| Effective Term: | 2026/20 |
| Institute / School : | Institute of Education, Arts & Community |
| Unit Title: | Justice Responses to Difference |
| Unit ID: | CRJUS3303 |
| Credit Points: | 15.00 |
| Prerequisite(s): | (CRJUS1283 and CRJUS1284) OR (CRJUS1285 and CRJUS1287) OR (ATSGC1283 and ATSGC1284) (At least 60 credit points from CRJUS subject-area at 2000-2999 level) |
| Co-requisite(s): | Nil |
| Exclusion(s): | Nil |
| ASCED: | 099903 |
| Other Change: | |
| Brief description of the Unit |
This unit critically considers the ways in which criminal justice systems respond to difference, with particular attention to the ways in which access to justice and justice outcomes are influenced by issues of power, inequality and institutional practices. Drawing on critical criminology and socio-legal perspectives, the unit explores how minoritised groups engage with, experience and are positioned within justice systems, and how these processes reveal the social, legal and institutional dynamics through which justice is produced and contested. Students are encouraged to question justice as a contested concept and to think critically about the assumptions, practices and limitations that characterise contemporary responses to injustice. |
| Grade Scheme: | Graded (HD, D, C, P, MF, F, XF) |
| Work Experience Indicator: |
| No work experience |
| Placement Component: | |
| Supplementary Assessment:Yes |
| Where supplementary assessment is available a student must have failed overall in the Unit but gained a final mark of 45 per cent or above, has completed all major assessment tasks (including all sub-components where a task has multiple parts) as specified in the Unit Description and is not eligible for any other form of supplementary assessment |
| Course Level: |
| Level of Unit in Course | AQF Level(s) of Course | | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | | Introductory | | | | | | | | Intermediate | | | | | | | | Advanced | | | | | | |
|
| Learning Outcomes: |
| Knowledge: |
| K1. | Examine the historical factors that have shaped justice system responses in Australia to social difference and inequality. |
|
| K2. | Critique how state, national, and international criminal justice systems respond to and produce processes of minoritisation. |
|
| K3. | Analyse the impacts of criminal justice responses on minoritised populations, and how these responses shape ongoing relationships between communities and the justice system. |
|
| K4. | Examine state and international human rights frameworks relating to access to justice. |
|
| K5. | Critically analyse legislative and policy responses to minoritised populations. |
|
| Skills: |
| S1. | Critically analyse legislative and policy responses to processes of difference and minoritisation in criminal justice settings. |
|
| S2. | Consolidate and synthesise knowledge about access to justice issues and their implications for justice institutions and minoritised populations. |
|
| S3. | Analyse key theories and concepts that underpin justice responses to difference. |
|
| S4. | Develop high‑order written and oral communication skills to critically advocate for improved access to justice for minoritised populations |
|
| Application of knowledge and skills: |
| A1. | Research, synthesise, and present information clearly and effectively, using coherent, logical, and engaging communication appropriate to criminological and justice contexts |
|
| A2. | Reflect critically on debates about how justice systems respond to processes of difference and minoritisation. |
|
| A3. | Demonstrate critical reasoning through sustained written and verbal engagement with contested debates and perspectives about justice and power. |
|
| Other outcomes: |
| Unit Content: |
Conceptual foundations of justice and difference - Competing understandings of justice, difference, equality, and equity
- Critical criminological and socio-legal perspectives on justice
- Human rights and access to justice frameworks
Colonialism and First Peoples' justice - Historical and contemporary relationships between law, government, and First Peoples
- Criminal justice as a technology of governance and social control
- First Peoples' justice perspectives and state justice responses
- Key inquiries, reforms, and justice initiatives
Power, gender, and justice - Feminist and critical perspectives on law and justice
- Gendered patterns of harm, victimisation, and criminalisation
- Justice system responses to violence, harm, and protection
- Contemporary debates and reform approaches relating to gender and justice
Sexuality, gender diversity, and justice - Queer and critical perspectives on law, crime, and social control
- Criminalisation, protection, and recognition of LGBTIQA+ people within justice systems
- Violence, harm, and justice responses affecting sexuality- and gender-diverse communities
- Tensions between legal protection, policing, and institutional inclusion
Disability justice - Disability theories and social constructions of capacity and responsibility
- Historical approaches to disability within legal and justice systems
- Vulnerability, risk, protection, and criminalisation
- Barriers to justice and justice system responses relating to disability
Justice reform, critique, and futures - Reform-based approaches to justice and their intended aims
- Structural and institutional constraints on reform
- Critical perspectives on punishment-centred and state-focused justice
- Emerging debates about justice beyond reform
Beyond-the-human justice perspectives - Limits of human-centred justice frameworks
- Green criminology, environmental and animal harm
- More-than-human, relational, and ecological approaches to justice
- Rethinking harm, responsibility, and accountability beyond the human
|
| Graduate Attributes: |
| Federation University recognises that students require key transferable employability skills to prepare them for their future workplace and society. FEDTASKS (Transferable Attributes Skills and Knowledge) provide a targeted focus on five key transferable Attributes, Skills, and Knowledge that are be embedded within curriculum, developed gradually towards successful measures and interlinked with cross-discipline and Co-operative Learning opportunities. One or more FEDTASK, transferable Attributes, Skills or Knowledge must be evident in the specified learning outcomes and assessment for each FedUni Unit, and all must be directly assessed in each Course.
|
| FED TASK and descriptor | Development and acquisition of FEDTASKS in the Unit | | Level | FEDTASK 1
Interpersonal | Students at this level will demonstrate an advanced ability in a range of contexts to effectively communicate, interact and work with others both individually and in groups. Students will be required to display high level skills in-person and/or online in: • Using and demonstrating a high level of verbal and non-verbal communication • Demonstrating a mastery of listening for meaning and influencing via active listening • Demonstrating and showing empathy for others • High order skills in negotiating and conflict resolution skills\\ • Demonstrating mastery of working respectfully in cross-cultural and diverse teams. | Level 2 - Student demonstrates some independence within provided guidelines | FEDTASK 2
Leadership | Students at this level will demonstrate a mastery in professional skills and behaviours in leading others. • Creating and sustaining a collegial environment • Demonstrating a high level of self -awareness and the ability to self-reflect and justify decisions • Inspiring and initiating opportunities to lead others • Making informed professional decisions • Demonstrating initiative in new professional situations. | Level 3 - Student works independently with limited guidance or works within self-determined guidelines appropriate to context | FEDTASK 3
Critical Thinking and Creativity | Students at this level will demonstrate high level skills in working in complexity and ambiguity using the imagination to create new ideas. Students will be required to display skills in: • Reflecting critically to generate and consider complex ideas and concepts at an abstract level • Analysing complex and abstract ideas, concepts and information • Communicate alternative perspectives to justify complex ideas • Demonstrate a mastery of challenging conventional thinking to clarify complex concepts • Forming creative solutions in problem solving to new situations for further learning. | Level 3 - Student works independently with limited guidance or works within self-determined guidelines appropriate to context | FEDTASK 4
Digital Literacy | Students at this level will demonstrate the ability to work competently across a wide range of tools, platforms and applications to achieve a range of tasks. Students will be required to display skills in: • Mastering, exploring, evaluating, managing, curating, organising and sharing digital information professionally • Collating, managing complex data, accessing and using digital data securely • Receiving and responding professionally to messages in a range of professional digital media • Contributing competently and professionally to digital teams and working groups • Participating at a high level in digital learning opportunities. | Level 2 - Student demonstrates some independence within provided guidelines | FEDTASK 5
sustainable and Ethical Mindset | Students at this level will demonstrate a mastery of considering and assessing the consequences and impact of ideas and actions in enacting professional ethical and sustainable decisions. Students will be required to display skills in: • Demonstrate informed judgment making that considers the impact of devising complex solutions in ambiguous global economic environmental and societal contexts • Professionally committing to the promulgation of social responsibility • Demonstrate the ability to evaluate ethical, socially responsible and/or sustainable challenges and generating and articulating responses • Communicating lifelong, life-wide and life-deep learning to be open to the diverse professional others • Generating, leading and implementing required actions to foster sustainability in their professional and personal life | Level 3 - Student works independently with limited guidance or works within self-determined guidelines appropriate to context |
|
| | Learning Outcomes Assessed | Assessment Tasks | Assessment Type | Weighting | Professional Standards |
| 1. |
K2, K4, S2, S3, S4, A1, A2, A3 |
Critique of theories/concepts that underpin difference in the justice system |
Critical Annotated Bibliography |
20%-30% |
|
| 2. |
K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, S1, S2, S3, S4, A1, A2, A3 |
Development of a digital presentation centred on access to justice for a selected minoritised group |
Presentation |
30%-40% |
|
| 3. |
K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, S1, S2, S3, S4, A1, A2, A3 |
Development of a position paper advocating for reform for a selected minoritised group |
Position Paper |
40%-50% |
|
|