Cognitive Forensic Sciences

Sport is increasingly being used as a tool to prevent crime, violence and substance use, especially among young people and is included in the criminal justice system as a means of preventing recidivism and promoting the social reintegration of criminals. Indeed, it has been shown that sport rests on important positive human values and can be used as a tool to promote, among others, respect for rules and others, teamwork, a sense of belonging and community, tolerance and empathy. The lab aims to provide the specific theoretical knowledge and professional skills necessary to learn the ways, means and techniques of using sports as a means of preventing crime, violence and substance abuse by stimulating engagement in routine and structured activities that foster the promotion of social and community ties. Examples of training programs focused on youth crime prevention through sports will be provided during the workshops. Finally, moving from a socio-cognitive perspective, the lab will focus on different types of moral or non-moral behavior in sports: Sportsmanship, Cheating, Gamesmanship and Doping. In summary, the lab aims to train the skills and knowledge to shape, collaborate and implement projects to use sports as a means of prevention and recovery in the legal-forensic environment. Knowledge and understanding By the end of the lab, the student should have critically mastered the main techniques, modalities, and tools for using sport as a means of preventing crime, violence, and substance abuse, correctly framing them within the socio-cognitive theories in which they are framed. The student should also have learned to make critical use of internationally published scientific articles. Applying knowledge and understanding The students will be able to competently apply acquired knowledge, both theoretical and methodological, to identify possible solutions to complex application problems, involving both decision-making processes and legal aspects, through appropriate techniques and methods. Making judgements The students will be able to autonomously propose and implement projects aimed to use sport for crime prevention, namelyin youth contexts, at school, in prisons, as well as in other contexts. Students should be able to shape these projects autonomously, also taking into consideration their social and ethical implications. Communication skills The students will be able to argue with expert and non-expert stakeholders about the course content, the examples covered, the intervention proposals, their own critical elaborations, and the logical processes that led to them. Learning skills The students will be able to apply with a high degree of autonomy the skills acquired to the thematic insights addressed in subsequent studies and experience.