Undergraduate - Course3914 - Bachelor of Arts (Criminal Justice)

This course provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to understand the complexity of crime, to identify and evaluate the effectiveness or otherwise of the criminal justice process, and to consider new and radical alternatives for dealing with crime.

Students will compare and contrast regional, rural and urban crime and evaluate policies which are supposed to prevent crime. They will also study public safety, forensic psychology, causes of deviant behaviour, and security-related issues.

These course outcomes are aligned with the Australian Qualifications Framework level 7, the Bologna Cycle 1 and Monash Graduate Attributes. For more information refer to http://opvclt.monash.edu.au/curriculum-by-design/aligning-course-outcomes-with-aqf-bologna.html.

Upon successful completion of this course it is expected that graduates will be able to:

• demonstrate a critical understanding of crime prevention and the criminal justice process, and to analyse and evaluate traditional, innovative and radical alternatives for dealing with crime
• analyse, consolidate and synthesise knowledge from a range of sources
• apply critical understanding and analysis to the literature within the humanities, arts and social sciences
• demonstrate an understanding of the present interpretations and potential future developments in the issues underlying the content of and approaches to the disciplines they have studied
• apply critical understanding of personal and cultural understandings, ethical attitudes, and (where appropriate) the physical and aesthetic appreciations that underpin traditional liberal arts education
• demonstrate advanced skills of written and oral presentation, argument and analysis
• demonstrate the capacity to apply these studies in the changing circumstances of intellectual life and of the profession they are likely to inhabit
• apply a critical awareness of international trends and of the intellectual context of economic, technological and social change

This course consists of a criminal justice major, a prescribed sequence from Australian Indigenous studies, a compulsory research studies unit and an arts minor, with additional studies chosen from a variety of arts disciplines.

Minors can be taken in the following available areas of study:

• Australian Indigenous studies
• Communications
• Community studies
• Community welfare and counselling
• English
• History-politics
• Psychological studies
• Psychology
• Public relations
• Sociology
• Writing

Students must complete the following:

(a.) a criminal justice major (48 points):

• ATS1283 Crime: Theory and practice
• ATS1284 The criminal justice process
• ATS2471/ATS3471 Comparative criminal justice*
• ATS2472/ATS3472 Crime and violence: Rural, regional and urban communities*
• ATS2734/ATS3734 Sociology of deviance*
• ATS3844 Forensic psychology

plus two of:

• ATS2473/ATS3473 Offender profiling*
• ATS2737/ATS3737 Social justice*

(b.) an arts minor in a different available area of study (24 points)

(c.) a first-year arts sequence in a third area of study (12 points)

(d.) two compulsory Australian Indigenous studies core units (12 points):

• ATS2364/ATS3364 Indigenous Australian politics and activism *
• ATS2369/ATS3369 Indigenous Australian human rights *

(e.) a further 48 points at first, second or third-year level.

No more than 10 units (60 points) are to be completed at a first-year level.

Students must complete a minimum of 36 points at third-year level across the duration of the degree.

By combining some of the core arts requirements, students can complete a double major in two different arts disciplines. For more details on this option, contact the Faculty of Arts.

* These units can only be undertaken at either level two or level three, eg students cannot study both ATS3734 and ATS2734.

Bachelor of Arts (Criminal Justice)