CRIMINAL POLICY

Description and contextualization of the course:

Criminal policy can be defined as a sector of public policy in response to the dynamics of criminality, victimization and social control. Key subjects of study in criminal policy are the decisions regarding social control in a given place and time. Besides criminal policy has to be thought in relation to victim, police, judicial, penitentiary, education, social, economic and even international policies, in a more and more globalized world. In a broad concept of social control, beyond criminalization, criminal policy has to do with different stakeholders (at the local, regional, state, supranational and international levels). These stakeholders have different positions, influence and interests in the demand, design, implementation and evaluation of the different criminal policies in place.

The course will concentrate on five dimensions of the criminal policy as follows:

a) Divergences in criminal policies taken into consideration the kind of crime (drugs, white-collar criminality, terrorism, gender violence, sexual violence and crimes against property).

b) Socio-demographic profiles of offenders and/or victims (including their ethnic or migratory origin).

c) Localization and globalization tendencies in criminal policy.

d) Technology and digital control by public and private agencies.

e) Evolution in the use of different sanctions.

This course on criminal policy contributes to the objectives of the degree in Criminology because it helps in training students to understand, apply, analyze and evaluate criminological knowledge from the standpoint of human rights.

The methodology used during this course will allow students to identify relevant information on criminal policy, in different areas and scales, and transform it into knowledge to be applied in the thinking about concrete study cases where the students will have to organize quantitative and qualitative data and arrange it by systematic planning in order to get to debatable conclusions. This competence is integrated in the overall purpose of the degree in Criminology, starting with the course on penal systems of the first year of the degree, and it will be improved throughout different courses, mostly with a juridical dimension, in its following years.

Competences/Results of the learning process of this course:

Among the general and transversal competences of the degree of Criminology we can find the understanding of the basic terms and concepts in relation to the criminality and social control processes. Moreover students have to be able to apply that knowledge to value different options in criminal policy, finding the resources to do that and defending their positions and proposals informed by evidence. This course is part of a broad dynamic of on-going and autonomous learning. Among the specific competences of the degree we can underlie the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge by employing social science methodologies (including the use of recent technologies) which are particular relevant in evaluating public policies. Team work will be promoted and debated by fostering effective oral and written communication skills, a fundamental aspect in nowadays exchange of ideas about criminal policy.

At least five results are expected of this course:

1) To understand the contribution of criminal policy within criminal sciences.

2) To analyze and apply key concepts to evaluate the options when designing and implementing criminal policies in different areas.

3) To find and use adequate literature references as guide for deeper studies.

4) To set hypotheses about future research and be able to contrast them with empirical data.

5) To elaborate own documents or presentations in this field.

CONTENTS (THEORY AND PRACTICE):

I. INTRODUCTION: What is criminal policy and which is its relation to social control?

II. THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRIME TYPOLOGY (1): CRIMINAL POLICY AND WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINALITY

III. THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRIME TYPOLOGY (2): CRIMINAL POLICY AND TERRORISM

IV. THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRIME TYPOLOGY (3): CRIMINAL POLICY AND GENDER VIOLENCE

V. THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRIME TYPOLOGY (4): CRIMINAL POLICY AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE

VI. THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRIME TYPOLOGY (5): CRIMINAL POLICY AND CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY WITH REGARD TO THE BROKEN WINDOWS THEORY

VII. THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRIME TYPOLOGY (6): CRIMINAL POLICY AND DRUGS

VIII. THE PERSPECTIVE OF ACTORS (SUSPECTS AND VICTIMS) (1): CRIMINAL POLICY, MIGRATION AND DISCRIMINATION

IX. THE PERSPECTIVE OF ACTORS (SUSPECTS AND VICTIMS) (2): CRIMINAL POLICY AND JUVENILES

X. THE TERRITORIAL PERSPECTIVE (1): CITYHALL POLICIES BETWEEN GLOBALIZATION AND LOCALIZATION

XI. THE TERRITORIAL PERSPECTIVE (2): CRIMINAL POLICY, ABUSES OF POWER AND UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION

XII. THE TECHNOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE: SURVEILLANCE AND DIGITAL CONTROLS

XIII. CRIMINAL POLICIES AND GENERAL PENAL SANCTIONS: FROM TORTURE AND THE DEATH PENALTY TO ALTERNATIVES TO IMPRISONMENT

Methodology:

The thread that runs through the entire course is the thinking about social control: its meanings for the different stakeholders, its diverse modalities, styles and limits in a democratic society founded on a basic understanding of human rights. Throughout thirteen lessons, the term ‘scales’ as metaphor signifies an arranged sequence of different values and measures to draw or identify common goods protected by criminal law, rights and interest in play from different dimensions or perspectives.

Every lesson follows identical structure: an introduction, a list of key concepts, readings with questions for debate, practical exercises and a final self-evaluation test.

This learning proposal tries to promote the integration of knowledge where the student is the main actor. Beyond a mere transfer of data, we offer basic concepts as keys or guide to enter into the complexities of criminal policy in order to open perspectives in a critical way. Thus we propose some strategies to learn to look, to see, to observe, to think and to talk about criminal policy transcending public alarm and political manipulation. More readings will be suggested in the student guide to open an internal and external dialogue of ideas in the controversial topics of criminal policies where social values are at stake.

Cooperative and active methodologies will be employed by working in concrete projects and with a solution focus orientation to be debated in class.

• Final Assessment System
• Tools and qualification percentages:
  • Realization of Practical Work (exercises, cases or problems) (%): 30
  • Exams (in either oral or written form) (%): 70

Ordinary exam: basic information and renouncement:

This course has a mixed evaluation system. Continuous evaluation or assessment will provide 75% of the final mark. In order to consider this continuous evaluation 80% of all proposed team assignments and all individual assignments should have been turned in respecting delivery deadlines. Students will find more instructions about these works in the student guide.

A final test will count 25% of the overall grade. Those students who have obtained 70% in their continuous evaluation can opt between this test and the presentation of a team work assignment.

Those students who want to renounce to this ordinary exam must revise the general norms established by University on this matter.



If lectures and evaluation are transformed to be online, oral evaluations will be offered to students.

In addition, if any student has techical problems during the evaluation, he/she will be entitled to an oral exam.

Extraordinary exam: basic information and renouncement:

Students will have to pass an evaluation of an individual written and oral presentation described in the student guide.

Those students who want to renounce to this extraordinary exam must revise the general norms established by University on this matter.

Mandatory materials:
Criminal code and related penal norms in relation to international standards on human rights in criminal policy, mostly accessible online.

Basic bibliography

References (note: the following are just examples of texts that can be used in some lessons. Through the student guide, basic readings and further resources will be provided to students for every lesson so that students can construct their own criminal policy digital library considering copyright laws):

Black, Donald, ed. 1984. Toward a general theory of social control, 2 vols. Orlando: Academic Press.

Body-Gendrot, Sophie, et al. 2013. The Routledge handbook of European criminology. Londres: Routledge.

Green, Penny and ‎Andrew Rutherford, eds. 2000. Criminal policy in transition. Oxford: Hart.

De Bondt, Wendy. 2014. Evidence Based EU Criminal Policy Making: In Search of Matching Data, European Journal of Criminal Policy 20: 23-49.

Franko Aas, Katja. 2013. Glovalization & crime. London: Sage.

Human Rights Watch. 2016. World report. Events of 2015. New York: HRW (online).

Melossi, Dario. 2015. Crime, punishment and migration. London: Sage.

Penal Reform International. 2013. Making Law and Policy that Work A Handbook for Law and Policy Makers on Reforming Criminal Justice and Penal Legislation, Policy and Practice. Londres: Penal Reform International.

Tonry, Michael, ed. 2009. The Oxford handbook of crime and public policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Varona, Gema. 2015. Escalas de política criminal: Una introducción a través de la lectura crítica. Donostia/San Sebastián: UPV/EHU (OCV, online).

JOURNALS:

Crime Science

Criminal Justice Policy Review

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research

Justice Policy Journal

The Stanford Journal of Criminal Law & Policy

Newsletter of the European Society of Criminology: http://www.esc-eurocrim.org/newsletter.shtml

In-depth bibliography

CANCIO MELIÁ, M., Derecho penal del enemigo (2 Tomos). Edisofer S.L., Madrid, 2006.

GARCÍA ARÁN, M., Malas noticias, medios de comunicación social, política criminal y garantías penales en España. Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 2008.

SILVA SÁNCHEZ, J.M., La expansión del Derecho penal: aspectos de la política criminal en las sociedades postindustriales, Madrid, 2001.

Journals

Anuario de Derecho Penal y Ciencias Penales
Cuadernos de Derecho Judicial
Cuadernos de Política Criminal
Cuadernos Penales José María Lidón
Estudios de Derecho Judicial
Eguzkilore
La Ley
Política Criminal: Revista electrónica de Políticas Públicas
Revista de Derecho y Proceso Penal
Revista de Derecho Penal y Criminología
Revista de Estudios Penales y Criminológicos
Revista del Poder Judicial
Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología
Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica
Revista Penal

Web addresses

OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES:
Center for evidence-based crime policy: http://cebcp.org/