Experimentation and Challenge: Online Criminology at the University of Bologna

Abstract

The on-line course on criminological topics carried out in an undergraduate course for “Security and Social Control Operators” (Faculty of Political Science “Ruffilli”, University of Bologna) represented a real challenge for three different reasons: 1) it was inserted in the syllabus of a three year undergraduate course which was the first university course in Italy intended for the training of operators to carry out an activity which calls for being able to manage modern investigative, security and control strategies; 2) it dealt with the teaching of criminology and it is useful to emphasise that, in Italy, criminology has a difficult time freeing itself from similar disciplines (legal medicine, criminal law, sociology, psychology), even while knowing that it has to maintain a good relationship with them; and 3) it dealt with one of the first on-line courses activated at the Faculty “Ruffilli”. The case study describes and critically analyses the implementation of the online criminology course.