LAW, SOCIETY & SOCIAL CONTROL - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module explores how law and social control relate to the institutional and interactional orders of developed Western societies having Common Law jurisdictions. In so doing it examines how individuals and groups seek to influence the behaviours of others and are also subject to regulatory forces that shape their own conduct. It considers the ways that these processes can give rise to crime and social deviance and pre-figure the efforts of agents of social control. Students are encouraged to critically engage with the concept of social control and to reflect on how it illuminates contemporary sociality and our present normative apparatus.

 

Within the topic, we cover issues including the digital capacities of control, particularly associated with the role of technology in social control. These analyses are further situated in international contexts from global and cultural capabilities perspectives, especially in encouraging thinking outside of Anglo-centric contexts. Practice examples are offered throughout the module, to engage in assessing reactions to crime and social control technologies, utilizing resources to support offenders and victims from a resourcefulness and resilience perspective.

 

Module provider

Sociology

Module Leader

MCCARTHY Daniel (Sociology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

n/a

Module content

1.      Introduction to the course, assessment requirements and the measurement of crime and offending

2.      Histories of social control

3.      Religion, Law and Crime

4.      Surveillance and social order

5.      Perspectives on the concept of evil

6.      The will to punish

7.      The Law as Therapeutic

8.      Crime and media

9.      Cross national issues

10.    The politics of criminological knowledge

 

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

NA

Assessment Strategy

Summative Assessment

 

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

 

• A systematic understanding of the ways in which different types of law, society and social control. can be understood in practice, especially in relation to data.

• An advanced ability to make connections and distinctions between law, society and social control.

• A critical understanding of the ways theories intersect with the ways in which law, society and social control are assessed.

 

This will be assessed via an extended assignment:

Essay – 100%

 

 

Formative Assessment and Feedback:

 

Feedback in class on regular student inputs

Written feedback on individual assignment for assessment one will shape the preparation of the second and cohort feedback from the overall findings of the assessment will be offered in class and on SurreyLearn to all to further support preparation for the final assessment.

Students will be given opportunities to discuss a brief plan of their assignment with the module convener, which is optional, but encouraged.

Module aims

• Assess the dynamic relationships between law, civil society and the State
• Challenge how the various mechanisms of social control are conditioned by cultural and political factors
• Have an ability to apply theories and challenge their usefulness in understanding law, society and social control

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to reflect the programme’s key learning and teaching aims by:

Engendering knowledge of key theoretical conceptualisations and understanding of law, society and social control.

Promoting knowledge of the empirical basis for our understanding of the relationship between law, society and social control.

Developing transferable skills that that relate to employability in the field of crime and justice and help prepare students for PhD study.

 

The learning and teaching methods include:

Lectures

Class exercises

Class discussions

Independent study

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: SOCM026

Other information

The Department of Sociology is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in all these areas, as highlighted throughout this module descriptor. A summary of how this is achieved for each of the five key pillars is provided below:

Employability – Many students that complete the module go onto work in the justice system, including within research and analytics. The module engages closely with many perspectives associated with practice in the justice system, including how different organisations may respond to crime.

Digital Capabilities – Technological uses in social control are important and topical areas of enquiry. We assess these, examining evidence of their fairness, equity and utility. We utilize classroom technologies, such as Padlet and Polleverywhere to help engage students in discussions.

Global and Cultural Capabilities – We look carefully at whether specific control responses can be understood internationally. This also encompasses critical assessment of the limits of some theories and interventions to cross international borders to effectively address crime issues.

Sustainability – Criminal justice responses are expensive and not always cost effective. Alternative means of intervention are assessed where relevant to allow students to recognize best practice in the field. This is also aligned around international evidence of good practice.

Resourcefulness and Resilience – Students will have the chance to engage critically in understanding different social control responses in society. This requires the utilization of resourcefulness skills and resilience, in helping recognize challenges that happen when working with complex social constellations of practice.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.