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  2. Criminal Underworlds: Crime and Society Since 1800 [HIS3105]

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Criminal Underworlds: Crime and Society Since 1800

  • Unit Code

    HIS3105

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    2

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus

Description

Popular interest in crime and criminal underworlds has flourished since the nineteenth century to such an extent that crime is one of the most read, watched and researched genres in popular culture and history. This crime history unit examines the networks, organisations and sub-cultures of criminal underworlds since 1800. Underworlds reveal much about society at the time, particularly social, political and legal perceptions of crime and constructions of criminal underworlds through media, film and television. Through the use of case studies, students will gain an understanding of different individuals and groups making up criminal underworlds and organised crime. These are the worlds of Victorian thieves, body snatchers, bootleggers, American mobsters, post-WWII British gangsters and modern transnational organised crime networks.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse historical evidence, scholarship and changing representations of the past.
  2. Construct an evidence-based argument or narrative in audio, digital, oral, visual or written form.
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of conceptual approaches to interpreting the past.
  4. Demonstrate an understanding of at least one period or culture of the past.
  5. Examine historical issues by undertaking research according to the methodological and ethical conventions of the discipline.
  6. Identify and interpret a wide variety of secondary and primary materials.
  7. Identify key aspects of notable criminal underworlds and organised crime since 1800 and locate criminal underworlds within the broader field of crime history.

Unit Content

  1. Crime, criminals and the police in the Victorian Era.
  2. Criminal underworlds, the media and popular culture.
  3. Investigating organised crime.
  4. Prohibition and underworlds.
  5. The Chicago and New York Mob.
  6. Transnational organised crime.
  7. Victorian underworld thieves.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, tutorials, documentary and film.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
EssayResearch Essay50%
ExaminationExamination50%

Text References

  • Rafter, N. (2006). Shots in the mirror: Crime films and society. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Critchley, D. (2008). The origin of organized crime in America: The New York City mafia 1891-1931.
  • Dickie, J. (2004). Cosa Nostra: A history of the Sicilian mafia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Emsley, C. (2005). Crime and society in England 1750-1900. (3rd ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education.
  • Godfrey, B. (2008). History & crime. London: SAGE.
  • Kilday. A., & Nash, D. (Eds.). (2010). Histories of crime: Britain 1600-2000. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Thomas, D. (1998). The Victorian underworld. New York: NYU Press.
  • Lyman, M. D., & Potter, G. W. (2006). Organized crime. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
  • Madsen, F. (2009). Transnational organized crime. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.
  • Marsh, I. (2009). Crime, justice and the media. London: Routledge.
  • Newton, M. (2008). Gangs and crime. New York: Infobase Publishing.
  • Richardson, R. (2001). Death, dissection and the destitute. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Taylor, D. (1998). Crime, policing and punishment in England, 1750-1914. New York: St. Martin's Press.
  • Larke-Walsh, G. (2010). Screening the mafia: Masculinity, ethnicity and mobsters from the godfather to the sopranos. Jeffererson: McFarland & Company Inc.

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Misconduct

Edith Cowan University has firm rules governing academic misconduct and there are substantial penalties that can be applied to students who are found in breach of these rules. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism;
  • unauthorised collaboration;
  • cheating in examinations;
  • theft of other students' work;

Additionally, any material submitted for assessment purposes must be work that has not been submitted previously, by any person, for any other unit at ECU or elsewhere.

The ECU rules and policies governing all academic activities, including misconduct, can be accessed through the ECU website.

HIS3105|2|1

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Criminal Underworlds: Crime and Society Since 1800

  • Unit Code

    HIS3105

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    2

  • Version

    2

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus

Description

Popular interest in crime and criminal underworlds has flourished since the nineteenth century to such an extent that crime is one of the most read, watched and researched genres in popular culture and history. This crime history unit examines the networks, organisations and sub-cultures of criminal underworlds since 1800. Underworlds reveal much about society at the time, particularly social, political and legal perceptions of crime and constructions of criminal underworlds through media, film and television. Through the use of case studies, students will gain an understanding of different individuals and groups making up criminal underworlds and organised crime. These are the worlds of Victorian thieves, body snatchers, bootleggers, American mobsters, post-WWII British gangsters and modern transnational organised crime networks.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse historical evidence, scholarship and changing representations of the past.
  2. Construct an evidence-based argument or narrative in audio, digital, oral, visual or written form.
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of conceptual approaches to interpreting the past.
  4. Demonstrate an understanding of at least one period or culture of the past.
  5. Examine historical issues by undertaking research according to the methodological and ethical conventions of the discipline.
  6. Identify and interpret a wide variety of secondary and primary materials.
  7. Identify key aspects of notable criminal underworlds and organised crime since 1800 and locate criminal underworlds within the broader field of crime history.

Unit Content

  1. Crime, criminals and the police in the Victorian Era.
  2. Criminal underworlds, the media and popular culture.
  3. Investigating organised crime.
  4. Prohibition and underworlds.
  5. The Chicago and New York Mob.
  6. Transnational organised crime.
  7. Victorian underworld thieves.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, tutorials, documentary and film.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
EssayResearch Essay50%
ExaminationExamination50%

Text References

  • Critchley, D. (2008). The origin of organized crime in America: The New York City mafia 1891-1931.
  • Dickie, J. (2004). Cosa Nostra: A history of the Sicilian mafia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Emsley, C. (2005). Crime and society in England 1750-1900. (3rd ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education.
  • Godfrey, B. (2008). History & crime. London: SAGE.
  • Kilday. A., & Nash, D. (Eds.). (2010). Histories of crime: Britain 1600-2000. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Larke-Walsh, G. (2010). Screening the mafia: Masculinity, ethnicity and mobsters from the godfather to the sopranos. Jeffererson: McFarland & Company Inc.
  • Thomas, D. (1998). The Victorian underworld. New York: NYU Press.
  • Madsen, F. (2009). Transnational organized crime. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.
  • Marsh, I. (2009). Crime, justice and the media. London: Routledge.
  • Newton, M. (2008). Gangs and crime. New York: Infobase Publishing.
  • Richardson, R. (2001). Death, dissection and the destitute. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Rafter, N. (2006). Shots in the mirror: Crime films and society. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Taylor, D. (1998). Crime, policing and punishment in England, 1750-1914. New York: St. Martin's Press.
  • Lyman, M. D., & Potter, G. W. (2006). Organized crime. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Misconduct

Edith Cowan University has firm rules governing academic misconduct and there are substantial penalties that can be applied to students who are found in breach of these rules. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism;
  • unauthorised collaboration;
  • cheating in examinations;
  • theft of other students' work;

Additionally, any material submitted for assessment purposes must be work that has not been submitted previously, by any person, for any other unit at ECU or elsewhere.

The ECU rules and policies governing all academic activities, including misconduct, can be accessed through the ECU website.

HIS3105|2|2