ATS3866 Crimes of the powerful: Green criminology
Faculty of Arts
ATS3866 Crimes of the powerful: Green criminology is a level 3, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Arts, offered in 2025 in Semester 2 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2025
- Semester 2
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 3 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2025 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before ATS3866
No prerequisites or corequisites besides the enrolment rules below.
After ATS3866
No unit lists ATS3866 as a prerequisite in the 2025 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Twelve credit points of second year Arts units. It is highly recommended that you only take this unit after you have completed two gateway units in Criminology.
Overview
In this unit, you will examine crimes and social harms committed by powerful groups including states and corporations, with a particular focus on environmental crimes drawing on green criminology. You will also consider the response to these crimes by civil society, people’s movements and trade union. You will interrogate conceptual models for making sense of corporate, state and different forms of fraud and white-collar crimes and the response to such crimes.
Key questions you will explore include:
- What is the extent and impacts associated with crimes of the powerful, with a focus on environmental crimes in various communities?
- How do we determine intent and culpability where the actions of powerful agents create social harm?
- How are these crimes policed or regulated and prosecuted?
You will examine the relationships between government, business and the criminal justice system, and aim to locate the nexus of power that make these crimes possible. You will explore a range of sociological and criminological theories to explain the impacts of these crimes and document techniques involved in regulating them.
Offerings in 2025
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Second semester | Clayton | On campus |
Assessment
- Media taskArtefact40%
- Presentation20%
- ReportWritten40%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
evaluate conceptual models for understanding crimes of the powerful;
- 2
compare and contrast perspectives within theoretical debates about the classification of certain actions as crime;
- 3
explain the social harms and experiences of victimisation that flow from crimes of the powerful;
- 4
identify some of the challenges associated with documenting and researching crimes of the powerful with an emphasis on environmental crime;
- 5
evaluate the difficulties involved in regulation and prosecution of crimes by powerful actors and suggest possible solutions.
- 6
Communicate effectively in written, academic, oral, and media formats.
Workload and teaching
- Workshops24 hours
- Lectures12 hours
- Teaching approachCase-based teaching
- Teaching approachEnquiry-based learning
- Teaching approachActive learning
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
This unit includes case-based teaching, where you apply your knowledge and engage in analytical and reflective thinking to solve complex contextual scenarios. Activities are often designed so that there is not one clear answer, but students need to work together to examine, analyse and make decisions to resolve the situation.
This unit engages you in enquiry-based learning, where you will be encouraged to use your own knowledge to develop and engage in a process of enquiry, study and research to identify areas to be investigated and an approach to doing so.
This unit engages you in actively applying your knowledge, skills and attributes in interactive, collaborative and reflective activities.
Learning resources
Required resources
This unit requires access to a laptop that meets minimum specifications (https://www.monash.edu/esolutions/students/bring-your-own-device-byod). Free specialist software is available via MoVE (https://www.monash.edu/learning-teaching/innovation/learning-technologies/move).
Where it fits
ATS3866 is part of 2 areas of study in the 2025 handbook.
Contacts
- Chief Examiners
- Dr Kathryn Benier
- Unit Coordinators
- Dr Sahiba Maqbool
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for ATS3866?
ATS3866 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is ATS3866 offered?
In 2025, ATS3866 runs in Semester 2 at Clayton.
How much work is ATS3866?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does ATS3866 have an exam?
No. ATS3866 has 3 assessment tasks and no exam.
Which majors and minors include ATS3866?
ATS3866 is part of Criminology.