Gender, Crime and Deviancy: Britain c. 1860-1960 (P02152)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCA-P-GCD

Since the emergence of a specific social history of crime in the 1960s, historians have argued that study of the regulation of marginal, deviant and criminal behaviours is central to our understanding of modern societies. An earlier interest in class as a category of analysis has been joined by work on gender, sexuality, age and ethnicity as markers of social identity. This course will examine the gendering of offending behaviour, penal policy, surveillance strategies and popular representations of criminality in Britain c. 1860-1960. The study will be contextualised in relation to state concerns about national strength and citizenship as well as a dominant belief in penal-welfarism. Whilst focusing on the study of Britain (and therefore acknowledging the differing legal systems of Scotland and England/Wales) the course will also draw on comparative studies of Europe and North America.

Indicative content is as follows:

1. The culture of surveillance: gender, the law and modernity
2. Violent crime: gender and decision-making in the courtroom
3. Myth and moral panic: 'the white slave trade';
4. From moral reform to social hygiene? Prostitution and venereal disease.
5. Homosexuality and the law
6. Women in policing. Feminism or social control?
7. Deviancy and the popular imagination: Crime fiction and true crime.
8. Hooligans or rebels? Youth culture, delinquency and social policy.
9. The Blue Lamp: film and the 'war on crime'.
10. Penal institutions and probation

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 1 hour(s) 50 minutes per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	16:10	18:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The course aims to examine the ways in which ideas about gender, sexuality and citizenship informed definitions of criminality and deviancy in Britain in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It explores a set of key debates concerning the nature of regulation in the modern state as well as focusing on specific examples – the policing of juvenile delinquency, homosexuality and prostitution – in order to examine the relationship between expert opinion, popular culture, social policy and social action. A range of textual and visual artefacts are examined – including film, photography, fiction, autobiography and the popular press – to consider the significance of criminal narratives in the shaping of gendered, sexual and national identities.

The course enables students to enhance their understanding of the regulation of offending and deviant behaviour in modern Britain. It also extends and deepens their knowledge of the significance of gender in the shaping of mentalities, representations and experiences. Students will develop their ability to engage critically in debate, to identify significant historical questions, and to synthesise and review a range of arguments. Finally, they will develop their skills in interrogating primary sources as they reflect on the use of concepts and theoretical frameworks as tools of analysis.