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Duration
Identical coursesTerrorism, Organized and Corporate Crime (B-KUL-C04C9A)
Aims
Learning goals
At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:
- State the main definitions of organized crime, corporate crime, and terrorism, argue the pros and cons of these definitions, and defend with good arguments the definition(s) chosen;
- Summarize the difficulties of making empirical research on these forms of crime, know how best to deal with these difficulties, and identify the best research to date;
- Describe and identify the main patterns and actors of organized crime, corporate crime, and terrorism in Europe;
- Summarize and assess the theories developed to explain the occurrence and patterns of these crimes and individuals’ participation in them;
- Identify the main harms associated with each of these forms of crime and make tentative assessments of the incidence, severity, and causes of the harms;
- Know the main contents and trends of the policies developed to control organized crime, corporate crime, and terrorism in Europe, and tentatively assess their appropriateness and effectiveness;
- Make a tentative comparison of the definitions, patterns, harms, and causes of organized crime, corporate crime, and terrorism in Europe, and in such a way preliminarily assess the threat posed by each form of crime;
- Make a tentative, comparative evaluation of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the policies adopted to control these crimes.
Previous knowledge
The course presupposes a basic knowledge of criminology, at best obtained through a Bachelor in Criminology.
Good English language skills are recommended.
Is included in these courses of study
Activities
6 ects. Terrorism, Organized and Corporate Crime (B-KUL-C04C9a)
Content
The course envisages a critical study of the theories, patterns, harms, and control policies of three types of crime that are usually associated with – illegal or legal – organizations and groups: organized crime, terrorism and corporate crime.
Students will also be familiarized with the difficulties of conducting empirical research on these three sensitive topics, such as access to data and safety concerns. Difficulties also arise from the lack of consensus on the definition of the three terms: organized crime, corporate crime, and terrorism. These are “fuzzy” analytical categories that are of limited heuristic value for both scientific research and policy-making.
For each crime type, the course examines a wide range of questions in order to provide students with the instruments necessary to assess the threat posed by each crime type and the appropriateness and effectiveness of the respective control policies. Specifically, for each crime type, we will consider: 1) definitions; 2) state and difficulties of research; 3) theoretical perspectives; 4) patterns, actors, and harms; and 5) control policies (including their development, contents and effectiveness). On these dimensions, organized crime, corporate crime, and terrorism will also be compared with each other.
Course material
The course materials consist of slides (distributed via Toledo), class notes, and compulsory readings. The compulsory readings can be obtained from the Crimen/VRG Copy Service.
Evaluation
Evaluation: Terrorism, Organized and Corporate Crime (B-KUL-C24C9a)
Explanation
The evaluation will be carried out through a written exam. Exams can be written either in English or in Dutch, except for students enrolled in the English language Master of Criminology, who have to write the exam in English.
Written exam
The exams are closed book and will consist of open- and/or essay-type questions on each of the three crime types and the related control policies. Possible exam questions will be shown and discussed during the course.
The written exam will take place during the semester. There will be two exams: the first one after the module on organized crime in November, the second after the modules on corporate crime and terrorism, before the Christmas holidays.
Information about retaking exams
Students who fail for the total grade (grades of both exams added together) have to retake the exam in the third examination period. In that case, all three modules will be evaluated in one exam moment.