Course Synopsis:

The histories of the great late-nineteenth century transformations in the social control institutions of Western industrial societies include certain key features. These are the increasing state involvement, the identification and differentiation of the accused who were segregated into separate institutions for their punishment or cure and the emergence of a separate body of experts for investigating and treating them. The purpose of this course is to examine the changing nature of social control and criminal justice in Britain from approximately 1700 to the early twentieth century. The central criminal court for the City of London was the Old Bailey. By focusing on the criminal trial records from the Old Bailey, this course will permit students to: observe various modes of prosecution in action. Lectures, written work and on-line discussion seminars will to examine the rise of criminal justice professions; courtroom and trial processes, the operation of British common law, jurisprudence, the social control of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and social class, and the historical construction of the perpetrators and victims of violent crime, fraud, theft, sex crime, street disorder and juvenile delinquency.

Learning Outcomes:

The University's Undergraduate Learning Outcomes are:

1. Critical and Creative Thinking: Students in 3130 will be able to demonstrate comprehension of evidence-based scholarship based on largely written activities and individual research.
2. Literacy: Students in 3130 will read academic journal articles and primary historical documents from real crime trials from an online database.
3. Global Understanding: Students in 3130 will be able to analyse critical issues in the criminal justice system today by projecting from the historical construction of punishment from a Human Rights perspective and understanding. 
4. Communicating: Students in 3130 will develop on-line dialogue discussion skills in their seminar groups.
5. Professional and Ethical Behavior: Students in 3130 will develop skills related the wider principles of academic integrity to which the scholarly community subscribes. They develop respect for the point of view of peers and collaboration and effective interaction with instructors. They will learn that the practice of history is bound by methods and approaches that model best practices in reading, writing and reasoning.

Required Textbooks:

The Oxford History of the Prison 
The Practice of Punishment in Western Society
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The word "prison" immediately evokes stark images: forbidding walls spiked with watchtowers; inmates confined to cramped cells for hours on end; the suspicious eyes of armed guards. They seem to be the inevitable and permanent marks of confinement, as though prisons were a timeless institution stretching from medieval stone dungeons to the current era of steel boxes. But centuries of development and debate lie behind the prison as we now know it--a rich history that reveals how our ideas of crime and practices of punishment have changed over time. In The Oxford History of the Prison, a team of distinguished scholars...

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Sold By:
Oxford University Press

ISBNs:
9780199761548, IPE6004949, 9780195118148, 0199879028, 9780199879021

Language:
English

On-line research source: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-191

Assessment:

Mid-term #1  -  20%
Mid-term #2  -  20%
Mid-term #3  -  30%
On-line seminar participation:  -  30%
No Final Examination

Please note: This is a preliminary web course description only. The department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline will be distributed in the first class of the semester.