Criminology 2600-BY-CRBIOL-1-S2

Lecture:
1. The concept and origins of criminology (a brief history of the discipline’s development); the objectives and branches of criminology; criminology and other criminal justice disciplines (concepts: criminal law, victimology, penology, forensic science, criminal policy studies, correctional studies); criminology and the biological and medical sciences; criminology and psychology; criminology and pedagogy; criminology and statistics; criminology and sociology; criminology and economics; criminology and history; general overview of concepts: crime, criminality, offender (perpetrator), victim of crime (injured party) and a general characterization of the issues of crime prevention and crime response (the functioning of mechanisms and the activities of social control institutions in this area). (3 hours)
2. Criminological paradigms and theories: fundamental issues distinguishing criminological paradigms; positivist, anti-naturalist, classical, and neoclassical criminology - characteristics; theories within specific schools of criminology: biopsychological theories (e.g. anthropological theories), positivist sociological theories (e.g. control theories); the social labelling theory, criminological theories in the context of social conflict (e.g. the radical criminology school); the phenomenological school (concepts of the social functions of criminal law); economic theory of crime. (3 hours)
3. Methodology of criminological research (with particular emphasis on biological, natural, and medical sciences): research methods, techniques and tools most commonly used in criminology (general overview); the application of biological, natural and medical sciences in criminological research (research examples); clinical criminology, so-called green criminology. (2 hours)
4. Characteristics of crime: prevention and combating crime as a social and economic problem (at the national and international levels); crime research (diagnostic, explanatory and prognostic); quantitative and qualitative description of the phenomenon of crime (extent, structure and dynamics of crime; the impact of social change (social transition) and various factors of social life on crime); concepts: actual crime (actual criminality), reported crime (reported criminality), unreported crime (unreported criminality) - the issue of a ‘dark figure of crime’ and research methods: experimentation, participant observation and interviews; types and characteristics of criminal statistics; general characteristics of selected criminal phenomena (crimes against life and health, against property, against sexual freedom and public decency, organized and economic crime, crimes against the natural environment, drug-related crime, cybercrime). (4 hours)
5. A crime victim and his/her role in the origins of criminal behavior: the concept of victimology and the characteristics of victimological concepts (with an emphasis on the concept of criminal victimology); the terms ‘a crime victim’ and ‘an injured person’; the concept of victimless crime; victimhood and victimization, both primary and secondary (factors and circumstances conducive to or accompanying becoming a victim of crime; a victim’s participation and role in the victimization process; the possibility of a victim re-victimization as a result of the social reaction to his/her victimization); a victim and the justice system (participation, a victim’s role and expectations in the justice process; a victim’s influence on the justice system and the justice system’s influence on a victim). (1 hour)
6. Selected social phenomena with criminogenic potentiality – general characteristics (sexualization in social life, prostitution, alcoholism, drug addiction, the activities of destructive cults and deviant subcultures). (2 hours)

Laboratory:
1. Case studies (selected): presentation and discussion concerning selected cases involving offenders and the crimes they committed as well as the social (including criminal law) response to them. (5 hours)
2. Analysis of crime statistics: review of crime statistics, analysis of their content and drawing conclusions based on the data they contain. (2 hours)
3. Student project (preparation and presentation by a student of an assigned criminological topic). (3 hours)