JSB180 Deviance and Social Justice
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | JSB180 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
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Unit Outline: Semester 1 2027, Kelvin Grove, Internal
| Unit code: | JSB180 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Coordinator: | Dean Biron | dean.biron@qut.edu.au |
Overview
The study of deviance delves into key elements of criminology and justice studies, including the creation and violation of laws, the scrutiny of issues related to marginalised social groups and activities, and other significant social justice matters. Drawing on a range of real-world problem-solving approaches, this unit encourages you to critically evaluate “deviance” (often manifesting as a societal issue or contested behaviour), questioning why certain activities and social groups are deemed deviant while others are not in different historical and cultural settings. The unit investigates social and legal responses for managing and regulating deviance and addresses crucial associated issues in social justice, such as gender equality and racial discrimination.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Analyse the contested nature of definitions of deviance and how deviant and marginalised behaviour impacts upon wider society, including how these social problems are constructed, managed and contested.
- Critically discuss various sociological and justice studies-based perspectives on deviance and related forms of marginalised behaviour.
- Propose evidence-based strategies to manage real world social problems within a social justice framework.
Content
This unit will cover the following:
- Situating a range of social problems, such as homicide and interpersonal violence, crimes of the powerful, and gender and racial biases, within historical and cultural contexts
- Introduction to approaches to understanding deviance and the changing conceptions of deviance and marginalisation
- Examination of practices to regulate and manage deviance, including formal and informal forms of social control
- Referring to real world examples, an overview of how and why some activities and social groups are subject to criminalisation
- An overview of how deviance is interpreted and managed in criminal justice and health systems.
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn by engaging in the following:
- lectures - live and pre-recorded
- tutorials - face-to-face or online
- online discussion forum
- readings, media and video resources.
The unit adopts an interactive and problem-based learning approach in which you are encouraged to identify, observe and critique acts of deviance in everyday social settings. You will also be provided with problem scenarios and cases to analyse, being asked to develop strategies to manage real world social problems in groups and individually.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- a range of formative exercises discussed and undertaken throughout the unit
- feedback from peers as you investigate and discuss issues raised throughout the unit
- comments about summative assessment work included with your grade
- general summative assessment feedback posted to the whole cohort via the unit Canvas site.
Assessment
Overview
In this unit there are two assessments:
1. Critical Response - This task draws on key concepts in relation to deviance and marginalisation to assess the level of deviance of a current social problem.
2. Report - This task brings together core unit concepts to analyse a specific social problem and provide recommendations on how to help address it.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Critical Response
You will critically assess historical and cultural aspects of a specified type of deviant/marginalised behaviour chosen from a list provided.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Report
You are in the role of a researcher and policy writer for a non-government organisation (NGO). In this role, you have been asked to investigate a real-world contemporary social problem (form of "deviance") chosen from a list provided. You are required to critically evaluate its social construction, impact, and responses, before proposing in-depth recommendations for future social policy.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
There are no resources that are required to be purchased for this unit. Resources will be available in the unit's Canvas site.
Risk Assessment Statement
Students are advised that some content in justice units may be confronting. If you are concerned that the content of a unit may impact your completion of the course, please see the unit coordinator. You can also access free student counselling through QUT Counselling via the QUT Student Homepage.
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.JS34 Bachelor of Justice
Unit Outline: Semester 1 2027, Online
| Unit code: | JSB180 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
Overview
The study of deviance delves into key elements of criminology and justice studies, including the creation and violation of laws, the scrutiny of issues related to marginalised social groups and activities, and other significant social justice matters. Drawing on a range of real-world problem-solving approaches, this unit encourages you to critically evaluate “deviance” (often manifesting as a societal issue or contested behaviour), questioning why certain activities and social groups are deemed deviant while others are not in different historical and cultural settings. The unit investigates social and legal responses for managing and regulating deviance and addresses crucial associated issues in social justice, such as gender equality and racial discrimination.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Analyse the contested nature of definitions of deviance and how deviant and marginalised behaviour impacts upon wider society, including how these social problems are constructed, managed and contested.
- Critically discuss various sociological and justice studies-based perspectives on deviance and related forms of marginalised behaviour.
- Propose evidence-based strategies to manage real world social problems within a social justice framework.
Content
This unit will cover the following:
- Situating a range of social problems, such as homicide and interpersonal violence, crimes of the powerful, and gender and racial biases, within historical and cultural contexts
- Introduction to approaches to understanding deviance and the changing conceptions of deviance and marginalisation
- Examination of practices to regulate and manage deviance, including formal and informal forms of social control
- Referring to real world examples, an overview of how and why some activities and social groups are subject to criminalisation
- An overview of how deviance is interpreted and managed in criminal justice and health systems.
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn by engaging in the following:
- lectures - live and pre-recorded
- tutorials - face-to-face or online
- online discussion forum
- readings, media and video resources.
The unit adopts an interactive and problem-based learning approach in which you are encouraged to identify, observe and critique acts of deviance in everyday social settings. You will also be provided with problem scenarios and cases to analyse, being asked to develop strategies to manage real world social problems in groups and individually.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- a range of formative exercises discussed and undertaken throughout the unit
- feedback from peers as you investigate and discuss issues raised throughout the unit
- comments about summative assessment work included with your grade
- general summative assessment feedback posted to the whole cohort via the unit Canvas site.
Assessment
Overview
In this unit there are two assessments:
1. Critical Response - This task draws on key concepts in relation to deviance and marginalisation to assess the level of deviance of a current social problem.
2. Report - This task brings together core unit concepts to analyse a specific social problem and provide recommendations on how to help address it.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Critical Response
You will critically assess historical and cultural aspects of a specified type of deviant/marginalised behaviour chosen from a list provided.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Report
You are in the role of a researcher and policy writer for a non-government organisation (NGO). In this role, you have been asked to investigate a real-world contemporary social problem (form of "deviance") chosen from a list provided. You are required to critically evaluate its social construction, impact, and responses, before proposing in-depth recommendations for future social policy.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
There are no resources that are required to be purchased for this unit. Resources will be available in the unit's Canvas site.
Risk Assessment Statement
Students are advised that some content in justice units may be confronting. If you are concerned that the content of a unit may impact your completion of the course, please see the unit coordinator. You can also access free student counselling through QUT Counselling via the QUT Student Homepage.