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2021/2022

Juvenile Crime

Code: 100469 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500257 Criminology OB 3 1
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Josep Cid Moliné
Email:
Josep.Cid@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
Yes

Teachers

Hector Sanchez Delgado
Sandra Sanchez Castro

Prerequisites

It is advisable to have a previous knowledge on criminological theories

Objectives and Contextualisation

The course approaches the subject of juvenile delinquency in several dimensions: the legal system, the study of different issues of juvenile delinquency, the means of prevention and the intervention with minors, young peopple and young offenders. At the end of the course, the student will be able to apply a model of prevention for specific offences, assess the risk and need of young offenders and carry out a supervision plan.

 

Competences

  • Ability to analyse and summarise.
  • Accessing and interpreting sources of crime data.
  • Analysing the conflict and criminology by using the criminological theories and their psychological and sociological foundations.
  • Designing a criminological research and identifying the appropriate methodological strategy to the proposed goals.
  • Drawing up an academic text.
  • Formulating research hypothesis in the criminological field.
  • Identifying existing social resources to intervene in the conflict and criminality.
  • Respectfully interacting with other people.
  • Students must demonstrate a comprehension of the best crime prevention and intervention models for each specific problem.
  • Students must demonstrate they comprehend the criminological theories.
  • Students must demonstrate they know a variety of criminal policies in order to face criminality and its different foundations.
  • Using the evaluation techniques of criminogenic risk and needs of a person in order to decide an intervention proposal.
  • Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
  • Working autonomously.
  • Working in teams and networking.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Ability to analyse and summarise.
  2. Accurately applying the prevention models in specific crime situations.
  3. Analysing with scientific criteria the information obtained in criminological databases.
  4. Applying the criminological theories.
  5. Applying the scientific criminological knowledge to the delinquency analysis.
  6. Appropriately choosing the social resource for each professional intervention case.
  7. Correctly drawing up every part of a criminological research project.
  8. Drawing up an academic text.
  9. Efficiently applying the foundations of the different crime policies in the professional activity.
  10. Inferring the intervention models in accordance with a previous needs assessment.
  11. Respectfully interacting with other people.
  12. Using the appropriate research methodology in accordance with the suggested criminological research.
  13. Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
  14. Working autonomously.
  15. Working in teams and networking.

Content

Content

Topic 1: Background and contextualization.

Legal framework:

Topic 2: Juvenile justice systems.

Topic 3: Principles of Spanish juvenile justice.

Topic 4: Guarantees of the minor in the juvenile justice.

Prevention of juvenile delinquency:

Topic 5: Prevention models.

Topic 6: Prevention programs.

Topic 7: Prevention programs for specific problems.

Juvenile justice intervention:

Topic 8: Intervention models.

Topic 9: Risk and needs assessment.

Topic 10: Mediation in Juvenile Justice.

Topic 11: Intervention to community measures and internment.

Profile and phenomenology of juvenile delinquency:

Topic 12: Types of crime.

Topic 13: Victimology.

Methodology

A) Lectures

During the lectures, activities to promote reflection, incite debate, and check learning will be carried out.

B) Seminars

Students will need to prepare an essay or do other kinds of activities to prepare for the seminar. During the seminar, students will have the opportunity to hear different opinions from students and professors, solve doubts, debating main ideas and, as a result, increase the learning on juvenile delinquency. The subjects of the seminar will be indicated on the virtual campus before the beginning of the course.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 19.5 0.78 3, 4, 10, 11, 13
Seminar 19.5 0.78 3, 4, 10, 8, 11, 1, 13, 14, 15
Seminar preparation 11 0.44
Type: Autonomous      
Personal work 95 3.8 3, 4, 10, 8, 11, 1, 13, 15

Assessment

Conditions to be evaluated and pass the course

Students can only be assessed if they attend classes with a minimum of 80% of masterclasses and seminars.

Absences can only be justified for reasons of illness or other force majeure and for academic reasons previously authorized by the faculty.

In order for the exam to be considered in the calculation of the grade for the subject (Grade or Final Grade), at least 3.5 out of 10 must be taken in the assessment of the test. In the case of the projects, the minimum grade will also be 3.5. Otherwise, the test will have to be retrieved to average.

If a student submits at least one of the two projects and takes the exam, he/she will be considered as Presented; otherwise, their rating will be "Not evaluable".

For a student who is considered to be Presented, the mark of any assessable test to which he/she does not present will be a 0.

Evaluation items

a) Seminar work (20%)

b) Project 1 (25%)

c) Project 2 (25%)

c) Attendance and participation (10%)

d) Exam (20%).

Therefore, Grade = 0.25 *Project 1 + 0.25 *Project 2 + 0.2 * Exam + 0.1 * Attendance and participation + 0.2 * Work Seminars.

Re-evaluations

In the case of re-evaluations, the maximum mark that will be put is a 5.

If Note > = 5, the student passes the subject. Otherwise, you have the opportunity to take the re-evaluation exam (if you have failed the exam with less than 3.5 you are required), which does NOT serve to improve your grade or to carry out a Global Project to recover one of the two projects (if you have failed any of the projects with less than 3.5 is required). Seminar work and participation and attendance are not recoverable. In case of not obtaining a minimum of a 3.5 in the exam and a minimum of a 3.5 in any of the projects (after retrieving them), this evaluation activity will score with a 0 in the finalgrade

Other important aspects of evaluation

No work will be accepted after the deadline, the student will have a 0 in that work with no possibility of recovery.

Other important aspects of the evaluation

Essays out of time will not be accepted and the student will get a fail mark (0), without the possibility of recuperation. Only excuses due to illness or similar reasons may be accepted.

Fraudulent conduct

Cheating or attempt to cheat in exams will conduct in a fail mark (0) and the student will lose the right to a new assessment. Plagiarism in essays will conduct to a fail mark (0) and warning. In case of relapse, the student will obtain a fail mark (0) and will lose the right to a new assessment.

Punctuality

Lectures and seminars start on time. Late arrival will not be admitted.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Attendance and participation 10% 0 0 3, 9, 11, 1, 13, 15
Exam 20% 5 0.2 9, 4, 8, 1, 14
Project 1 25% 0 0 3, 2, 4, 8, 1, 14
Project 2 25% 0 0 3, 2, 9, 7, 8, 1, 13, 14
Seminar essays 20% 0 0 3, 5, 4, 6, 10, 8, 1, 14, 15, 12

Bibliography

Mandatory readings

Andrés-Pueyo, A. & Echeburúa, E. (2010). Valoración del riesgo de violencia: instrumentos disponibles e indicaciones de aplicación. Psichotema, 22 (3), 403-409.

Fernández E. &  Bernuz, M. J. (2018). Justicia de Menores. Síntesis.

Furthermore, the students will need to read essays and other material to prepare the seminars. The material  will be indicated at the beginning of the course

Recommended readings

Agnew, R. & Brezina, T. (2005). Juvenile Delinquency: causes and control. Oxford Universty Press.

Blanch, M., Capdevila, M., Ferrer, M., Framis, B., Ruíz, U., Mora, J., Batlle, A. &  López, B. (2017). La reincidència en la justícia de menors. Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Justícia. Centre d’Estudis Jurídics i de Formació Especialitzada. Recuperat de: http://cejfe.gencat.cat/ca/recerca/cataleg/crono/2017/reincidencia-jj/

Heilbrum, K., Sevin-Goldstein, N. & Reeding, R. (Eds.) (2005). Juvenile delinquency: Prevention, Assessment and Intervention. Oxford University Press.

Ibabe, I., & Jaureguizar, J. (2011). El perfil psicológico de los menores denunciados por violencia filio-parental. Revista Española De Investigación Criminológica, 9, 1-19.

Montero, T. & de Vicente, R. (2016). Justicia Juvenil. Tirant lo Blanch.

Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school. What we know andwhat we can do [trad espanyola: Conductas de acoso y amenaza entres escolares. Morata, 1998]

Otto, R. &  Douglas, K. (Eds.) (2009). Handbook of Violence Risk Assessment. Routledge.

Perry, A., McDougall, C. & Farrington, D., (Eds.) (2006). Reducing crime: The effectiveness of Criminal Justice Intervention. Willey & Sons, Ltd.

Rechea, C. & Cuervo, A.L. (2010). Menores agresores en el ámbito familiar: Un estudio de casos. Revista de Derecho Penal y Criminología, 3, 353-375.

Singh, J., Grann, M. & Fazel, S. (2011). A comparative study of violence risk assessment tools: A systematic review and metaregression analysis of 68 studies involving 25.980 participants. Clinical Psychology Review, 31 (3), 499-513

Software

In this subject, the R software will be used (https://cran.r-project.org/).

R is a programming environment consisting of a set of very flexible tools that can be easily expanded through packages, libraries, or by defining our own functions. It is also free and open-source, an Open-Source part of the GNU Project, and this is one of its main advantages. Any user can download and create their code for free, without restrictions of use, the only rule is that the distribution is always free (GPL). Because it can freely access its code, R software has no limited functions, unlike other commercial statistical tools.

Preferably, we will use it using the RStudio platform (https://www.rstudio.com/)