Criminology BSc Honours

In this module, you will become acquainted with the dynamic nature of crime across law, politics, society, and culture. The module challenges conventional perceptions of crime, exploring its contested essence over time and space. Emphasis is placed on understanding the impact of social factors on crime constructions including issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion.

This module facilitates an exploration of the intricate relationship between crime, culture and society and the seeming paradox between society’s fear of crime and fascination with violent crime. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of contemporary criminology’s major theoretical approaches this foundation is crucial in building knowledge and understanding of diverse perspectives on crime thereby helping to form a cornerstone for further studies. The module also facilitates the development of key academic skills including the synthesis and interpretation of information and research data, the construction of oral and written assignments and citation and referencing.

This module introduces you to social research inquiry as a way of seeing and interpreting the world. The module focuses on how ethical qualitative and quantitative social research is carried out. It will teach you the basic components of social sciences research. The lens of communities will be used to highlight the context in which the events, issues and problems we study, occur within.

You will be engaging with a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods. You will learn how data are produced in different forms and will develop ways to analyse them. The module builds key research capabilities through a range of skills-based tasks and adopts a developmental style through a research portfolio assessment. You will be able to apply knowledge through practical activities. Many of these skills will have relevance beyond your degree and will be attractive to future employers.

This module introduces you to key criminal justice institutions, exploring contemporary issues within the police, courts, prisons, probation, immigration detention, youth justice, and the forensic mental health system. This module familiarises you with the understanding of current policies and practice, emphasizing international and cross-national influences on criminal justice.

Additionally, the module introduces the UK legal system, fostering an awareness of its role in shaping criminal justice responses to crime, deviance, and public insecurity. You will engage with legal frameworks, procedural rules, and explore various punishment measures, while developing skills in synthesizing official statistics and evaluating research data.

This module introduces the foundations of sociological theory to allow you to appreciate central questions and ideas that have shaped sociology’s development as a discipline, and to recognise the ways these continue to shape sociologists’ engagement with today’s social world, both in academic contexts as well as in practical settings. The module content serves as foundational knowledge for other sociology and criminology modules. It introduces you to taking a sociological perspective on human interaction and to using the sociological imagination to analyse a range of social issues as well as how actors and institutions might respond to these issues in a sociologically informed way. You will learn core approaches to understanding contemporary society, by studying social structures, interactions, institutions, social movements and activism from a global and intersectional lens. They will also learn core aspects of the relation between theory and practice in contemporary sociology and its applications.

This module aims to develop your knowledge and understanding of key theoretical ideas and debates in criminology. It requires you to reflect on what putting issues such as power and rights at the centre of criminological theory and practice might mean for crime, justice and punishment. The module will cover developments and trends influencing criminological discussion, debates and research and these developments and trends are assessed in relation to emerging social, political and cultural patterns. You will develop knowledge and understanding of how criminological theory is constructed and will be required to apply theoretical knowledge to a range of contemporary issues and trends of prominent criminological interest and concern.

This module introduces you to areas of employment that can be considered for criminology career pathways. It facilitates your engagement with various crime control, offending and support services professions and provides opportunities to explore the knowledge and skills required to perform in related positions. The module also fosters an awareness of critical reflection and ethical behaviours and the implications for professional practice and conduct. Additionally, the module supports your ability to utilise information and tools relevant to personal and professional development thereby providing practical opportunities to advance employability goals.

The aim of this module is threefold:

(A) You will propose a methodological research project on a topic of interest, including a review of the literature and research questions suitable for; 

(B) A mixed method project; and 

(C) part of the project involves forming a conversational guide and a survey, collecting and analysing data, to form a portfolio. This module equips you with the knowledge and skills to use SPSS for data analysis and thematic analysis to analyse qualitative data. By studying this module you will be prepared to undertake qualitative and quantitative research for their dissertation.

This module introduces you to intersections between the criminal courts, sentencing, prisons and rehabilitation. It has a particular focus on the aims of punishment, the use of imprisonment and key developments in penal policy and practice. It will facilitate your abilities to apply theoretical perspectives to sentencing, punishment and prison issues and to analyse the impact of policy on the experiences of those who are imprisoned and the work of the key professionals and practitioners working in the prison system. The module will develop your skills in drawing on a range of documentary evidence to analyse and evaluate sentencing aims, the purpose and place of prisons in society and to foster a critical interest in prison and punishment reform.

The module will help you develop an understanding of key theoretical perspectives on race and social justice in relation to lived realities, in the UK and globally. The module will equip you with in-depth understanding of the concept of race and its social construction, power and privilege, including white power and privilege across different spaces, racism and intersectional oppression. The module will also focus on institutional racism and resistance, on the power of the state and legislation, providing a critical reflection through interdisciplinary scholarship.

This module prepares you to engage with race and social justice topics for their dissertations and/or those wanting to pursue a career in a related field. With guest lectures from practitioners and a range of creative and academic assessments, the module encourages co-leadership, practice-led learning, digital literacy and technology-enhanced learning and employability.

The module will expand your thinking around victimisation and consider this topic from a broader perspective, assessing societal responses to victimisation and who we consider to be a victim. The module will explore multiple crime types such as: sexual and domestic violence; homicide; sex work; hate crime; financial crime; state crime and other types of crime, comparing and contrasting different theories and perspectives in relation to the concept of victimisation. In addition, the module will develop your reflective learning skills both by reflecting on your own learning and formulating feedback for the work of others.

This module will strengthen, extend and apply the knowledge, skills and experiences you would have gained from your course in the context of a working environment, and to complement, stimulate, reinforce and encourage the development of discipline-specific technical knowledge, and your transferable skills. You will gain knowledge of professional requirements in an industry context and record and critically reflect on your personal practice. 

The module will explore key policy topics linked to crime, deviance, harm and criminal justice across different global contexts. It will support you in developing a critical awareness of how and why policy is designed and implemented and how it impacts offending, victimisation, harms and criminal justice responses. It will critically explore different areas of society, such as education and gender and citizenship, to develop knowledge and understanding of the links between contemporary policies and criminological outcomes. In response to the topics explored, you will develop an awareness of alternative approaches and ideological perspectives. 

The module will advance your critical and creative understanding of the ways in which the use of digital technologies is reshaping fundamental dimensions of social life, from personal relationships and vulnerabilities to transformations in crime and violent extremism. The module allows you to examine how digital communications are embedded in everyday life, linking theoretical approaches, empirical material, and your experiments with digital tools, particularly generative AI.

This module will synthesise learning from the criminology and sociology programmes of study, providing an opportunity for you to study independently and investigate a topic in depth, in accordance with the Sociology and Criminology Benchmark Statement. It fosters academic curiosity; an inquiry-based approach, and the employment and application of research skills which will facilitate the development of a higher level of theorising.

This module will critically engage you in contemporary debates surrounding drugs, drug use and their control. It will develop your knowledge and understanding of the processes involved in social definitions of drugs, drug use and people who use drugs and your skills in applying theoretical perspectives to drug issues. It will stimulate critical analysis and evaluation of the laws, policies and institutions of drugs control and their social, economic and political contexts. The module will foster and develop your critical interest in the reform of drugs control policy.

This module will develop your understanding of research project design while equipping you with ethical research skills needed for independent social science research projects. These skills include a criminology or sociology topic for research, conducting a literature review to justify proposed research questions, selecting appropriate research methodologies and methods while considering the ethical issues around the research project. You'll develop project design and management skills including taking leadership of your learning and being reflexive of the process.

This module uses the workplace as a site of learning and inquiry. It supports the integration of theory and practice and provides opportunities to apply methods of inquiry to practice related problems in order to recommend solutions and improve work practice. The module also immerses you in a process of reflection, cultivates knowledge of ethical and professional behaviours and builds some of the key understandings associated with the worker-researcher. In sum this module supports the development of a range of skills and knowledge necessary for career and professional development.

This module facilitates your critical engagement with the crimes such as white-collar, corporate, environmental and state crime (crimes of the powerful) as well as transnational organised crimes, often committed by both formal and informal powerful organisations. The module provides you with a comprehensive understanding of the causes, consequences of such variety of crime as well as equip them with the ability to identify effective legislations, policies and policing strategies. You will engage and assess the main theories that explain these types of power crime and evaluate policies and judicial response at international and transnational level.

This module will discuss the dynamics of violence from a gender-informed perspective, how it is used by perpetrators, controlled, and used to control. The module highlights the interconnections between violence, gender, sexuality and crime, and illustrates the blurred boundaries between interpersonal, self-inflicted, community and structural violence. On completing the module, you will explore and learn about the social and spatial parameters of violent crime, theoretical and layperson perspectives on violence, the links between sex, sexuality and violence, and how violence is gendered.

We put a strong emphasis on diverse, practice-based approaches to teaching and learning which will be fully supported by a wide range of online materials via the Mylearning facility. Pre-recorded concept videos will concisely introduce and examine key concepts/theories and how they relate to real world scenarios.  
 
Interactive teaching sessions offer overviews of key issues and themes, clarify questions, and assist youthe student into constructing pathways to engage with discipline knowledge, while online and in-class exercises allow you to monitor your progress and learning.  
 
Seminars offer the opportunity to discuss issues covered by key concept videos and reading, and to clarify and communicate ideas and questions around crime, deviance, victimisation and social harm.   
 
Workshops allow you to explore ways of putting criminological ideas into practice, by working on problems and constructing solutions, in particular through working on data and evidence and their relationship with major forms of crime control and victimisation. 

Guided reading and independent study allow youstudents to build foundational knowledge and appreciate the way criminological argument is constructed.   
 
Group work allows the opportunity for self-responsibility and teamwork, and for understanding the strengths and limits of collaboration with others.  
 
Laboratory work and data analysis allow an appreciation of what constitutes criminological data and evidence.    
 
Fieldwork projects, site visits, practitioner lectures and work-based learning build an understanding of the distinctive way criminologists approach crime and responses to crime, and allow you to engage with questions of social justice in ‘real life’ and to explore what it means to act ethically. 

During your first year, your weekly timetable will typically consist of:

• 4 hours of engaging interactive sessions
• 8 hours of seminars.

Outside of teaching hours, you’ll learn independently through self-study which will involve reading articles and books, working on projects, undertaking research, and preparing for assessments including coursework, presentations and exams.

Here is an indication of how you will split your time:

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

This course is based on 100% coursework.

You will be assessed through a variety of methods including written assessments, essays, reports, practical sessions, presentations and group assessments. Written work includes policy critique, case study analysis reports, position papers, 'in-tray exercies', media reviews and a final disseration or project report.

Other ways you will demostrate learning includes posters, individual and group presentations, computer-based exercises and data analysis.

You will be given regular feedback on your work. You will develop IT skills and the ability to interpret numerical data.

We'll test your understanding and progress with informal and formal tests.

The informal tests usually take place at least once per module, from which you’ll receive feedback from your tutor. The grades from these tests don’t count towards your final marks.

There are formal assessments for each module, usually at the end, which will count towards your module and your final marks.

Assessments are reviewed annually and may be updated based on student feedback or feedback from an external examiner.