6 ECTS credits
180 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 4021696EER for all students in the 2nd semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.
The Crime and the City module consists of two different parts: “Crime and the City 1” (3ECTS) compulsory for students of the Master in Criminology and students of the Master in Urban Studies (module Urban Criminology). The second part, ‘Crime and the City 2” (6ECTS), is compulsory for students of the Master in Urban Studies (those who chose the t module Urban Criminology) and elective for students of the Master in Criminology.
The overall purpose of these two courses, Crime and the City 1 and 2 (3 ECTS and 6 ECTS, respectively), is to give students insights in the dynamics of the city and in the way space matters to criminology. Space influences citizens’ lives, practices, experiences and emotions, at the same time that it is created and recreated on a daily basis by its dwellers, commuters, users, and visitors. These processes will be studied in their relationship with crime, fear, disorder and urban conflicts. These issues are analysed taking into account the broader processes of globalisation, social polarisation and cultural fragmentation. At a theoretical level, the courses aim to confront, criticize and complement mainstream criminological thinking with insights from urban studies literature.
Crime and City 2 will build up from the more introductory discussions from Crime and the City 1 and will more specifically focus on the general concept of order and in the relationships between conflicts, crime and the urban. These topics will be explored through a multiplicity of subthemes that include: public order, incivilities, nuisances, conflicts in public spaces; surveillance and control of public spaces; protests and the right to the city; methodology: how to conduct observation in public spaces; a critical analysis of environmental criminology, situational crime prevention, planning, regulating and policing nightlife crime and conflicts.
The course will be organized around eight interactive sessions of 3 hours and two city walks. The course will be taught through the combination of seminars, interactive lessons where students prepare their projects in groups under the supervision of their professors, and the discussion of texts. A reader with mandatory and supplementary texts related to the above-mentioned subthemes will be made available at the Canvas site of this course. The language of instruction is English and the study material will mainly consist of sources in this same language. The course requires an active participation of the students. This participation consists of reading the texts used in the lectures, actively participating in the exercises given in class and in the preparation of the group assignment.
Evening students
9 contact hours – 171 hours of self-study
COVID-19
Lessons, assessment and other contact moments may take place face to face and/or online, depending on the measures imposed by the government regarding Covid-19 as well as the availability of the classrooms.
Knowledge and insight
• Graduates have knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of the city and its relation with order, crime, urban conflicts, deviant behaviour and transgression;
• Graduates have knowledge and understanding of theoretical approaches to study the city and order, crime, urban conflicts, deviant behaviour and transgression;
• Graduates can analyse and apply the knowledge and insights from urban criminology in the analysis of a concrete problem of (dis)order;
• Graduates can understand and judge research on the dynamics of the city and its relation with order in different international contexts;
• Graduates understand different research methods to study the city and its relation with order, crime, urban conflicts, deviant behaviour and transgression, which they can apply critically;
Skills
• Graduates can independently translate the knowledge and insights of the relationship city and order into a problem statement for a literature study;
• Graduates can independently conduct a scientifically relevant international and national literature study on the city and its relationship to order, crime, conflicts, deviant behaviour and transgression;
• Graduates can independently process and analyse the complex reality of urban life related to problems order and disorder in their analyses;
• Graduates can produce a scientific paper on the intersection between criminology and urban studies;
• Graduates can describe, analyse and formulate policy issues regarding city and its relationship to order, crime, conflicts, deviant behaviour and transgression;
• Graduates are able to think critically and discuss order and social response in an urban context.
Attitudes
• Graduates have a critical and integral attitude, which demonstrates intellectual curiosity and intellectual honesty and a mind-set of lifelong learning;
• Graduates have a scientific interdisciplinary attitude with openness for different problem definitions and research methods;
• Graduates have a great interest in social, geographical and criminological subjects and an ethical-scientific attitude towards the course and their colleagues;
• Graduates deal with the emotional aspects of the studied phenomena;
• Graduates are open minded and free of prejudice.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Other Exam determines 70% of the final mark.
PRAC Teamwork determines 30% of the final mark.
Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
Within the PRAC Teamwork category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The overall score of this master course ‘Crime and the City 2’ is determined by:
1. Individual assessment:
30% Portfolio
30% Short scientific paper
10% Participation
2. Collective assignment
30% Group Task
Each student should take part in all four forms of assessment in order to be approved. Students who failed the course but obtained a score of at least 10 on 20 in one of the assignments are dispensed for these assessments in the next time they follow the course.
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Criminology: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Urban Studies: Standard track
Master of Teaching in Social Sciences: criminologische wetenschappen (90 ECTS, Etterbeek) (only offered in Dutch)