The things that criminologists study, the ways in which they study them and the reasons why they do so are many and varied. The forms of knowledge they produce, and the practical uses to which they are applied, are correspondingly diverse and contested. The purpose of this core module is to enable students to understand criminology as a permanently contested collection of historically and geographically varied ways of knowing and reasons for seeking to know about ‘crime’, which is inevitably shaped by broader social, cultural, economic and political conditions, societal norms and values, and which intersects in various significant ways with extant social divisions and inequalities. The module will do this by engaging students with a range of commentaries on and debates about the nature, purpose, strengths and limitations of criminological thinking and then supporting them to apply their understanding of these debates to critically appraise specific case studies of contemporary criminological research. On this module students will develop an advanced understanding of the historical, political and cultural contexts within which key strands of criminological thought and criminal justice have emerged and have developed, the relevance of social and economic divisions, social diversity, and inequalities of wealth and power to understanding criminology and criminal justice studies, and alternatives to mainstream criminological thinking and their associated intellectual, theoretical, and political projects.