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Social harm – an act or omission which is clearly harmful but does not violate criminal law – is a focal concern of¿the field of critical criminology, and more recently, zemiology – a distinct but parallel field of study. In this module, students confront the ontological challenges of orthodox criminology and definitions of crime through the study of social harm. Students will engage critically with international and interdisciplinary subject matter using a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, including, Marxist, feminist, queer, decolonial, Indigenous, southern, rural, green, cultural, and abolitionist. Students learn how those in power shape the processes of criminalisation and victimisation through the conceptual lens of the crimes and harms of the powerful, and from within and outside the field of criminology. Crucially, this module addresses the fundamental question of why certain harms are legal and often escape criminalisation.
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