Undergraduate Course: Criminologies of Atrocity (LAWS10218)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course will introduce students to scholarship in and beyond criminology on atrocity crimes, which include war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
The first section of the course surveys the scholarship broadly. The second section focuses in on different approaches and issues from the perspectives of perpetrators, victims, and criminal justice processes. The remainder of the course develops a framework for further development of these approaches and issues through applied research on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. This section will include a session on the regional background to events in the former Yugoslavia; a methodological session on using judicial sources as data; a methods session on using computer assisted qualitative data analysis software; and two workshop sessions linked to the final assessment.
Ultimately, this will equip students to conduct their own original analysis of data relating to atrocities, by utilising theory to interrogate empirical evidence.
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| Course description |
1. What is criminology? What are its limits? Why atrocity? The development of criminologies of atrocity.
2. Atrocity beyond criminology: a review of scholarship in adjacent disciplines, their questions, methods, theories (history, political science, sociology, social psychology)
3. Perpetrator-focused approaches: states, organisations and individuals
4. Victimology and atrocity
5. Institutions of international criminal justice: investigation, prosecution and punishment
6. Case introduction: the Yugoslav wars
7. Court transcripts as data, methods, issues, examples, ethics
8. Qualitative analysis of text: using NVivo to code sources (Lab based)
9. Workshop 1: formulating questions and selecting cases (Lab based)
10. Workshop 2: developing codes and coding sources in Lab-based work
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Students should have successfully completed an ordinary level course in criminology, history, international law, politics or sociology.
Spaces on this course are allocated as part of the Law Honours Course Allocation process. Places are generally only available to students who must take Law courses. To request a space on this course, please email Law.UGO@ed.ac.uk |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | This course is only open to visiting students coming through a direct exchange with the School of Law (including Erasmus students on a Law-specific Exchange). Exchange students outside of Law and independent study abroad students are not eligible to enrol in this course, with no exceptions.
**Please note that 3rd year Law courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces.**
Priority will be given to students studying on exchange within the Law department, and it is highly unlikely that there will be additional spaces for general exchange students & independent study abroad students to enrol; we will look into this on a case-by-case basis in September/January. Visiting students are advised to bear in mind that enrolment in specific courses can never be guaranteed, and you may need to be flexible in finding alternatives in case your preferred courses have no available space.
These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the department directly to request additional spaces.
Students should have successfully completed an ordinary level course in criminology, history, international law, politics or sociology. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2020/21, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 32 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by one full-length paper of 5000 words, worth 100% of final mark, submitted in the form of a research article and based on a research project developed by the candidate over the period of the course. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- By the end of the course students should have attained: A detailed knowledge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia contextualised by predecessor, contemporary and successor international criminal trial venues and their domestic equivalents; an understanding of key elements of the criminal justice process and the parties involved; an essential knowledge of the contours of the wars in Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001; a detailed knowledge of core criminological scholarship on atrocity crimes backed by knowledge of its relationship to scholarship in other disciplines (history, political science, social psychology, sociology); a knowledge and understanding of the roots and development of criminologies of atrocity.
- By the end of the course students should have developed: Core skills in qualitative data analysis, including basic knowledge of principles of data-coding and the use of Computer Aided Qualitative Data Software (NVivo); capacity to assess criminological data in terms of validity and reliability
- By the end of the course students should have had experience of distilling and applying intellectual frameworks to conceptualise and analyse complex problems; critical judgement regarding the work of others and one¿s own work; the ability to present a structured argument and analysis derived from a larger body of material (theoretical, methodological and empirical)
- By the taking the course students should develop autonomy and creativity in formulating a research question and selecting appropriate data; experience in working with others in groups and respecting the input of others; experience of working under the guidance of a supervisor (i.e. course organiser)
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | criminology,atrocity |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Andy Aitchison
Tel: (0131 6)51 4563
Email: andy.aitchison@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Tracy Noden
Tel: (0131 6)50 2053
Email: Tracy.Noden@ed.ac.uk |
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