ASS329 - Anthropology of Crime and Violence
Unit details
Year: | 2023 unit information |
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Enrolment modes: | Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Online, CBD* |
Credit point(s): | 1 |
EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
Unit Chair: | Trimester 1: Gillian Tan |
Prerequisite: | Nil |
Corequisite: | Nil |
Incompatible with: | ASS229 |
Typical study commitment: | Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. |
Scheduled learning activities - campus: | 1 x 1-hour class per week, 1 x 1-hour seminar per week |
Scheduled learning activities - online: | 1 x 1-hour class per week (recordings provided), 1 x 1-hour online seminar per week |
Note:*CBD refers to the National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Research and Innovation (NIKERI) Institute; Community Based Delivery |
Content
Violence and crime, their forms and controls, are fundamental to human social existence and are central to theories regarding the nature of humanity, society and the state. The anthropology of crime and violence addresses these points from a comparative cross-cultural perspective. Emphasis is given to the situational nature of violence and human conflict with case studies of warfare, state-based violence, genocide and ethnic conflict.
A key proposition in this unit is that attempts to define human violence as an aspect of a transcendental human nature -- an element of humanity as a whole -- tend to conflate specific instances with laboratory-like definitions. Instead, the particular social, cultural and historical situations must be grasped in all their complexity. Attention is also given to different forms of social collectives including the modern bureaucratic State.
ULO | These are the Learning Outcomes (ULO) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: | Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes |
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ULO1 | Articulate specific instances of crime and violence from an anthropological perspective, and compare these with other approaches in the social sciences | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities |
ULO2 | Judge the various factors that may underlie human violence in Western and non-Western contexts | GLO4: Critical thinking |
ULO3 | Assess different forms of violence as well as different systems of social collectives, with a critical focus on the State | GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem Solving |
ULO4 | Conduct comparative analysis based on specific examples of violence in various cultural and social contexts | GLO2: Communication GLO6: Self-management |
Assessment
Assessment Description | Student output | Grading and weighting (% total mark for unit) | Indicative due week |
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Assessment 1 - Seminar/ Online exercises | 800 words or equivalent | 20% | Ongoing |
Assessment 2 - Research and Writing Exercise | 800 words or equivalent | 20% | Week 3 |
Assessment 3 - Essay | 2400 words or equivalent | 60% | Week 11 |
The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.
Learning Resource
The texts and reading list for the unit can be found on the University Library via the link ASS329
Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.
Unit Fee Information
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