Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Harmful Societies: Crime, Social Harm and Social Justice
School	School of Social Policy
Department	Soc Policy, Sociology & Crimin
Module Code	08 27251
Module Lead	Simon Pemberton
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-20 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-160 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Harmful Societies will engage with core definitional issues and perspectives related to concepts of social harm and social justice, specifically through an examination of the broad range of harms that impact on our lives from the ‘cradle to the grave’. Specifically the module will draw from what could broadly be termed Zemiology, the study of social harms. Zemiology originated as a critique of criminology and the notion of crime that serves to focus on 'individual level harms', rather than those that are potentially more injurious resulting from the activities of states and corporations, or social structures. The module will consist of the following parts. First, it will explore the concepts of crime and harm, interrogating how these conform to broader philosophies of social justice and visions of a ‘just’ or ‘harm free’ society. Students will be required to consider the core theoretical principles and differing standpoints of what should constitute ‘social harm’. In doing so notions of ‘intentional’, ‘foreseeable’ and ‘preventable’ harms will be evaluated. Second, a number of case studies of harm, both national and international, will be deployed to explore theoretical and methodological issues in part one. Third, comparative harm reduction systems will be explored to understand why the experience of specific harms vary dramatically according to way societies are organise.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the core concepts of crime, social harm, social justice and zemiology; To critically evaluate the strength and weaknesses of particular methodological approaches to the study of harms; Demonstrate the ability to critique the limits of state power, the law, regulation and specifically the criminal law as a system of regulating and alleviating social harms; To critically evaluate comparative responses to harm and to understand the impacts of these on the experience of particular harms in specific nation states.
Assessment	27251-06 : Summative essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Reassessed via 4000 word essay
Other
Reading List