One of five criminology case studies selected by the C-Sap Criminology SIG.
In September 2008 the criminology teaching team at UCBC decided to get involved in a photography competition being organised by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies entitled ‘What is Crime?’ The remit for participants was to take photographs of ‘hidden’ crime and the team felt this method would encourage original thinking and incorporated the competition’s requirements into the students’ formal assessment on the first years of the HND Criminology and the FdA Criminology & Criminal Justice. A research group was also formed from students on other courses within UCBC in order to hold a public exhibition of the photographs in June 2009. The project was reflected on during 2009-10 and research was conducted on the students involved in taking the photographs and on the visitors to the exhibition. It was discovered that the principal aim of the project had been achieved as the assessment process was improved thanks to the diversity in the students’ work the range of individual contributions and general levels of engagement. The subsequent finding that visual teaching seemed to have improved the students’ memories of the issues behind their assessments was a further benefit. The public research also revealed the power of the image.
