ACR214 - Inequality, Power and Justice
Unit details
| Year: | 2022 unit information |
|---|---|
| Important Update: | Unit delivery will be in line with the most current COVIDSafe health guidelines. We continue to tailor learning experiences for each unit to achieve the best possible mix of online and on-campus activities that successfully blend our approaches to learning, working and research. Please check your unit sites for announcements and updates. Last updated: 4 March 2022 |
| Enrolment modes: | New unit commencing 2023 Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Cloud (online), CBD* |
| Credit point(s): | 1 |
| EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
| Unit Chair: | Trimester 1: TBA |
| Prerequisite: | Students must complete 4 credit points at any unit level |
| Corequisite: | Nil |
| Incompatible with: | Nil |
| Typical study commitment: | Students will on average spend 150-hours over the trimester undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. |
| Scheduled learning activities - campus: | 1 x 1-hour class per week, 1 x 1-hour seminar per week |
| Scheduled learning activities - cloud: | 1 x 1-hour class per week (recordings provided), 1 x 1-hour online seminar per week |
Note:*CBD refers to the National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Research and Innovation (NIKERI) Institute; Community Based Delivery | |
Content
Criminal justice processes disproportionately expose women, indigenous people, people with intellectual disabilities, LGBTQIA + people and many others to disproportionate forms of harm. These forms of discrimination have, in some cases, led to death, serious injury and more widespread cultural destruction or persecution. This unit adopts a critical framework to critique Australian criminal justice and its legacies of inequality. It is informed by a range of critical indigenous, gender and disabilities perspectives to critique mainstream understandings of crime and its control, in conjunction with leading critical scholars from NIKERI. The aim is to educate students on the harms caused by criminal justice intervention and how these can compromise the pursuit of self-determination for individuals and groups who experience structural disadvantage. The unit also examines how indigenous knowledge, critical gender theories, and other approaches to examining discrimination provide important frameworks for understanding the relationships between space, land, and respect, that are often violated by criminal justice and crime control policies. This critical focus aims to open up new pathways for improved criminal justice practices for promoting equality, safety and limiting harm at both individual and group levels, amongst people who are commonly underrepresented in criminal justice debates.
| ULO | These are the Learning Outcomes (ULO) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: | Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| ULO1 | Critically analyse available scholarship relating to harm and criminal justice, and critically identify its manifestations for those affected. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO4: Critical thinking GLO8: Global Citizenship |
| ULO2 | Apply and critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of major theories and concepts of paternalism and their relationship to processes that contribute to inequality. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem Solving GLO8: Global Citizenship |
| ULO3 | Develop knowledge of major trends in disproportionate enforcement and unjust treatment within the criminal justice system that is a problematic legacy of criminal justice activity. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem Solving GLO8: Global Citizenship |
| ULO4 | Identify and analyse national and global developments that challenge and seek to reform decolonise or abolish criminal justice institutions. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem Solving GLO7: Teamwork GLO8: Global citizenship |
These Unit Learning Outcomes are applicable for all teaching periods throughout the year.
Assessment
| Assessment Description | Student output | Grading and weighting (% total mark for unit) | Indicative due week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1 – Research and Writing Exercise | 1000 words or equivalent | 25% | Week 4 |
| Assessment 2 – Presentation (group) | 15-minute presentation | 25% | TBA |
| Assessment 3 - Report | 2000 words or equivalent | 50% | Week 11 |
The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.
Learning Resource
Essesntial Learning Resources
Ball, M., Crofts, T and Dwyer, A. (eds) 2016, Queering criminology, Palgrave, London.
Blagg, H. and Anthony, T. 2019. Decolonising Criminology: Imagining Justice in a Postcolonial World. Palgrave, London.
Renzetti, C.M., Miller, S.L. and Gover, A.R. 2013. Routledge International Handbook of Crime and Gender Studies. London, Routledge.
Steele, L. 2020. Disability, criminal justice and law: Reconsidering court diversion. Routledge, London.
Recommended Learning Resources
Baldry E, Briggs D, Goldson B and Russel S (2018) ‘‘Cruel and unusual punishment’: an inter-jurisdictional study of the criminalisation of young people with complex support needs’, Journal of Youth Studies, 21(5):636–652
Ben-Moshe, L. 2020. Decarcerating disability: Deinstitutionalisation and prison abolition. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Cunneen, C. and Tauri, J. 2016. Indigenous Criminology. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.
Douglas, H. and Finnane, M. 2012. Indigenous Crime and Settler Law: White Sovereignty After Empire. Palgrave, London.
Watson, N. and Douglas, H. 2021. Indigenous Legal Judgments: Bringing Indigenous Voices into Judicial Decision-making. Routledge, London.
Watson, I. 2014. Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law. Routledge, London.
Yunkaporta, T. 2019. Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, Text Publishing, Melbourne.
Additional recommended materials, including electronic readings, will be made available through CloudDeakin.
Unit Fee Information
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