Admission requirements
Only students of the MSc Crisis and Security Management can take this course.
Students will participate on a ‘first come come served’ bases, with a maximum number of participants of 35.
Description
The evolution in Western countries towards late modern societies led to a range of challenges in governance of crime and social disorder. Security issues became more frequent, more intrusive, more liquid and more complex. At the same time, insecurity about daily life conditions, and about crime and social disorder issues, grew. Citizens expect active law enforcement from the government and the exclusion of all possible risks, at all times. This evolution led to a stronger grip from the government and a trend towards a stringent ‘politics of behavior’. Late modern governance led in some countries to penal populism, penalization of the social, ‘responsabilisation’ strategies and exclusion of under privileged groups. Other governance characteristics that we will analyze in this course securization through governance, are defining deviance down, plural policing, fragmentation and centralization, blurring boundaries and the consequences of the public-private divide.
This course focuses on governance of crime and social disorder in a comparative perspective. Students will analyze actual governance themes (mass incarceration, boot camps, pedophiles registers, anti-social behavior Acts, gated communities,…) from a historical as well as modern perspective. Students will learn to explain governance responses on crime and social disorder as well from an etiological perspective on the causes of crime (criminological theories, what, origin, frequency, patterns, appearance) as well as from a criminal policy and law enforcement point of view. In order to be able to discuss governance matters in a knowledge based way, students will get acquainted with international data sources on crime and the administration of criminal justice (European Sourcebook of Crime and Justice, HEUNI reports, International Crime Victims Survey). We will study the way in which the flow of offences and offenders through the criminal justice chain (police, public prosecution, sentencing and execution) shapes the law enforcement model and reveals the efficiency and effectiveness of its organization.
While public police remains until today one of the most important actors in tackling crime and disorder, this court reveals a comparative analysis of public policing in different countries. Four different police models will be discussed: (1) lawful policing model, (2) community policing, (3) public-private divide and the (4) military-bureaucratic police model. At least, police systems in different countries will be analyzed, and a cross evaluation between models and systems will be made.
Course objectives
The learning objectives of the course are:
1. Students will gain theoretical and policy insights in the etiology of crime and disorder, in plural policing, police models and police systems
2. Students will be able to analyze and evaluate actual governance issues in a knowledge-based way
3. Students will develop a critical understanding of empirical research on modern policing
4. Students will develop analytical and critical writing skills
5. Students will be able to work in groups and provide a high-level presentation
Timetable
Mode of instruction
The course will exist of 6 lectures and 1 tutorial with students presentations and group debate in the last lecture (7). During the lectures mandatory non-graded exercises will be organized, like analyzing and presenting actual policy measures and strategies based on policy and theoretical assumptions on the causes of crime. Film and documentary material will be shown and discussed.
Course Load
140 hours
Hours required for lectures and presentation: 7 weeks X 3 hours/week = 21
Self-study hours: 119 hours
including reading mandatory readings and assignments
Assessment method
The final grade consists of two mandatory assignments:
(1) Group paper (10%) and group presentation (10%) (grades equal for all group members)
(2) An individual final paper on comparing policing in metropolises (80%).
Leading reference system for both papers is APA.
Compensation is possible, but at least a 5.5 has to be obtained for the individual final paper, and the weighted average of all assignments has to be at least 5.5.
If no passing grade is obtained, a retake of the individual final paper is possible.
You can find more information about assessments and the timetable exams on the website.
Details for submitting papers (deadlines) are posted on Blackboard.
On the Public Administration front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website, uSis and Blackboard.
Resit
Students will be permitted to resit an examination if they have taken the first sit and have a mark lower than 5.5 or with permission of the Board of Examiners.
Resit written exam
Students that want to take part in a resit for a written exam, are required to register via uSis. Use the activity number that can be found on the ‘timetable exams’.
Blackboard
Yes, Blackboard will be available 10 days before lecture 1.
Reading list
See Blackboard. The reading list will be provided in the course outline and will be available 10 days before lecture 1. The mandatory readings are scientific articles for each lecture to be obtained by the e-library.
Registration
Use both uSis and Blackboard to register for every course.
Register for every course and workgroup via uSis. Some courses and workgroups have a limited number of participants, so register on time (before the course starts). In uSis you can access your personal schedule and view your results. Registration in uSis is possible from four weeks before the start of the course.
Also register for every course in Blackboard. Important information about the course is posted here.
Contact
E. Devroe
e.devroe@cdh.leidenuniv.nl (office B207).
Office hours: Tuesday – Thursday 09-18 h
Remarks
In this course students will learn how to conceptualize, analyze, discuss and assess issues of actual policing as they will have to do in a later job environment, so this course presents an interesting job preparation in the public sector in the broad security field.