Essay

Assignment Brief

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Criminal Justice System essay. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcomes:

After completing the module you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a sound understanding of the structure and governance of the criminal justice system in England and Wales.
2. Demonstrate a sound understanding of the social divisions in criminal justice in terms of age, gender, class, ‘race’ and definitions of criminal justice and of the competing aims of the CJS.
3. Demonstrate the ability to analyse policy issues in relation to criminal justice.
4. Demonstrate the ability to apply effective information-gathering and literacy skills in researching and answering questions about criminal justice in England and Wales.
5. Understand and explain the implications of social change, including the value of building new skills and expertise to analyse emerging problems.

Guidance

Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and the exact word count of your submitted document; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list in AU Harvard system(s). You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.

You must not include your name in your submission because Arden University operates anonymous marking, which means that markers should not be aware of the identity of the student. However, please do not forget to include your STU number.

Maximum word count: 3,000 words

Please refer to the full word count policy which can be found in the Student Policies section here: Arden University | Regulatory Framework

Please note the following:

Students are required to indicate the exact word count on the title page of the assessment.

The word count includes everything in the main body of the assessment (including in text citations and references). The word count excludes numerical data in tables, figures, diagrams, footnotes, reference list and appendices. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count.

Please note that exceeding the word count by over 10% will result in a 10-percentage point deduction.

Assignment Task – Essay

Write an essay (maximum 3,000 words) answering any ONE of the questions below. Note that for questions that are multi-part, you should answer all parts of your chosen question.

Question 1

Assess the evidence for the argument that the criminal justice system has become more punitive over a period of several decades. For which offender groups might it have become more punitive, or less punitive?

(3000 words)
(100 marks)
(LOs 1-5)

Question 2

Consider evidence available to you to assess whether ethnic minorities are still discriminated against in the UK criminal justice system.

a. What evidence exists for this discrimination? Who is discriminated against and why does it happen?
b. What efforts have been made to reduce levels of discrimination? Have these been successful?

(3000 words)
(100 marks)
(LOs 1-5)

Question 3

The prison system in England and Wales is considered to be in crisis.

a. Why is it in crisis?
b. What particular issues are of immediate concern?
c. What can be done to reduce or solve these issues?

(3000 words)
(100 marks)
(LOs 1-5)

Formative Feedback

You have the opportunity to submit an essay plan or draft of up to 1000 words to receive formative feedback.

The feedback is designed to help you develop areas of your work and it helps you develop your skills as an independent learner.

If you are a distance learning student, you should submit your work, by email, to your tutor, no later than 2 weeks before the actual submission deadline. If you are a blended learning student, your tutor will give you a deadline for formative feedback and further details.

Formative feedback will not be given to work submitted after the above date or the date specified by your tutor – if a blended learning student.

Referencing Guidance

You MUST underpin your analysis and evaluation of the key issues with appropriate and wide ranging academic research and ensure this is referenced using the AU Harvard system(s).

Follow this link to find the referencing guides for your subject: Arden Library

Submission Guidance

Assignments submitted late will not be accepted and will be marked as a 0% fail. 

Your assessment can be submitted as a single Word (MS Word) or PDF file, or, as multiple files.

If you chose to submit multiple files, you must name each document as the question/part you are answering along with your student number ie Q1 Section A STUXXXX. If you wish to overwrite your submission or one of your submissions, you must ensure that your new submission is named exactly the same as the previous in order for the system to overwrite it.

You must ensure that the submitted assignment is all your own work and that all sources used are correctly attributed. Penalties apply to assignments which show evidence of academic unfair practice. (See the Student Handbook which is available on the A-Z key information on iLearn.)