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Using Alcohol Research to Support Teaching and Learning Criminology

Using Alcohol Research to Support Teaching and Learning Criminology. Dr Henry Yeomans University of Leeds. Introduction. Alcohol studies can be taught in its own right. It can also be used to support teaching and learning in other subjects such as criminology. Criminology is the study of:

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Using Alcohol Research to Support Teaching and Learning Criminology

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  1. Using Alcohol Research to Support Teaching and Learning Criminology Dr Henry Yeomans University of Leeds

  2. Introduction • Alcohol studies can be taught in its own right. It can also be used to support teaching and learning in other subjects such as criminology. • Criminology is the study of: • Law-making • Law-breaking • Society’s reaction to law-breaking. (Loader and Sparks, 2012; Newburn, 2013: 6).

  3. Teaching Context Our students initially believe: We can overcome this by… Mills (1959) described the “sociological imagination” as a way to connect individual biography, social structures and historical context. Young (2011) describes the “criminological imagination”. This helps overcome student preconceptions. • Crime is pathological. • Criminals are an ‘other’. There is an ‘us’ and a ‘them’. • Crimes should be understood by looking at ‘the criminal mind’. • That government and CJ agencies exercise power in a benign way.

  4. Learning Through Alcohol Research Alcohol research is useful to support teaching about research methods because: • Methods often impressive; • It’s topical; • Issue is proximal; • Helps students assume role of the deviant.

  5. Learning About Alcohol Research 1 • New module: Crime, Law and Social Change. • Ubiquity of alcohol makes it useful as a route into other issues e.g. violence and gender.

  6. Learning About Alcohol Research 2 • … And as an issue in its own right. “On Saturday night, if a foreigner had chanced to pass near the cattle market, he would have seen a sight after which all stories of English virtue and morality would have fallen upon his ears in vain. Crowds of men and women ... drunk, surging up and down the streets, gurgling round the entrance of the… beers shops; pickpockets… unfortunate women… witnesses of all the disgusting immorality, the ribald jesting, the cursing and profanity ... and other nameless things, in which these fairs and feasts abound.” (Description of Leeds fair 1863, quoted in Storch, 1977: 144). • This task aids development of critical faculties.

  7. The Criminological Imagination So, alcohol studies helps students appreciate: • The contested nature of what is and is not criminal; • Critique positivist notions of us/them; • Locate causes of crime in things wider than ‘the criminal mind’; • Recognise that the application of CJ processes is not always done in a benign way. This outcomes embody the ‘criminological imagination’.

  8. Wider Function of HE QAA Benchmarks Leeds Graduate Attributes “Critical intelligence and the ability to question received ideas. To analyse information, synthesise views, make connections and, where appropriate, propose creative solutions. To be critically aware of, and informed by, current knowledge, and its possible applications, in a discipline or professional specialism. Engagement with society and individuals, acknowledging and managing preconceptions or prejudice.” (SDDU, 2012) • “Assess a range of perspectives and discuss the strengths of each for the understanding of crime and victimisation • Assess the values and practices of the key agencies which administers responses to crime and deviance • Draw on relevant evidence to evaluate competing explanations • Evaluate the viability of competing explanations within criminology and draw logical and appropriate conclusions.” (QAA, 2014).

  9. Summary • Alcohol studies is valuable as a support for teaching and learning in criminology. • It is particularly useful for: • Breaking down student preconceptions about crime and criminal justice; • Developing a ‘criminological imagination’ to replace these. • This has relevance for personal development, employability and life beyond HE.

  10. References • Mills, C. Wright (1959), The Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press: Oxford. • QAA (2014), ‘Subject Benchmark Statement: Criminology’, http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/SBS-Criminology-14.pdf • Staff and Departmental Development Unit (2012), ‘Enhancing Your Practice: Skills in the Curriculum’, resources developed for ULTA2 teaching award. • Storch, Robert D. (1977) ‘The Problem of Working Class Leisure. Some Roots of Middle Class Moral Reform in the Industrial North: 1825-1850’, in A.P. Donajgrodzki (editor) Social Control in Nineteenth Century Britain, Croon Helm: London, pp.138-162 • Young, Jock (2011), The Criminological Imagination, Polity Press: Cambridge.

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