging with research evidence - examining the role of evidence-based champions in organisations Deepening Evidence-Based Thinking knowledge and identifying future agendas for research; - critically examining the police, youth justice, and punishment responses to young people who offend - exploring the capacity of the criminal justice system to identify, respond to, and manage vulnerability - identifying the scope of research-informed practice to positively shape the experience of victims of crime - critically explore the capability of partnership working to proactively tackle and reduce reoffending

Module Overview:
The module aims to develop your ability to identify good and the best practice in the generation of evidence-informed policy and practice in criminal justice. You will be encouraged to explore the role of evidence-informed practice in fields across the criminal justice sector and propose new directions for practitioner-led research activity to take in the future.

Additional Information:The module aims to develop student's critical thinking skills such that they are able to explore the impact and credibility of evidence-informed practice approaches across the wider criminal justice sector. Students are encouraged to consider the capacity of research-informed thinking to develop policy and practice and through engaging with source materials and representatives from the sector establish the opportunities for and challenges to research being able to engineer innovation. A key emphasis of the module will be on consolidating the skills developed through the programme and working collaboratively with peers to identify agendas for future research activity concerned with key themes for all criminal justice partners, namely working with young offenders, vulnerability, victims and prolific offenders.