Crime, Criminalisation and the Right to the City

Admission requirements

This course is only available for students in the BA Urban Studies programme.

Description

The elective Crime, Criminalisation and the Right to the City builds on the introductory knowledge acquired during the course The Safe City Lecture Series. Safety and security are increasingly recognized as essential elements to the (economic) functioning of cities, as well as citizen/personal well-being. For these reasons, city officials are inclined to secure their cities from crime and prevent their citizens from feeling unsafe. One result is that an increasing number of practices in city spaces (and society more generally) are approached as matters of, and threats to, safety and security and are ‘criminalized’ through intensified surveillance and policing. During this course we will critically examine social control and governance of crime and safety in urban areas. Beyond the possible crime reduction benefits that surveillance and policing practices may achieve, this course is also and explicitly concerned with questions of legitimacy, fairness and (in)equality related to these practices. During the course you will study, situate, discuss and evaluate the crime reduction effects that various surveillance and policing strategies realise, and place these in relation to citizens’ principal right to the city. This right entails a city for all to use (public space) and the right to think about and participate in (social) change taking place in the city. In a nutshell, then, the current course discusses the (sometime ambiguous) balance between citizens’ ‘right to protection and/or safety’ and citizens’ ‘right to the city’.

This course uses blended learning. During interactive tutorials - for which the students need to prepare themselves by watching online lecture clips, by reading course materials, and by doing small preparatoty assignments - acquired knowledge is applied by working on assignments, doing city walks/observations, engaging in group discussions, etc. in an interactive setting.

This is the Safe City Thematic Elective.

Course objectives

1. Identify and reproduce key questions, topics, concepts and theories, part of the urban criminological field of study, relating to crime and safety, surveillance and policing, and social and spatial justice.
2. Recognise and apply key questions, topics, concepts and theories, part of the urban criminological field of study, in an actual city context.
3. Critically evaluate (intended and unintended) consequences of surveillance and policing practices in urban areas.
4. Identify and critically evaluate recent scientific urban criminology literature and apply key insights from these resources in course assignments.
5. Plan and schedule his/her study: organise and use relatively large amounts of information.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

• Tutorial (compulsory attendance)
  This means that students have to attend, and prepare for, every tutorial session of the course. If a student is unable to attend a tutorial or lecture, they should inform the lecturer in advance, providing a valid reason for absence. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If they are absent from a tutorial without a valid reason, they can be excluded from the final exam in the course.

Assessment method

Assesment:

• Book review (1500-2500 words)
  -measured programme's general learning outcomes: 1, 4-6, 11, 13-14, 17 19-20, 23-26
  -measured course specific objectives: 1-5

• Photo essay (1000-1500 words)
  -measured programme's general learning outcomes: 1, 4-6, 8, 10-11, 13-14, 16-17, 19-21, 26
  -measured course specific objectives: 1-5

• Student film/documentary
  -measured programme's general learning outcomes: 1, 4-6, 11, 13-14, 17 19-20, 23-26
  -measured course specific objectives: 1-51-5

Weighing

End grade

• The end grade of the course is established by determining the weighted average of the assessment components (Book review; Photo essay; Student film/documentary).

• This weighted average needs to be 5.50 or higher.

Resit

Students who have been active participants in class and submitted their assignments on time, but scored an overall insuffient mark, are entitled to a resit. For the resit, the students are given a chance to hand in a new version of their failed assignments. The deadline for resubmission is to be consulted with the lecturer.

Faculty regulations concerning participation in resits are listed in article 4.1 of the Faculty Course and Examination Regulations.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.

Reading list

Minton, A. (2012). Ground Control: Fear and happiness in the twenty-first-century city. Penguin UK.

Supplementary articles/booksections will be listed on Brightspace.

During the course, students will also have to self identify, read and critically evaluate additional (secondary) literature and apply key insights from these resources in their assignments.o be announced.

Registration

• Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.

• Students will be enrolled for Exams by the Administration Office, as long as they have a valid Tutorial enrolment.

• General information about uSis is available on the website

Contact

• For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

• For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Student Affairs Office for BA Urban Studies

Remarks

This thematic elective will allow you to follow the Thesis Seminar: Safe City, if you meet the other entry requirements for the thesis as well.