Class Experimental Criminology

Course unit of methodological scope focusing on the experimental method and its applicability in criminological science

Experimental Criminology: notion; scientific framework; goals; teaching methodology.
Recent developments. The experimental method and its applications: advantages.
Causality: framing. Experimental designs; validity types.
Experimental Criminology in the context of the criminal phenomenon and social and institutional representations and reactions.
Randomized experimentation: notion and objectives.
Quasi-experimental and pre-experimental research.
Experimental Criminology in a Laboratory: Concept, Objectives and Applications.
Experimental Criminology for understanding/explaining the etiology of criminal behavior. Ethical component.
Field of application: functional and behavioral studies. Exemplification and initiation of students in the construction of research plans.
Structural studies.
Research in psychophysiology and neuropsychology.
Contribution of Experimental Criminology to the pursuit of criminal policy.

Theoretical classes, assuming an expository nature, will be complemented with an equal number of contact hours in practical classes, divided by learning in the laboratory and, also, with trips to control devices (police and official laboratories).
Students will have contact with psychophysiological, biological and psychoneurological applications, together with a theoretical framework from the most recent literature on the subject. The evaluation is divided between a frequency and the experimental work report (50% each).

Campbell, D. T. (1963). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Coutinho, C. P. (2018). Metodologia de Investigação em Ciências Sociais e Humanas: Teoria e prática. Coimbra: Almedina

Eisman, L. B. (1992). El método experimental: diseños de investigación. In M. P. Cólas Bravo, & L. B. Eisman (Eds.), Investigación educativa. Sevilha: Alfar, 109-151.

Glicksohn, J. (2002). The neurobiology of criminal behavior. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers

Piquero, A. & Weisburd, D. (2010). Handbook of quantitative criminology. New York: Springer 

Welsh, B., Braga, A., and Bruinsma, G. (Ed) (2013). Experimental Criminolog. Prospects or Advancing Science and Public Policy