Completion of 10 x 250 weekly learning journal entries. Entries can be used to inform the e-presentation assignment weighted at 20% (summative) meets learning outcome 5

One 15 minute e-presentation from a selected list of titles (summative weighted at 80%) meets learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4

This module will be based on flexible learning materials delivered using the Blackboard virtual learning environment and selected readings provided in
(a) a limited number of course texts
(b) reading packs of selected articles and book chapters and
(c) e-books, e-journal articles and online news coverage.

The Blackboard environment will provide a context for:
- Blended learning comprising pre-recorded e-lectures on each of the topics
- Tutors to highlight key issues, problems and debates for discussion
- Learners to undertake a range of structured activities which will involve, for example, problem-solving, literature searching, engagement with group discussions, and scenarios.
- Tutors to provide guidance and advice.
- Learners to access guidance on on-line resources available via the web and the university's e-resources pages.
The readings will provide:
- An essential knowledge base for the module which will be available to all learners.
- A resource for coursework and all assessed assignments.
- A point of departure for the structured activities set for learners. Learners will be expected to engage fully and critically with the resources and activities that are provided.

Tutors will arrange to be online once a week for 13-weeks at a designated UK time for virtual discussion with students and to answer questions relating to the weekly topic. This session will be recorded and uploaded for students to review.

Tutors will give online academic support and guidance to learners throughout the lifetime of the module and will respond on a timely basis.

The module will run over 16 weeks; the latter will include 4 weeks set aside for learners to complete the assessed work.

Students will engage in independent study outside of the lecture/seminar this will include:
Complete required readings, relevant to each week’s topic. Doing these readings will give students a deeper understanding of each of the topics under discussion.

Listen to a series of pre-recorded weekly e-podcast materials that cover key issues on the topic and a session on assessment guidance pertaining to the e-presentation and preparing and embedding audio:
Preparing for the taught sessions by doing the key reading(s)

Working towards assessments by:

Completing 10 x 250-word individual weekly learning journal entries that record progress relating to the assignment. Weekly journal entries can be woven into their final assessment. The module leader will review a sample of students’ weekly learning entries and post some constructive feedback about the entries to support student development.

Croall, Hazel (2001) Understanding White Collar Crime (Open University Press)

Simpson, Sally S. (2002) Corporate Crime, Law, and Social Control (Cambridge University Press)

Tombs, Steve & Whyte, Dave. (eds.) (2003) Unmasking the Crimes of the Powerful: scrutinizing states and corporations (Peter Lang)

A networked computer capable of accessing the internet and running applications such as Blackboard and Adobe Acrobat.

A Word Processor compatible with Microsoft Word.

The Blackboard VLE will be available to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook

1.AN IN-DEPTH AND CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE DEBATES SURROUNDING WHITE-COLLAR AND CORPORATE CRIME AND THEIR APPLICATION TO A TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXT.
[Knowledge & Understanding, Learning]

2. AN ABILITY TO UNDERTAKE ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLEX, INCOMPLETE AND CONTRADICTORY ASPECTS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING CORPORATE, WHITE COLLAR AND FINANCIAL CRIME IN TERMS OF THEIR ILLEGALITY, CRIMINALITY AND TRANS-NATIONAL CHARACTER.
[Analysis, Reflection]

3. AN ABILITY TO APPLY AN IN-DEPTH AND CRITICAL KNOWLEDGE OF CONCEPTUAL ISSUES IN TRANSNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME TO SPECIFIC CASE STUDIES OF CORPORATE, WHITE-COLLAR AND FINANCIAL CRIME.
[Knowledge & Understanding]

4. AN ABILITY TO CRITICALLY EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RESPONSES OF GOVERNMENT AND INTER-GOVERNMENTAL BODIES TO CORPORATE, WHITE-COLLAR AND FINANCIAL CRIME AT THE GLOBAL LEVEL USING KNOWLEDGE WHICH MAY BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE DISCIPLINE.
[Enquiry Problem Solving, Reflection]

5. A SYSTEMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE ABOVE (1-4) PRESENTED IN THE WEEKLY LEARNING JOURNALS, DEMONSTRATING AN ABILITY TO DEBATE, AND ENGAGE IN TEXTUAL AND DATA ANALYSIS. [Communication]

This module provides a comprehensive and accessible overview to crimes of the powerful. In the past too many criminologists look down the social strata for their examples of criminality and wrongdoing – unwittingly reinforcing normative accounts of law breaking and thus maintaining the status quo. This module seeks to provide a re-invigoration of the topic of crimes of the powerful, bringing forward new ideas and new thinking about how the crimes of the powerful should be defined and ultimately consist of. It serves as a re-engagement to crimes of the powerful whilst seeking to move the debate forward by stimulating innovative thinking and introducing new perspectives including cutting edge theory in the form of Graze Culture (Lynes et al., forthcoming) and benign neglect.

This module brings theoretical debates at, and around, criminology concerning crime and power, and work and examine these issues with contemporary examples including but not limited to the myriad of harms related to transnational corporations, acts of genocide and state corruption. It is both theoretically informed and empirically engaged, looking at the contemporary criminological and socio-legal debates on crime and power, along with where they are linked to nations, states, corporations and individuals. Straddling emergent concerns around Ultra realism and developing debates in zemiology, it presents and calls for an attempt to rethink the contours of this subject, and its traditional Marxist slant as a challenge to what was once perceived as a liberal orthodox criminology. In doing so, it also challenges the very assumptions and definitions concerning good and evil, along with welfare and harm. For this reason, it sets out a new perspective, encompassing cutting-edge theoretical developments, in the endeavour to conceptualise and study crimes of the powerful within the contemporary late capitalist landscape. Using this new re-conceptualisation of the crimes of the powerful that is also synthesised with critical, theoretically informed and considered scholarship, this module truly charts new frontiers in the study of crime, harm and power for students.

In order to do this, it will look at a number of relevant in-depth case studies concerning different aspects and levels of corporate, white collar and financial crime such as environmental pollution, financial misappropriation, money laundering, tax evasion, health and safety violations, industrial espionage, consumer fraud, and food adulteration and poisoning.¿¿

The context for this will be the deregulation of the global economy as a result of neo-liberalism and the 'casino economy' that this encouraged in international business dealings; the globalisation of national economies and the formation of transnational corporations; the growth of the financial services sector and the increasing volume of online transactions; the growing links between terrorist organisations and illegal arms dealers and transnational banks such as BCCI; and the growing need for transnational criminal organisations to 'launder' money through the legal financial system.¿¿ In preparation for the dissertation the module will focus upon analysing the available national and international data regarding corporate, financial and cyber-crime; the problems and issues raised by a case study approach to social research; and the problems of interpreting journalistic and governmental sources in a context marked by fraud and unreliable data.

This module provides a comparative and transnational analysis of the historical development and recent growth of corporate, white collar and financial crime. In the past these crimes have been dealt with within the conceptual context of 'white collar crime' but it is increasingly recognised that the globalisation of criminal activities presents unique and unfamiliar problems. Corporate and financial crimes are now almost by definition transnational by virtue not only of the growth of transnational legal and illegal business but also because of the globalisation of financial markets via the internet. This module will, therefore, look at the main social actors, processes and interactions by which corporate, white collar and financial crimes are perpetrated, the ways in which they are criminalised, the business ideologies which deny their criminality, the links between the 'underworld' and the 'overworld' of business, and the means by which corporate crimes are dealt with within national and international law.

In order to do this it will look at a number of relevant in-depth case studies concerning different aspects and levels of corporate, white collar and financial crime such as environmental pollution, financial misappropriation, money laundering, tax evasion, health and safety violations, industrial espionage, consumer fraud, and food adulteration and poisoning.

Accompanying this will be a critical analysis of the recent response of national and international agencies to the growth of corporate, white collar and financial crime and the effectiveness at the global level of attempts to regulate and prosecute it. In particular, the role of international agencies, national governments and financial regulatory agencies will be examined together with the problems of bringing corporate actors to justice and punishing them in a meaningful and effective way.

The context for this will be the deregulation of the global economy as a result of neo-liberalism and the 'casino economy' that this encouraged in international business dealings; the globalisation of national economies and the formation of transnational corporations; the growth of the financial services sector and the increasing volume of online transactions; the growing links between terrorist organisations and illegal arms dealers and transnational banks such as BCCI; and the growing need for transnational criminal organisations to 'launder' money through the legal financial system.

In preparation for the dissertation the module will focus upon analysing the available national and international data regarding corporate, financial and cyber-crime; the problems and issues raised by a case study approach to social research; and the problems of interpreting journalistic and governmental sources in a context marked by fraud and unreliable data.