CRIMINOLOGY OPTION CRIMINOLOGY OPTION 2016

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC LAW
CRIMINOLOGY: SELECTED ISSUES, 2016
Room 6.36.5 Elrena.vanderspuy@uct.ac.za
Lecture time: Thursday 08h00 to 9h30
Venue: LT2
Aims of the course
The aim of this course is to critically engage with a select number of issues of criminological
relevance to the South African society. For each of the substantive areas to be discussed we
will organise our discussion around a number of key questions: What are the key features of
criminological discourse on issues such as: gangs; corporate crime; gendered violence;
organised crime; youth violence; crime prevention etc. What are the main strategies (social,
legal and administrative) for addressing the particular phenomenon? What is known about the
size, shape and content of the phenomenon in South Africa? What are the main features of
public/popular debate on the issue in South Africa?
Assessment
Class hand-ins and participation 30%
Examination (take home)
70%
You will be required to submit four hand-ins on topics of your choice during the course of the
twelve weeks. The hand-ins will vary from power point slides on specific topics, to critical
commentaries on readings, one to two page opinion pieces and/or class presentations. You
will be provided with details of such hand-ins on a weekly basis.
Themes to be discussed
WEEK

THEME

1: 18 Feb
2: 25 Feb

Introductions
Gangs: Issues of regulation and containment
Explore the policy options aimed at regulating/curbing gangs.
Critically engage with the political and legislative framework within
which such the policing of gangs are situated.
See: The Prevention of Organised Crime Act No.121 of 1998
Thinking critically about Gangs
Does Cape Town have a gang problem or a youth problem? Critical
reflections on merchant gangs, brotherhoods and street soldiers.
Drugs and crime
The seminar will report on and contextualise fluctuations in the price and
value of illegal substances in Cape Town and then review the policy
framework for regulating and eliminating the production, distribution and
use of drugs in South Africa. The Drugs and Drugs Trafficking Act no 40
of 1992

3:3 Mar
4: 10 Mar

Guest
LECTURER
Jeremy Vearey

Don Pinnock

Simon Howell

5: 17 Mar

From bouncers, gang hitmen, contract killers to protection networks

Mark Shaw

6: 24 Mar

Prisons as total institutions: Rehabilitation and Re-integration

Andrew May

7: 7 Apr

VACATION: 25 March to 3 April

Gender based violence

Kelley Moult

CRIMINOLOGY OPTION CRIMINOLOGY OPTION 2016

Gender based violence constitutes a key issue confronting citizen safety in
South Africa. Looking back: what progress has been made and what
challenges remain? The Sexual Offences Act No. 32 of 2007
8: 14 April
9: 21 April
10: 28 Apr

TBA
TBA
Crime and crime prevention: community strategies
How has the ideology of the community been deployed to govern crime
in South Africa and what have been its practical manifestations in informal
settlements? Mob justice or street justice stand in a complex
relationship to state justice. Discuss.

11: 5 May

Crime and crime control: Going Private

The privatisation of security has had far reaching consequences for how
we think about police and policing. Example: regulating order on UCT
campus. Consider key challenges confronting the utilisation of private
security. Private Security Industry Regulation Act No. 56 of 2011
Crime and crime prevention: state initiatives and challenges
The findings of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry provide insight
into key challenges confronting the state and its police in responding to
crime and safety. What would it entail to re-imagine the police and
policing in high crime, poor and underdeveloped localities.

11: 12May

Gail Super

Julie Berg

Elrena van der

Spuy

Readings
Week 2

Gangs: Issues of regulation/ containment and repression

Jensen. S. (2010) The security and development nexus. Security Dialogue 41; 77.
Kinnes. I. (2009) Uniforms, Plastic Cops and the Madness of Superman: An Exploration of
the Dynamics Shaping the Policing of Gangs in Cape Town, 22 South African Journal of
Criminal Justice pp. 176 to 193.

Week 3

Thinking critically about Gangs

Pinnock, D. (2016) Understanding Adolescence. From Gang Town (Tafelberg)

Pinnock, D. (2015) Rethinking delinquency (Humanities meets biology symposium, UCT).
Pinnock, D: (2016) Cape Town Gangs: The other side of paradise. In Simon Harding:
Psychological Perspectives on Youth Gang Behavior, Violence, and Weapons Use (IGI
Global, Hershey, USA).
Jensen, S. (2008). The production of subjects & spaces. In Gangs, Politics and Dignity in
Cape Town. Oxford: James Currey, pp. 20-47.