Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE CRI3011

 
TITLE Criminal Careers and Intergenerational Phenomena

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Criminology

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit is launched by an in-depth overview of criminal career research and its contribution to criminology and to the development of a new research methodology; intergenerational crime research. Students will be exposed to these different types of research methods and their implications to the study of the family as being the wellspring of crime across the globe.

The study-unit will be structured as follows:

1. Criminal career research : definition; examination of the most prominent studies carried out mainly in the UK, US and the Netherlands;
2. Intergenerational research: definition; examination of the most prominent studies carried out mainly in the UK, US, Netherlands and Malta;
3. Comparing and contrasting the methodological frameworks adopted by criminal career and intergenerational research;
4. Understanding the theoretical approaches used to study criminal careers and intergenerational tendencies;
5. The family as a crime preventer as well as a crime promoter;
6. Risk and mediating factors that could interchangeably act as crime preventers and crime promoters;
7. The continuity of crime, violence, substance misuse amongst other anti-social tendencies across generations;
8. Research that focuses on potential mechanisms that address how and why antisocial-tendencies run across generations;
9. Family interventions in corrections as a means to prevent intergenerational continuity.

Study-unit Aims:

1. To focus on different research methods and their use in studying crime contintuity;
2. To expose students to studies carried out across the globe; their implications and the use of databases;
3. To expose students to a series of behaviours that are studied in relation to the concept of crime preventers and crime promoters;
4. To appreciate the theoratical concepts in these genres of research;
5. To focus on a phenomenon of choice and design a methodological framework as part of the assigned project.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

1. to appreciate the contributions made by criminal career and intergenerational research to the field of criminology;
2. understand that the role of the family in crime and crime contintuity;
3. to understand concepts linked to potential mechanisms that could explain how and why crime and anti-social tendencies run in families.

2. Skills
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

1. to design a research project to study a chosen phenomenon linked to intergenerational research and present it in class;
2. to develop critical insight on the concept of crime preventers and crime promoters;
3. to develop critical insight on potential mechanisms that explain the contintuity of antis-social tendencies across generations of families.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- Besemer, S. (2012). Intergenerational transmission of criminal and violent behaviour. Sidestone Press. ISBN no: 9789088901010.
- Bijleveld, C.C.J.H., & Farrington, D.P. (2009). Editorial: the importance of studies of intergenerational transmission of antisocial behaviour. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 19, 77-79.
- Bijleveld, C.C.J.H., & M. Wijkman (2009). Intergenerational continuity in convictions: a five-generation study. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 19, 142-155.
- Derzon, J.H. (2005). Family features and problem, aggressive, criminal, or violent behaviour: a meta-analytic inquiry. Calverton: Pacific Institutes for Research and Evaluation.
- Farrington, D.P., & Wikström, P-O.H. (1994). Criminal careers in London and Stockholm: a cross-national comparative study. In E.G.M. Weitekamp & H-J. Kerner (Eds), Cross-national longitudinal research on human development and criminal behaviour (pp.65-89). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
- Farrington, D.P., Barnes, G., & Lambert, S. (1996). The concentration of offending in families. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 1, 47-63.
- Farrington, D.P., Coid, J.W., & Murray, J. (2009). Family factors in the intergenerational transmission of offending. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 19, 109-124.
- Farrington, D.P., Lambert, S., & West, D.J. (1998). Criminal careers of two generations of family members in the Cambridge study of delinquent development. Studies on Crime and Crime prevention, 7, 85-106.
- Formosa Pace, J. (2015). Intergenenerational continuity in offending: An approach to the phenomenon in the Maltese Islands. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom.
- Van De Rakt, M., Nieuwbeerta, P., & De Graaf, N. (2008). Like father, like son: the relationships between convictions trajectories of fathers and their sons and daughters. British Journal of Criminology, 48, 538-556.
- Van de Rakt, M., Nieuwbeerta, P., & Apel, R. (2009). Association of criminal convictions between family members: effects of siblings, fathers and mothers. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 19, 94-108.
- Wikström, P-O.H. (2006). Individuals, setting, and acts of crime: situational mechanism and the explanation of crime. In P-O.H., Wikström & R.J. Sampson (Eds), The explanation of crime: context, mechanisms and development (pp.61-107). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Project See note below Yes 50%
Examination (1 Hour) See note below Yes 50%
Note: Assessment due will vary according to the study-unit availability.

 
LECTURER/S Janice Formosa Pace

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

Study at UM

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit