CY5378 - Rethinking Social Control

Credit points:	03
Year:	2011
Student Contribution Band:	Band 1
Administered by:	School of Arts & Social Sciences

Students in this subject critically reflect on concepts, modes and practices of social control as they have developed over time. From the most mundane aspects of everyday social life to events of global significance, mechanisms of social control shape how citizens, corporations and governments engage with the world around them. Examples of social control include everything from road rules, fines and surveillance through to imprisonment and military intervention. Issues relating to social control include violations of human rights, identifying targets for government and non-government control measures, determining the kinds of behaviour that may trigger social control responses, and theorising how the ways in which crime and deviancy are constructed in a given society maintain social control industries. Questions of the accountability of social control agents, and in whose interests social control is being exercised, are especially important. The subject deals with examples of crime past and present in order to come to understand social control trends in Australia and internationally. Global trends in social control are studied in a way that both situates Australia within these processes, and considers how Australia contributes to their development.

Learning Outcomes

• the capacity to critically analyse and reflect on the complexity of social control mechanisms that exist in society;
• an understanding of the historical development of social control practices and their globalisation;
• knowledge of the broad range of social control practices that target subpopulations, individuals and behaviours;
• understanding of social control systems beyond their application to 'street' crime.

Graduate Qualities

• The ability to work individually and independently;
• The ability to appraise information critically;
• The ability to plan, conduct and manage research in their discipline;
• The ability to conduct their research in an ethical manner.

Availabilities
External, Study Period 1
Census Date 24-Mar-2011
Coord/Lect:	Dr Garry Coventry.
Method of Delivery:	WWW - LearnJCU
Assessment:	quizzes or tests (30%); multidraft Essays (70%).

Note: Minor variations might occur due to the continuous Subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.