Experimental Criminology

Code:

C102

Acronym:

CEXP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Criminology

Instance: 2013/2014 - 2S (since 17-02-2014 to 23-05-2014)

Active?	Yes
Course/CS Responsible:	Criminology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
C	84	Oficial Study Plan LC	1	-	6	-

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

- To acquire the fundamental knowledge about Crime and Justice produced in the last 20 years by a new research area in Criminology, designated from 1999, as “Experimental Criminology”.

-To acquire knowledge about experimental laboratorial studies, namely on the areas of psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience applied to the study of criminal behaviour.

Learning outcomes and competences

By the end of the Curricular Unit, students should:

• Have acquired knowledge concerning crime and justice produced in the last 20 years by a new research field in Criminology, designated, since 1999, by the name of “Experimental Criminology”.

 

• Have developed technical abilities in experimental research methods applied to Criminology.

 

• Have acquired abilities that allow to understand and to plan the scientific evaluation of intervention programmes in the areas of crime and justice.

 

• Have acquired basic knowledge concerning the structure and function of the Central and Peripheral Nervous System (CNS, PNS).

 

• Be acquainted with the main psychophysiological indexes for the study of the CNS and PNS.

 

• Have acquired knowledge concerning experimental laboratorial studies on the psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience of criminal behavior.

 

• Be able to sketch experimental studies and to understand (at the design level) the literature produced in the domain of Experimental Criminology.

 

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. Introduction
1.1. Emerging topics and development of Experimental Criminology.
1.2. Experimental method
1.2.1. The logic and the process of experimental research.
1.2.2. The notion of Causality.
1.2.3 Types of experimental designs.
1.2.4. Types of valitdity.
2. Experimental Criminology
2.1. Experimental methods on experimental criminology and criminal justice.
2.2. Randomized experiments in crime and justice;
2.3. Quasi-Experimental research;
2.4. Criteria for the organization of the scientific knowledge produced in Experimental Criminology.
3. Study domains and its application on crime and justice:
3.1. Functional and Behavioral Studies.
4. Experimental evaluative research.
5. Ethical questions in Experimental Criminology.

Mandatory literature

Andreassi J; Psychophysiology: Human Behavior & Physiological Response, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2000. ISBN: 0-8058-2832-X
Bernard Claude; Introdução à medicina experimental. ISBN: 9726651719
Bushway Shawn 340; Quantitative methods in criminology. ISBN: 0-7546-2446-3
Campbell Donald T.; Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. ISBN: ISBN 0-395-30787-2
Glicksohn Joseph ed.; The neurobiology of criminal behavior. ISBN: ISBN 0-7923-7674-9
Hagan Frank E.; Research methods in criminal justice and criminology. ISBN: 0-205-44739-2
Piquero Alex R. 340; Handbook of quantitative criminology. ISBN: 978-0-387-77649-1
Raine Adrian; The psychopathology of crime. ISBN: ISBN 0-12-576155-4
Silva Augusto Santos 1956- 340; Metodologia das ciências sociais

Teaching methods and learning activities

The equal distribution of the time between theoretical and practical (laboratory) classes is justified by the empirical focus of the discipline “Experimental Criminology”.
In the theoretical classes it will be developed, explored and discussed with the students the principal programmatic topics summarized in the previous section. In the laboratorial and practical classes the students will be familiarized with theoretical fundamentals and applications of laboratory psychophysiological techniques in and in other areas of experimental psychology and biology applied to study human behavior in a multidisciplinary approach. In addition, the students will be familiarized with instruments used in Experimental Criminology and evaluation studies. Finally, it will be analyzed and discussed experimental research work (research papers) focusing in Experimental Criminology, previously prepared by the students so called journal clubs).

keywords

Social sciences
Social sciences > Ethics in social sciences
Natural sciences > Biological sciences > Biology
Social sciences > Criminology
Natural sciences
Health sciences > Neuroscience
Natural sciences > Ethics in social sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	65,00
Trabalho escrito	25,00
Trabalho laboratorial	10,00
Total:	100,00

Eligibility for exams

The distributed evalution consists of two parts:

I. Production of a review work and presentation of a scientific paper in the domain of Experimental Criminology. This part has a relative weight of 25% of the Final grade. This work is mandatory in order to have access to the final exam (minimum classification of 8 values).

II. Production of a report consernig an experiment underdone in the laboratory.This part has a relative weight of 10% of the Final grade. (facultative work with the possibility of being replaced by an additional question in the exam with the same ponderation).

Calculation formula of final grade

Final Classification=0.65xFE + 0.35xDE; in which FE designates Final Exam and DE designates distribution evalution.

Each of these elements is classified on a scale from 0 to 20 values.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

According to law and rules enforced

Classification improvement

Written or oral exam