Glossary

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Crime & the Criminal Process - LAWS1021

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 4

Enrolment Requirements:

Currently enrolled in a program in the Faculty of Law.

Excluded: JURD7101, JURD7121, LAWS1001

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course introduces students to fundamental aspects of criminal justice and process. Woven through the course is a critical examination of the interaction between the criminal justice system and the criminal law: specifically, that application of the law is shaped by and dependent on decisions made by criminal justice actors including police, prosecutors and judicial officers. Specific areas of focus include: why some activities are criminalised and others not; the use and misuse of discretion; the impact of the reliance on summary justice; the significance of pre-trial processes such as search, arrest and bail; and the over-representation of Indigenous people and other vulnerable groups.

Crime and the Criminal Process also introduces the doctrinal building blocks of criminal law, and applies these principles to a number of key statutory offences such as public order offences and drugs offences which illustrate the process themes above. The impact of public policy and law reform is an important underlying theme.

Course Learning Outcomes

The student will be able to:

Demonstrate awareness of principles of criminal law and their relationship to the broader context;
Demonstrate knowledge of the key processes and ethical issues involved in criminalisation by engaging in policy analysis;
Navigate and apply the substantive criminal law, both common law and statutory;
Demonstrate effective written communication skills by articulating legal concepts clearly, persuasively and appropriately;
Demonstrate an ability to incorporate a range of legal and interdisciplinary research sources in written communication with appropriate referencing; and
Demonstrate effective oral communication skills by discussing and debating course concepts in a scholarly, reflective and respectful manner.

Topics

Criminalisation, over-criminalisation and defining crime
Criminal process, including police powers and pre-trial process
Components of criminal offences: physical and mental elements
Drugs (NSW only), including harm minimisation policies and incursions into general principles of criminal law
Public order offenses

Assessment

Court report - 30%
Final exam - 60%
Class participation - 10%

Texts

Brown et al, Criminal Laws: Materials and Commentary on Criminal Law and Process in New South Wales (5th edition, Federation Press, 2011).