Case Study State Crime Cathy Gormley-Heenan

Case Study – State Crime – Cathy Gormley-Heenan

‘Before’ commentary

This is a very new module in its second year. The idea behind it was to introduce the student to an area of crime which barely features in some of the large undergraduate textbooks - the crimes of the powerful as opposed to the crimes of the powerless.

The module is typically delivered face to face in a two hour lecture slot followed by a one hour seminar slot later in the week. The idea is that the students are introduced to the concepts and ideas in the lecture, some case studies are touched upon, some videos or You Tube material is reviewed and the students are expected to take this ‘overview’ and use it to help them find/locate relevant contemporary newspaper articles from the daily press which locates the theory/concepts/case studies in a very contemporary context. The lecture is usually held in a tiered theatre style room which is good for showing videos etc as well as lecturing but isn’t ideal for breakout work which I sometimes like the student to do. A lecture will consist of a PowerPoint presentation, some video footage, and the occasional use of an audience response system ( a la ‘ask the audience’ in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?). The lecture room typically holds around 100 and the class size for the past two years has been around 75.

The seminars are held in classroom style rooms in which the tables and chairs can be moved around to create groups. Class sizes in the seminars are always less than 20. Each week in the seminars, different groups are created by ascertaining ‘which’ newspapers stories they have brought to class for further discussion. I am usually able to put the students into groups depending on the geographical location/case study that they have chosen. With 4-6 in each group, the students will spend time explaining to each other exactly ‘why’ they have chosen their article, how they feel it relates to the theories and concepts discussed in class and where the points of commonality and distinction are between their various newspaper reports (depending on whether they have chosen a paper such as The Guardian in contrast to, perhaps, the Daily Telegraph. Then one student in each group will feed back to the whole class the details of the case study they had chosen and the views of the group. By doing this, I think that the class builds up a really valuable ‘bank’ of general knowledge about state crimes in different countries across the globe. The idea is that they can choose to focus on the area which interests them most rather than something than may only interest me!

Module feedback takes place in three distinct ways. Firstly, students are asked at the end of each week about how they are finding the module, the style, the pace, the amount of reading and whether or not they would prefer more case studies or more videos etc. Secondly, the module is formally reviewed by the University at the end of the semester through a ‘Student Survey on the Quality of Teaching’ with questions on whether the module was ‘delivered in a way that was clear and consistent with its stated learning outcomes’, whether ‘learning experiences on this module were interesting and engaging’, whether ‘appropriate learning resources available to support this module’, whether ‘assessment requirements and the criteria used in marking were made clear’, what students felt was ‘particularly good about the module’, as well as an opportunity to ‘suggest any improvements that you feel could be made to this module’. Finally, the students are encouraged to complete an ‘in module’ evaluation in which they can anonymously state which topics they enjoyed the most, which topics they didn’t like and think could be replaced and which topic they would like to have seen covered in the class which weren’t. This helps me to rethink and adapt content on an annual basis to keep it meaningful for the students.

‘Process’ commentary

This is a new module which I designed from scratch. I resourced some ‘key texts’ before I began to design the teaching plan and found one that was a neat ‘fit’ with the subjects that I had intended covering in the class so I was able to make this the first required reading for the new module.

I’m not sure about technical material ownership re institution and consortium process but I am more than happy to share all of the material that I have pulled together. I would have been very grateful for the opportunity to review other module outlines, reading lists, exam questions, topic lists in the subject of ‘state crime’ before I started to give me a good sense of what others in the field were focusing on. This is, however, a new ‘subject’ within criminology at undergraduate level and I can see a plethora of new and forthcoming books on the subject which will make subsequent reading lists and curriculum redesign much easier.

My material is fairly generic and I think easily adaptable, though it is contemporary so it would need updated on an annual basis before the new cohort of students begin each year. Any images used have been taken from Google ‘images’ which can be removed.

In short, I would say that this is a sensitive module and many elements in the materials may have to come with a ‘health warning’. Images of Abu-Ghraib, Guantanamo, pictures of prisoners who have been tortured (and I’m thinking here of one picture in particular of a man’s hand with his fingernails pulled off which happened while he was under interrogation). It’s not a ‘happy’ module or a ‘fun’ module. The material raises many moral and ethical points of discussion within the class but the students seem to really enjoy it (see student feedback below).

‘After’ commentary Guidance will be provided once we have reviewed the literature on pedagogic frameworks.

Any other supporting material Online Resources & Videos

See ‘Torturing Democracy’, a PBS documentary which examines the story of how the United States government circumvented tradition and law to adopt torture as official policy. Available online at: www.torturingdemocracy.org

See also Panorama: ‘Daylight Robbery’ , aired on 10 June 2008 and investigates claims that as much as $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq. Full documentary is available oline here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7438372.stm

Student Feedback

Exceptionally interesting - Without doubt the best Criminology module available to students. It's interesting that so much of the literature fails to focus on the crimes covered throughout the module despite their vast significance. I would go so far as to say it should be compulsory! 2) Like the study of Politics, each area contains both historic & contemporary relevance to everyday life, which only helps to enhance the learning experience. 3) The teaching staff, particularly Cathy did a fantastic job in steering the class and ensuring that each lecture was enjoyable and never fell stale. The seminars also worked particularly well and although I had concerns about consistent group work activity (as people tend not to do the work & prefer to spend the time chatting about their night out the previous evening) I found this not to be the case at all (Anon, module evaluation, 2009)

I thought this module was brilliant. It has actually changed my mind about what I hope to do once I finish my degree. I am studying law with criminology and had hoped to follow the route of becoming a solicitor. Now, however I want study criminology in greater depth and hope to do masters in the subject (Anon, module evaluation, 2009).

I absolutely loved this module, it was my choice to study state crime and I have not been disappointed. For those who attended the first few lectures to ascertain if they might become interested, most remained. All would agree that Dr, Gormley-Heenan was superb in her role as lecturer, and without doubt aided our understanding of the subject. Up and coming students are going to find this module fascinating, and will benefit from it's extremely well planned delivery (Anon, module evaluation, 2009).

Fascinating module, amount of reading a challenge, but worth the effort(Anon, module evaluation, 2009).