Postgraduate Course: Police and Policing (LAWS11047)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The Police and Policing course is designed to equip you with a broad, yet advanced, understanding of police organisations and key contemporary issues in policing, security and police research. The first half of the course gives some focus to understanding the 'police' organisation itself (public constabularies). The second half of the course examines 'policing' more broadly defined, with some particular focus on the expanded importance of the commercial sector and on global and transnational dimensions of contemporary policing. |
| Course description |
The Police and Policing course is designed to equip you with a broad, yet advanced, understanding of police organisations and key contemporary issues in policing, security and police research. The first half of the course gives some focus to understanding the 'police' organisation itself (public constabularies), its historical development (and how that is particular to different states), its working practices and culture, its governance, and its sometimes complex relationships with law and with communities. The second half of the course examines 'policing' more broadly defined, with some particular focus on the expanded importance of the commercial sector and on ideas of the 'extended policing family' that encompasses a wide range on institutions beyond the police. We will also examine the global and transnational dimensions of contemporary policing, and how they intersect with domestic policing arrangements. Questions of power and hierarchy (including along lines of class, gender and race) run through and connect many of the seminars.
Indicative outline of course structure and content:
1. Introduction and overview: some key questions in policing
Part I: public constabularies
2. Historical origins and development of the modern police
3. Functions, institutions and culture: some classic sociology of the police
4. Law, accountability and democracy
5. Doing things differently?: public health, procedural justice and the politics of prediction
Part II: 'policing' in a postmodern world
6. Private security and plural policing
7. Global policing
8. Policing and terrorism
9. Digital policing and social media
Conclusions
10. The future(s) of policing?
The course is taught through interactive seminars. The class works to a core reading programme with additional texts being allocated weekly to allow lines of discussion emerging in classes to be developed. Some key questions will be posed to frame weekly discussions but students are also expected to bring their own evidenced questions into discussion.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 25 |
| 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) |
This course will be assessed by the following component(s):
1) 5000 word essay (100%)
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| Feedback |
When essay titles are released in week 5 there will be class feedforward discussion of them and of the expectations of essays written for this course. This is supported by an Essay Writing guide made available on Learn.
Students may complete a formative assessment which takes the form of an essay plan. Written feedback is provided for each individual prior to the final week 10 seminar of the class at which further group discussion of the feedback and the summative assessment is facilitated.
Feedback on the summative assessment will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically appraise academic analysis and contemporary debates about police and policing;
- Evaluate contemporary policing strategies and their claims to effectiveness; and
- Assess the legal, social and political ramifications of developments in the contemporary landscape of policing, domestically and at the global level.
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Reading List
The following texts provide a feel for the kinds of reading covered in the class and also act as really good introductory texts:
Bowling, B., Sheptycki, J.W.E. and Reiner, R. (2019), The Politics of the Police, (5th ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Newburn, T. (ed.) (2008), Handbook of Policing. (2nd ed) Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
On completion of this course students will be able to:
1. Communicate effectively in written and oral forms;
2. Work independently, managing their own time, in order to meet deadlines and prepare a substantial written assessment;
3. Contribute to large and small group discussions, present ideas to others, and critically and respectfully engage with the ideas of others;
4. Critically evaluate academic work and government policy documents.
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| Keywords | police; policing; accountability; police culture; democracy; community |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Alistair Henry
Tel: (0131 6)50 9697
Email: alistair.henry@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Susanna Wickes
Tel:
Email: Susanna.Wickes@ed.ac.uk |
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