LW2WCJ: Women, Crime and Justice

Module code: LW2WCJ

Module provider: School of Law

Credits: 20

Level: Level 2 (Intermediate)

When you'll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Jo Phoenix, email: j.b.m.phoenix@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 21 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module explores women’s experiences of offending, victimisation, criminal justice and punishment, as well as the various ways that criminology has made sense of these. Women’s experiences of the criminal justice system will be analysed in in both their historical and contemporary contexts, from a variety of perspectives including a range of perspectives associated with feminist criminology.

A fundamental precept of justice is that everyone has equal access to the law and equal protection by the law. Yet, several decades of criminological research confirms this is not always so where women and girls are concerned. News reports of police officers committing sexual violence, the failure of the police and courts to deal with domestic violence and the woeful conviction rate for crimes of sexual violence raise important questions about the extent to which women have equal protection by the law. Analysis of sentencing reveals that women often receive harsher sentences than men. Empirical research confirms that women who end up in criminal justice tend to be more offended against than offenders. The evidence raises questions about the extent to which the administration of criminal justice operates in a non-discriminatory fashion. That these enduring patterns of equality exist is made even more concerning given that there has been nearly fifty years of campaigns and policy reform all geared towards addressing many of the injustices that women and girls experience. 

This module explores women’s experiences of offending, victimisation, criminal justice and punishment, the way criminology has made sense of these and the politics of policy reform. Women’s experiences of the criminal justice system will be analysed in in both their historical and contemporary contexts, from a variety of perspectives including a range of perspectives associated with feminist criminology. One of the key questions that this module addresses is how we can explain the enduring natures of criminal (in)justices women and girls experience. This question will be addressed using a case study approach. Students will be given the opportunity to choose which two case studies through which to examine the politics of penal reform. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Critically evaluate issues relating to women and their role in the criminal justice system (CJS) in England and Wales and the salience of gender in attitudes towards and policies for crime, deviance, offending and victimisation.
2. Critically assess theories of traditional criminology in relation to women and alternative feminist perspectives in criminology
3. Use and evaluate empirical data (including quantitative and qualitative data) in exploring and explaining different patterns of offending, victimisation and employment in the criminal justice system amongst women and men.
4. Describe and evaluate the debates surrounding the differential treatment of women and men in the criminal justice systems as victims, offenders and professionals.

Module content

The curriculum is broken into five parts: representations of women, crime and justice, empirical realities and official statistics, criminological and feminist theoretical explanations, administration of justice and the politics of penal reform. 

• Media representations of male and female offenders 
• Sex, gender and patterns of offending 
• Sex, gender and patterns of victimisation  
• Explaining sex, gender, crime and justice part 1  
• Explaining sex, gender, crime and justice part 2  
• Policing women and girls 
• Sentencing women and girls 
• Punishing women and girls 
• Sex, gender and penal politics  
• Contemporary criminal justice issues regarding women and girls 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

This module will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and tutorials supplemented by blended learning exercises and activities. Students are expected to undertake 150 hours of independent study comprised largely of reading. Lecturess/workshops will give students a framework within which to approach their reading. Seminars and tutorials will give students a chance to consolidate their understanding of the literature, exercise their understanding, engage in debate and discussion and present their ideas.

Study hours

At least 37 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Essay plan

Reassessment

Additional costs