Module manager: John Clark
Email: J.C.Clark@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2026/27
This module is approved as a discovery module
What leads a child or young person to commit a violent or sexual offence? And how should society respond? In this module you will examine the theories and evidence that attempt to answer these questions, and explore the deeply contested tension between treating young offenders as victims in need of support and as perpetrators requiring punishment. You will critically analyse the legal, ethical and professional challenges of assessing and responding to children and young people who have committed serious offences, and consider what justice and welfare actually mean in this context.
1. Explore the social problem of children and young people who commit serious crimes, taking sociological and legal perspectives.
2. Appreciate the historical and ongoing tension between welfare-oriented and justice-oriented responses to juvenile offending.
3. Examine explanations of the antecedents and environmental factors associated with juvenile offending, and how juvenile offending differs in character from adult offending.
4. Analyse how concepts of risk and risk management pervade the youth justice system and wider society.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes:
LO1: Identify and explain major theoretical explanations for violent and sexual offending by young people.
LO2: Compare and contrast welfare-oriented and justice-oriented responses to well-known cases of violent and sexual offending by young people.
LO3: Evaluate differences in children’s legal rights and responsibilities in the context of serious offending.
Skills Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
SLO1 (Academic: Critical Thinking): Critically evaluate competing theoretical explanations, selecting and applying appropriate frameworks to analyse case material.
SLO2 (Sustainability: Ethical): Evaluate critical tensions in societal and professional responses to young people who offend, constructing a reasoned and evidence-informed position.
This module explores the contested terrain of youth crime and justice in England and Wales, We’ll also compare how different nations attempt to deal with vulnerable yet problematic young people. Moving across theory, law, media, and professional practice, you will critically analyse how society constructs, responds to, and sometimes fails young people who offend. Topics include risk assessment, sexual offending, knife crime, consent, media moral panics, and restorative justice; with sustained attention throughout to the tensions between welfare, rights, punishment, and rehabilitation.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Lecture | 11 | 2 | 22 |
| Independent online learning hours | 40 | ||
| Private study hours | 136 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 24 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
• Poster draft peer review: Students will participate in a structured peer review exercise during the independent online learning allocation, providing and receiving feedback on poster drafts using a guided feedback proforma. This develops both assessment literacy for the poster format and critical thinking skills.
• Draft proforma submission: Students may submit a partial draft of their structured analysis proforma for individual written feedback from the module tutor. Feedback will focus on the quality of theoretical application and the clarity of analytical reasoning, with feedforward on how to strengthen the analytical commentary.
• Weekly engagement monitoring: Student progress and engagement with online learning tasks will be monitored on a weekly basis, with formative feedback provided through weekly class discussions.
• Audio narration practice: Guidance on effective academic narration will be provided through the independent online learning allocation, including exemplar recordings demonstrating how to integrate poster content with oral explanation.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Poster | Academic poster with 5-minute recorded audio narration. | 50 |
| Multimodal Assessment | Case vignette analysis: structured proforma (1,000-word equivalent) plus 1,000-word analytical commentary | 50 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 30/04/2026
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