Criminology and Sociology

Crime and deviance shape our world in profound ways, influencing everything from public policy to personal lives. But who decides what counts as a crime? What drives people to commit crimes? And how do factors like social class, race, and gender affect both criminal behaviour and the way the justice system treats individuals? These are just some of the questions sociologists and criminologists explore, and this joint degree is designed to help you find the answers.

This engaging Criminology and Sociology degree will give you a solid understanding of the key issues in studying society, crime, and criminal justice. The degree will help you see the links between personal challenges and larger societal issues. You will learn to think critically about a range of global and local topics such as climate change, technological advances, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, racism, gender inequality, and power in society, and how these issues connect to crime, criminalisation, and crime control.

Criminology and Sociology is a flexible degree. In the first year, everyone follows the same curriculum. In years two and three, you can choose specific modules and tailor your own pathway through a variety of criminological and sociological topics. The degree will ground you in sociological and criminological theories and provide you with essential social research skills, both of which will open doors to a wide range of career opportunities.

• Year one: Contemporary Challenges in Crime and Society, Thinking Sociologically, Understanding Criminology, Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Culture, Power and Deviance, and Social Justice in Action.
• Year two: Theoretical Criminology, Understanding the Social World, Research Problems and Methods: Qualitatively Better, and Research Problems and Methods: Making it Count.
• Optional modules (semester two): Critical Perspectives on Policing, Critical Victimology, Environmental Justice, Internet Risk and Security, Policing and Social Control, and Violence in Society.
• Year three: Dissertation, Work: Practice and Reflection.
  In addition to choosing one core module, you will select four optional modules from the following list: Bodies: Biology to Blushing, Crime, Society and Racialisation, Critical Approaches to (Counter) Terrorism, Critical Perspectives on Policing, Critical Victimology, Digital Society, Environmental Justice, Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Genocide and Resistance, Identities and Interactions, Internet Risk and Security, Migration and Socio-Legal Dynamics, Prisons and Punishment, Probation and Rehabilitation, The Criminal Justice Process, and Violence in Society.

A variety of assessment methods will be used, including essays, exams, presentations (both group and individual), reports, and an optional dissertation; in addition to traditional assessments, you will also engage with innovative formats such as video blogs, podcasts, and presentations.