Critical criminology and the social sciences

This free course, Critical criminology and the social sciences, will provide you with an insight into some of the main disciplines within the social sciences, focusing in particular on critical criminology. It will begin by outlining some of the defining characteristics of the social science disciplines of psychology, law, sociology and critical criminology. Using the global financial crisis of 2007-8 as a case study, the course will then provide you with an insight into how academics working in some of these different disciplinary backgrounds make sense of a similar topic in different ways. The course will conclude by considering the place of critical criminology within the social sciences.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Introducing the social sciences
• 1 Introducing the social sciences
• 1.1 Psychology
• 1.2 Law
• 1.3 Sociology
• 1.4 Criminology
• 1.5 Other disciplines in the social sciences
• 2 Introducing critical criminology
• 2 Introducing critical criminology
• 2.1 What does it mean to be critical?
• 2.2 The scope of critical criminology
• 2.3 Key features of critical criminology
• 2.4 Sonae: an archetypal case study for critical criminologists
• 3 Exploring the 2008 global financial crisis from different disciplinary perspectives
• 3 Exploring the 2008 global financial crisis from different disciplinary perspectives
• 3.1 A psychological perspective on the global financial crisis
• 3.2 A legal perspective on the global financial crisis
• 3.3 A sociological perspective on the global financial crisis
• 3.4 A critical criminological perspective on the global financial crisis
• 4 Test your knowledge
• 4 Test your knowledge
• Conclusion
• References
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements