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SOC2030 - Youth, Drugs and Crime, Culture

  • Offered for Year: 2027/28
  • Module Leader(s): TBC
  • Owning School: Geography, Politics & Sociology
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0

Aims

Young people are often thought of as both risky/trouble, or at-risk/in-trouble. Their voices are rarely heard in policy-making. Meanwhile, 'youth crime' is a longstanding concern, whilst youth cultures around the world are both celebrated and criminalised. This module brings together global Youth Studies, Criminology of Youth, Sociology of Youth, and Cultural Studies to develop student knowledge and understanding of 'youth' and 'crime', and the complex role that 'culture' plays in our understandings of both, for example the much contested role of youth sub/culture in criminal activity.

Youth, Crime, Culture aims to critically engage students with classic and contemporary criminological and sociological concepts, theories and methodologies (street ethnographies, delinquency, moral panics, figures-of-youth, 'NEETs'), and then asks students to apply these to a range of 'real life' debates relevant to youth, crime and culture, such as illegal drug-taking, knife-carrying, music cultures, or the lived experiences of young people living in poverty.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module will include content that introduces students to issues relating to youth, crime and drugs and culture. This may include:

  • Youth Studies: Why study youth?
  • Global north/south youth cultures
  • Criminology of youth
  • Youth culture, crime and inequalities
  • Youth cultures, deviance and criminality
  • Youth, crime and drugs
  • Cultural politics of youth and crime
  • Youth crime, youth justice?

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities Lecture 8 2:00 16:00 PIP Timetabled Lectures
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities Small group teaching 6 2:00 12:00 PIP Timetabled Workshops
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities Workshops 2 2:00 4:00 PIP Timetabled Workshops to Support Assessment
Guided Independent Study Independent study 1 134:00 134:00 N/A
Guided Independent Study Independent study 4 1:00 4:00 Listening to youth/crime podcasts to discuss in class (not timetabled)
Guided Independent Study Assessment preparation and completion 1 30:00 30:00 N/A
Total 200:00  
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures introduce students to key concepts and frameworks covered in the module in order to help them understand the set and recommended readings. The K&U LOs are the focus of the lectures, covering for example global and critical approaches to youth, crime and culture.

Workshops will encourage students to explore their developing understanding of youth, crime and culture, using academic materials sourced from a range of appropriate disciplines. Peer learning will take place in discussions about the set and recommended readings, and the podcasts, which will focus on a key aspect of the topic each week.

The guided independent study will involve each student reading, listening, watching and reflecting for the forthcoming lectures and workshops, developing their own skills and preparing for the assessment.

Two Assessment Support Workshops will give students time to discuss and prepare for their essay and case study submission.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Case study 1 2 A 40 1000 word case study
Essay 1 2 A 60 2000 word essay
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Component 1: As part of their assessment, students will also produce a case study outlining a key issue in the study of youth, crime and culture. This will help them demonstrate their learning in relation to the application of theory to a 'real-life' contemporary example of interest to them.

Component 2: Essays will challenge the students to draw on their acquired knowledge and understanding, and to build an argument from the concepts, theories, and empirical material they engage with throughout the module. They will be asked to think critically about 'youth' and young people's 'entanglements' with 'crime' through culture. The essay will test student skills in selecting evidence to support their work, and in synthesising disparate forms of evidence.

Both components will be submitted together.

Timetable