Youth Justice and Crime
Overview
This unit focusses on a specific aspect of the criminal justice system, offering students an opportunity for close analytical engagement with the laws, theories, practices and Indigenous knowledges pertaining to young people who offend. The unit will introduce and challenge students to understand the laws pertaining to youth offending and the means of analysis to understand the motivations, which may result in young people coming into contact with the criminal justice system. As such, students will become familiar with various statutory regimes that mediate their contact across the states of Australia and also with the theoretical explanations and methodologies to understand and engage in response to this category of crime.
Requisites
CRI10002 Fundamentals of Criminology
Rule
CRI10001 Criminology: Theory and Practice
OR
CRI10002 Fundamentals of Criminology
01-June-2025
08-June-2025
08-February-2026
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Develop a theoretically-informed perspective of the criminal genesis of youth crime
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and the laws that pertain to youth offending through analysis and research
- Consider the effectiveness of the criminal justice system through an analysis of law making and sentencing responses to youth crime
- Review the criminal justice system through analysis of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' worldviews, histories and standpoints
- Analyse and develop evidence-based recommendations for adaptions and changes to the criminal justice system as it relates to youth crime
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online Lecture | 1.00 | 12 weeks | 12 |
| On-campus Class | 2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| Specified Activities Various | 2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| Unspecified Activities Various | 7.50 | 12 weeks | 90 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Swinburne Online
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live Online Class | 3.00 | 12 weeks | 36 |
| Online Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning | 9.50 | 12 weeks | 114 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 | Individual | 25% | 1 |
| Assignment 2 | Group | 35% | 4 |
| Assignment 3 | Individual | 40% | 2,3,5 |
Content
- Criminological theory
- Young people, and law and order
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and the criminal justice system
- Restorative Justice
- Courts and youth
- Law and order regimes and legislative response to youth crime
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.