units

LAW4101

Faculty of Law

18 September 2017 22 December 2024

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This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

Monash University

6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Law

Offered

Not offered in 2016

Synopsis

The unit focuses on the institutions and processes that surround the implementation and enforcement of criminal law. Students will examine the idea of a criminal justice 'system'; objectives and models of criminal justice; and crime statistics and public perceptions of crime. Other topics will be drawn from the following areas: police powers and exercise of discretion; the exercise of prosecutorial discretion; theories of punishment; juvenile justice; imprisonment and prisoners rights; sentencing; and the role of victims in the criminal justice system.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students will have acquired or developed:

  1. an understanding of the objectives and theories of criminal justice
  2. a knowledge of current legal, political and social perspectives on criminal justice issues
  3. the ability to independently research and critically analyse problems in the enforcement of the criminal law
  4. the ability to think critically about the principles and institutions which relate to punishment
  5. the capacity to empathise with those practitioners and parties involved in law enforcement and criminal justice processes.

Assessment

Research essay (2000 words): 40%
Examination (2 hours writing time plus 30 minutes reading and noting time): 60%.

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Bronwyn Naylor

Prerequisites

LAW1100 or LAW1101 and LAW1102 or LAW1104

Co-requisites

LAW3300 or LAW3301 and LAW3302