The Criminology Team

University Centre at Blackburn College

This initiative sought to address the engagement features identified by Trowler and Trowler (2010). The features were identified from a literature review and recommended learning experiences that sought to: pose academic challenge, open up additional interaction with staff, encourage learning beyond the classroom, respond to individual needs, have an extra-curricular approach, encourage participation in a learning community and encourage interactions with diverse peers (para. 2.1.2).

This paper seeks to explain how a change in assessment methods enabled these features to be directly addressed in the teaching and learning of UCBC criminology students.

It will consider issues that impede such changes and suggest ways for circumventing restrictive interpretations of assessment regulations.

The use of online resources will also be assessed:

http://criminology.sost.blackburn.ac.uk

This paper considers the findings from including

photography in the teaching and assessment of

undergraduate criminology students. The catalyst for

this project was the ‘What is Crime?’ photography

competition held by the Centre for Crime and Justice

Studies that was announced in September 2008.

The competition required entries in any of three

categories: Environment Finance Violence

“The title of the competition ‘What is crime?’ invites

imaginative, possibly subversive entries.”

(What is Crime judge, Ken Loach)

The task was incorporated into the formal assessment

of first year criminal justice students on the HND and

FdA Criminology programmes.

A student research group that included other cohorts

was established in order to hold a public exhibition of

the photographs at the end of the academic year.

Course Number of

assignments

Usual word limit per

assignment

Total

HND Criminology (2 years) 20 1,750

35,000

FdA Criminology (2 years) 16 2,500

40,000

BA Criminology (per year) 5 4,000 and 10,000 for the

dissertation 26,000

(plus 4 exams)

Are these methods appropriate for ‘the newundergraduate’ (Newburn, 2007) or ‘Digital

Native’(Prensky, 2001)?

Do they prepare them for their post-University life? (Handel, 2007)

Do they get the best out of staff?

Do they equate with ‘doing criminology’? (Hayward

and Presdee, 2010: Framing crime: cultural criminology and the image.)

"Go and sit in the lounges of luxury hotels and on thedoorsteps of the flophouses; sit on the Gold Coast settees and on the slum shakedowns; sit in the Orchestra Hall and in the Star and Garter Burlesque. In short go and get the seat of your pants dirty in real research.” (Park, 1927)

“Both insight and reliability are needed, but insight does not need to always arise simultaneously out of the same exact protocol as reliability. Powerful insight can arise out of walking down a street by mistake.” (Kane, 2004)

A valid form of assessment? Ethics committee approval? Health and safety implications?

The marks for the assignment were split equally with half based on the photograph and application of semiotic principles and the other half for an assessment of the rationale behind WIC including a justification for why their photograph was suitable.

The assignment was undertaken in groups due to the nature of the task, the need for resources and its requirement for the students to actively observe life in their communities.

‘Text books have a tendency to encourage

‘right’ answers… Visual imagery encourages the

kind of critical perspective our schools have found

it so hard to engender through the traditional

curriculum… There is enough ambiguity of

interpretation in judging what we make ourselves

that one may be bold to think for oneself’

(Takata and Curran, 2009: 32).

Support from colleagues in other disciplinesenabled two lectures and seminars on photography and semiotics to be provided.

The students were given time for ‘Practising Looking’ (Sturken and Cartwright, 2001) and

their ‘Semiotics 101’ sessions introduced them to

the work of writers such as Roland Barthes

(1981).

(i) ‘prohibited places’ under the Official Secrets Act 1911.

(ii) Article 8 of the ECHR (e.g. Wood v Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis [2009] EWCA Civ 414).

(iii) s. 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000

(iv) s.58

(v) s. 58(A)

When police powers under s.44 were in place the police no longer had to have objective suspicion for stopping and searching people for ‘articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism’ (s.45) in a specified area for 28 days.

Research by the British Journal of Photography (2009) hasrevealed the extent of this power.

In April 2011 it was announced that in 2009-10 there were 92,000 people stopped and searched under these powersand a total of two people were arrested for terrorism-related offences (The Independent 15 April 2011).

‘It seems to me inevitable, however, that so long as the principal terrorist risk against which use of the section 44 power has been authorised is that from al Qaeda, a disproportionate number of those stopped and searched will be of Asian appearance (particularly if they happen to be carrying rucksacks or wearing apparently bulky clothing capable of containing terrorist-related items)… Ethnic origin Ethnic origin

accordingly can and properly should be taken into accountaccordingly can and properly should be taken into account in deciding whether and whom to stop and search provided always that the power provided always that the power

is used sensitivelyis used sensitively and the selection is made for reasons connected with the perceived terrorist threat and not on grounds of racial and not on grounds of racial

discriminationdiscrimination.’ (as per Lord Brown in R. (on the application of Gillan), (on the application of Quinton) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (2006) paras. 80-1).

According to s. 58(1)(a) it is an offence if a person “collects

or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”.

In R v G, R v J (2010) 1 A.C. 43 the HL declined to clarify the potential reach of s. 58 and confirmed that it can

apply even where it was not intended to assist somebody,somewhere, to commit or prepare, an act of terrorism.

An offence could also occur via s.58(A) when a person elicits, publishes or communicates ‘useful’ information about members of the police, armed forces or

intelligence services.

The eventual submissions from the students showed a diversity of harms such as elder abuse, psychological abuse of children, poverty and the effects of recession. The manner in which the photographs were generally taken – a snapshot on a mobile phone was one of the most pleasing aspects of the initiative.

The results also showed an 8% increase in the mean average grade compared to the previous academic year.

‘Statistical insignificance?’

‘there is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and

the earth is made of glass.’

(Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841: para. 36) 

Please test this opinion by visiting the Criminology Department’s student

photography exhibition ‘What is Crime?’ in rooms H605-6.

The research group interviewed 88 people before they went into the exhibition and four months later the same questionnaire was

sent to them.

46 people replied and using a test for differences it was found that attitudes towards ‘harm’, ‘intent’ and ‘real’ crimes

had changed significantly.

In March 2011 these 46 respondents were sent another questionnaire to which 11 of them replied.

Their recall for the exhibition was rated at 7.3:10 and ‘images of social deprivation’ were the most common specific recollections.

The main reasons for their visit were ‘support for the students’ and ‘curiosity’.

“The pictures were very striking and easy to embed in the memory.  The juxtaposition of scenes of disrepair and neglect with bright shiny buildings close by was particularly memorable.” (J)

“A sort of menacing experience came through… that illustrated the silent, alarming state of affairs, that exist all around us.” (K)

‘In Hiding’ by Jade Conway, FdA Criminology year 1:

This image depicts a row of rose trees covered by plastic bags forprotection against the cold weather. The connotations of this imagesuggest the rose trees represent the powerful people in society –exactly the ones who are being protected by the current debt climate we are suffering in. The rose canes also connote the powerful people standing tall and unharmed by the climate. This photograph was taken whilst I was out randomly walking with my horse through some fields. I came across the row of roses and thought it would be

a good image to use as it inspires thought and results in meaning

being

established by the viewer.

The students were asked to submit their work on a wiki called Crime Today (UCBC Criminology Department, 2010).

The method encourages the production of original work and enables randomness and a ‘sideways glance’ to be brought into the curriculum.

It allows the full range of students to undertake the kind of research recommended by Robert Park, Stephanie Kane and others.

The level of interest from the public provides an additional dimension for teaching and learning. The youTube video of the exhibition has now received over 1200 hits (UCBC Criminology Department, 2010)

However, the ‘digitalness’ of current criminology students requires further investigation.

Barthes, R. (1981) Camera lucida. New York: Hill & Wang.

British Journal of Photography (2009) ‘Why is Derbyshire the best place to live if you are a

photographer?’ Available at: www.bjpnline.com/public/showPage.html?page=868495 (accessed March

2010).

Emerson, R.,W. (1841) Essays – Compensation. URL (accessed May 2009)

ttp://www.bartleby.com/5/105.html

Handel, M. (2007) A new survey of workplace skills, technology, and management practices (STAMP):

background and descriptive statistics. Presented at National Research Council Workshop on Future

Skills. Washington, DC. 23 May.

Kane, S., C. (2004) ‘The unconventional methods of cultural criminology’. Theoretical Criminology, 8

(3), pp. 303–321.

Newburn, T. (2007) Criminology. Cullompton: Willan.

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. URL (accessed October 2010)

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-

%20part1.pdf

Sturken , M. and Cartwright, L. (2001) Practices of looking. New York: Oxford University Press.

Takata, S. and Curran, J. (2009) ‘The art of learning by doing’. Criminal Justice Matters, 78, pp 32–

34.

Trowler, V. and Trowler, P. (2010) Student engagement evidence summary. URL (accessed April 2011)

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/studentengagement/StudentEngagementEvidenceSu

mmary.pdf

UCBC Criminology Department (2010) What is Crime? URL (accessed November 2010)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sJ4PUMYiSE

UCBC Criminology Department (2011) Crime Today. URL (accessed July 2011)

http://criminology.sost.blackburn.ac.uk/?q=node