91194 - History Of Globalization And Crime

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course students: will become familiar with the most important categories to understand and explain the intersection between globalization and crime; will acquire knowledge about how globalization processes affect crime in an historical and in a comparative perspective; will be able to analyse and discuss some of the most important “global” types of crime: transnational organized crime and youth gangs

Course contents

This course explores the connection between globalization, the evolution of criminology and crime, and how this connection changes in space and time. Globalization affects crime phenomena in a variety of ways: creating new conditions and opportunities for new types of crime, or reshaping more traditional criminal behaviors and increasing insecurity and fear of crime. Moreover, globalization requires new categories to explain and understand crime and therefore affects and reshapes many traditional criminological theories. Finally, globalization has an impact also on strategies of crime control and surveillance . The course will focus on the following topics:

Introduction: definitions of globalization and crime.

Understanding crime in an historical and international perspective; an analysis of the most important sociological theories of crime in the XX Century and of contemporary criminology.

Crime as a global phenomenon: the case of youth violence and transnational youth gang;  gender violence as a global phenomenon and international crime trends.

Global insecurity and fear of crime.

The globalization of policing, of  surveillance and of strategies of crime control.

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

The most important mandatory readings  for this class are:

Katja Franko Aas (2013) Globalization and Crime, London, Sage, 2nd edition.(selection of chapters)

Martin Innes (2003) Understanding Social Control. Deviance, Crime and Social Order. Maidenhead, Open University Press (selection of chapters).

Jennifer M. Hazen & Dennis Rodgers (2014) (eds) Global Gangs. Street Violence Across the World, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press (selection of chapters)

Sophie Body-Gendrot (2012) Globalization, Fear and Insecurity. The Challenges for Cities North and South, Basingstoke, Palgrave McMillan. (selection of chapters).

Francis Pakes(2013) "Globalization and Criminology: An agenda ofengagement, in Pakes, F. (ed) Globalization and the challenge to criminology, London Routledge, pp. 1-8.

David Nelken (2013) "The challenge of globalization for comparative criminal justice", in Pakes, F. (ed) Globalization and the challenge to criminology, London Routledge, pp. 9-26.

Robert Reiner (2007) "Neo-Liberalism, Crime and Justice", in R. Roberts and W. McMahon (eds) Social Justice and Criminal Justice, London, Centre for Crime & Justice,  pp. 8-21.

All the reading materials will be available on the course website (except the book by Katia Franko Aas).

Further readings for each class  will be suggested and  posted on the class website.

Teaching methods

Lectures, small groups activities, students presentations and class discussions, movies and documentaries, guest speakers. This class is higly interactive and students are invited to participate actively in each class.

This class will be tought in a "blended" modality, or in presence, according to the policies for safety during the Covid-19 pandemic that the University will adopt for the second semester of the academic year. Further updates on the teaching methods (whether in presence, or on-line, or blended) will be communicated before the beginning of the semester.

 

Assessment methods

 

For students who do not regularly attend classes there will be one written final exam based on questions (3 hrs.)

For students who do regularly attend classes there will be:

an intermediate written exam (50% of final grade)

a final written exam (50% of final grade).

For attending students both the intermediate and the final test  are   written tests, based on short answers and short essays.

Teaching tools

Power point; Audio-visual materials.

Office hours

See the website of Rossella Selmini