Overview

This unit guides students how to understand and examine psychological theories of crime and then apply guiding principles from these theories into effective correctional policies and practices. The unit will introduce the major empirical and theoretically informed psychological frameworks for understanding criminal behaviour, the major risk factors for criminal conduct, methodologies for assessing these risk factors, and importantly, the Risk Need Responsivity (RNR) model of correctional practice and how this model provides direction to policies in criminal justice agencies internationally.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  1. Differentiate psychology-based risk factors for crime from biological and social explanations of criminal behaviour while situating these risk factors within general psychological models of human behaviour
  2. Critically assess the role of research methodologies and empirical paradigms in the development of practice frameworks for correctional environments
  3. Interpret incidents of criminal behaviour using an understanding of the major psychology-based risk factors for crime
  4. Justify or question policies and practices in correctional environments using knowledge of empirically derived frameworks based in a psychological understanding of criminal behaviour
  5. Construct recommendations about how correctional staff could address, manage, and reduce criminal behaviour using psychology-based practice frameworks, attending specifically to the unique characteristics of marginalised individuals (such as women, First Nations individuals, people with various diagnoses, etc.)
  6. Evaluate the real-world challenges associated with effectively implementing psychology-based practice frameworks in correctional environments

Teaching methods

All applicable locations

Activity Type Activity Total Hours Number of Weeks Venue Type and Activity Detail
On-campus Lecture 24 12 weeks

 
On-campus Lab 12 12 weeks

 
Specified Activities Various 24 12 weeks

 
Unspecified Activities Independent Learning 90 12 weeks

 
Total Hours: 150  

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULOs
Written Assignment Individual  30% 1,2,3,4,5,6
Reflective Essay Individual  40% 3,5
Laboratory Tutorial Quizzes Individual  30% 1,2,3,4

Hurdle

As the minimum requirements of assessment to pass a unit and meet all ULOs to a minimum standard, an undergraduate student must have achieved:

Nil

Content

  • Introduction to a psychological understanding of criminal behaviour
  • Comparison of psychological perspectives to biological and social perspectives on crime
  • Methodologies and empirical frameworks for studying the psychology of criminal behaviour and establishing principles of effective correctional practice
  • Historical and current research findings on the major psychological risk factors for crime
  • How to apply psychological understanding of crime to practical correctional problems, such as placement in prison, assignment to rehabilitation programs, and management of release into the community
  • Common challenges to implementing evidence-based empirical frameworks into corrections policies and practices

Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy

Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.