Using the Concept of Social Harm to Understand the Complexities of Crime
QUESTION
- Critically examine what the concept of ‘social harm’ might offer to understandings of the complexities of ‘crime’.
GUIDANCE
Before beginning this TMA, it will be useful to take the time to work through Section 5 of Module Companion 1. This contains both useful insights regarding each chapter, and a discussion of the connections between the chapters and the module themes. These pointers may be useful when you come to answer this question, which requires you to show that you understand the complexities of the concept of ‘crime’, focusing particularly on the module theme of harm and violence. You may also wish to explore the relevance of the other module themes – power and the local and global – to your argument.
The main source for this TMA is Book 1. You can draw on any or all of the chapters as the TMA asks you to think about the tensions and complexities of crime. You will need to critically engage with accepted notions of ‘crime’, and the differences between and relative strengths of the concepts of ‘crime’ versus ‘social harm’. You might want to think about how understandings of ‘crime’ are historically and geographically situated (which connects with the theme of the local/global) and the controversial and contested nature of the concept of ‘crime’.
As with TMA 01 you should familiarise yourself with the following learning outcomes for this assignment. In this TMA, you are expected to demonstrate your ability to: show that the concepts of ‘crime’ and ‘social harm’ are controversial and contested understand how the module themes, especially ‘power’, illuminate crime identify the ways in which ‘crime’ and ‘social harm’ are interrelated.
In this assignment you are asked to discuss a particular statement: what the concept of ‘social harm’ might offer to understandings of the complexities of ‘crime’. This means developing an argument that outlines ways in which the statement might be justified, and also ways in which it might be problematic. The question requires you to critically engage with and interrogate accepted notions of ‘crime’ and how the idea of social harm might challenge or further complicate these notions. You will need to consider how the constitution of the concept of crime is informed and shaped by relations of power. Remember that ‘crime’ is a term without universal meaning, so we must not take it at face value. Its meaning depends upon the socio-political and cultural contexts to which it refers, or in which it is used. It might therefore be helpful to explore how some events and/or people become criminalised, and in what historical and geographical contexts.
In answering the question, you may focus on one particular chapter from Book 1 for illustrative purposes or you could integrate relevant material from across several chapters. Much of Book 1 explores the ways in which powerful elites (governments, individuals, and corporations) exploit and manipulate the law for political, personal and economic gain. Often the harms caused by agents of power are not reflected in state-defined notions of crime; therefore, you should examine the statement through critical perspectives that challenge the construction and representation of crime and criminality. Likewise, you should also think critically about what the concept of ‘social harm’ offers in contrast to the concept of crime – what new insights does it provide and what further problems might it introduce? You may also wish to answer the question using examples to support your argument. These examples may be drawn from Book 1 or you may chose alternative ones from your wider reading.
To answer this question effectively you will have to consider various sources of evidence and the arguments of a diverse range of authors. In order to produce a critical discussion of the question, you will need to consider and evaluate these sources carefully and develop them into an overarching argument of your own, rather than simply reproducing what they say. As with all your TMAs, the word limit will regulate the extent of what you can say. As you have only 2000 words, you should, for example, avoid lengthy quotations
Word Count: 2000-2100
No. of Pages: 9