Module SOC2069 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
SOC2069: Crimes of the Powerful
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
The aim of the module is to:
- demonstrate the different types of crimes and harms associated with corporations and state actors
- assess the nature and impact of such harms on society
- examine the institutional, policy and legal context within which such harms and crimes can occur
- evaluate existing practices of law enforcement for holding state actors and corporations to account (at national and international levels)
- critically evaluate the concept of ‘crime,’ from a ‘harm-based’ perspective, which incorporates an understanding of social injury to society as well as individualised victims of crime
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. demonstrate an understanding of the different types of crimes committed by corporations and state actors; 2. engage with and evaluate a range of sources both quantitative and qualitative that provide evidence of crimes and harms committed by state actors and corporations; 3. evaluate policy solutions to crimes and harms committed by state actors and corporations at a national and international level. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. demonstrate an understanding of the socio-legal context in which crimes of the powerful are committed; 5. evaluate theoretical approaches that consider harm to be a more appropriate starting point for understanding harm in society. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. demonstrate collaborative skills, in presentations and group discussions of course materials; 7. critically evaluate own work and the work of others; 8. demonstrate a clear and effective argument, in oral and written form; 9. work independently, within a set time frame, to complete an analytical task. |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Barak, G. (2015) (ed.) The Routledge international handbook of the crimes of the powerful, Oxford: Routledge
Barak, G. (2017). Unchecked Corporate Power: Why the Crimes of Multinational Corporations are routinized away and what we can do about it. Routledge.
Carroll, W. K. (2013). The making of a transnational capitalist class: Corporate power in the 21st century. Zed Books Ltd..
Chambliss, W., Michalowski, R., Kramer, R. (2010) State crime in the global age, Cullompton: Willan Publishing
Clinard, M., & Yeager, P. (2011). Corporate crime (Vol. 1). Transaction Publishers.
Gobert, J., & Punch, M. (2003). Rethinking corporate crime. Cambridge University Press.Stanley, E. and McCulloch, J. (2013) (eds.) State Crime and Resistance, London: Routledge
Hartley, R. D. (2008). Corporate crime: a reference handbook. ABC-CLIO.
Michalowski, R. J., & Kramer, R. C. (2006). State-corporate crime: Wrongdoing at the intersection of business and government. Rutgers University Press.
Miller, D., & Dinan, W. (2007). A century of spin: How public relations became the cutting edge of corporate power. Pluto Press.
Sklair, L. (1997). Social movements for global capitalism: the transnational capitalist class in action. Review of international political economy, 4(3), 514-538.
Sklair, L. (2001). The transnational capitalist class (Vol. 306). Oxford: Blackwell
Slapper, G., & Tombs, S. (1999). Corporate crime. Longman.
Simpson, S. S. (2002). Corporate crime, law, and social control. Cambridge University Press.
Tilly, C. (1985). War making and state making as organized crime. Violence: A reader, 35-60. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/51028/256.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2015) The Corporate Criminal. Why corporations must be abolished, London: Routledge
Whyte, D. (2015) (ed.) How Corrupt is Britain? London: Pluto Press
