Welcome to the Subsidiary Diploma in Criminology. Over the following two years, you will investigate why people commit crimes, the public’s perception of these crimes and how policies and laws are set based on this information.
We begin in the first year by looking at a variety of under-reported crimes that have a low level of public awareness. We explore how campaigns affect and change how people see these crimes and how these can help develop and change our laws. We will then move on to looking at why people commit crimes through various theories.
In the second year, we will evaluate the effectiveness of social control as well as review information from criminal cases, both physical (what was found at the scene of the crime) and testimonial (interviews by witnesses) and determine if these cases passed a just verdict.
Sally Clark was convicted of the murder of both her children in 1999. The first death was originally treated as natural causes however, after the death of her second child at two months old, it was treated as suspicious. The police pathologist revisited the first death and then claimed this was suspicious too.
You will need to produce a report on the Sally Clark case and decide how reliable (trustworthy) the evidence given in the case was. In other words, was this a just case? Was the verdict correct? If yes/no, why? What can we learn from these cases? How can we ensure that cases like this are always just and people are dealt with in the courts fairly?
Research the case of Angela Canning. How does this case relate to the case of Sally Clark? Did these cases influence each other in any way?
Before you answer the questions above, you will need to read the articles and watch the videos below we have asked you to look at. Please bring this work with you to your first Criminology lesson in September.
Read Articles on the Sally Clark case
When we look back at cases in Criminology, we rely on newspaper articles a lot of the time. Please remember that the newspapers want to sell stories so they may not always be fully factual. Read with caution and read lots of different ones to get a better picture.
Below is a link to all of The Guardian’s articles on Sally Clark. You will need to start on page 3 and work back to read through the whole story. You do not need to read all the articles. Try and pick out the important ones to assist your understanding of what happened in this case. It would be helpful if you also did some research of your own; this is a skill you will need in Criminology as well as other A Level courses.
The Guardian Sally Clark Articles
Why do we trust expert witnesses or people in authority: changingminds.org
Watch the following videos in relation to the Sally Clark case
There are five cases on this YouTube video and Sally Clark is the second one (feel free to watch them all).
The statistics evidence and what went wrong
We hope you all enjoy the task. If there are any problems you can contact Nikki who is the Course Manager for Criminology, at Nikki.mccarthy@hsdc.ac.uk, and we in the Criminology Department are looking forward to meeting you in September.
We would like you to create a fact file on the key personnel involved in criminal investigations. These are:
You will need to research each of these personnel and include information about what the role involves, the expertise that are needed to carry out this role, the strengths of these key personnel and their limitations. So, for example, in relation to the police, you will need to discuss what a police officer does (their role). Discuss what the golden hour is and why it is important. You’ll need to google these things. You will also discuss police detectives – how their role is different to uniformed police. But, when looking at limitations, you can look at things like institutional racism to help explain these shortcomings.
We have added some websites for you to have a read through to help you gather the information you will need:
We have added some videos below to get you started on your fact-finding mission but do not only use this information. The more research you do the better; it will lead to you having a greater understanding. Google is a great place to gather info so take the time to learn, take notes and use some info. You may need to ditch other bits of info. Once you have gathered all the important facts, put your file together.
Crime Investigation in Action
Analysing Forensic Evidence
Examining the Body and Post-Mortem
We look forward to welcoming you in September. Please make sure you bring your work with you to your first lessons in Criminology. We are looking forward to seeing how you got on.
