School Of Social Sciences And PsychologyViolence, Culture and Criminal JusticeWestern Sydney University Unit Code: 102199.1
Discipline: STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY
Student Contribution Band: 1
Level: 7
Credit Points: 10
Assumed Knowledge
Undergraduate degree in criminology, criminal justice or a related social science area; or equivalent.
Unit Enrolment Restrictions
Students must be enrolled in a postgraduate course.
About this Unit
In recent decades, a new wave of racial, ethnic and religious violence and terrorism has been linked to rapid patterns of globalisation and tensions over group and national identities. Specific knowledge about violence and considerations about its real extent, causes and cultural meanings remain uncertain. Yet there is evidence of a recent general decline in violence with a significant role for legal and quasi-legal bodies for acknowledging injury, punishing previously ‘deniable’ violence and promoting reconciliation. Seminar topics in this course will include the global patterns and forms of violence; individual versus societal and historical explanations; biology, evolution and culture; gender, race and inequality; hatred, genocide, collective identity and psychoanalysis; the role of states and law in countering and condoning interpersonal and collective violence; debates about victimhood and the cultural symbols of violence and its memorialisation.