Sociology with Criminology

This is a Connected Degree

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Overview

People are not born criminals. On this course, you’ll explore how human relationships and social structures influence behaviour. You’ll discover how power dynamics and inequalities create crime. And you’ll see people who break and enforce the law in a new light.

With many diverse options to choose from, you can tailor this BSc (Hons) Sociology with Criminology degree around topics that fascinate you – from identity issues, such as race and sexuality, to issues of experience, such as happiness, gang crime or serial killing.

Modules are taught by experts who draw directly from their research activity – to give you the latest knowledge in the field. .

Course highlights

• Explore topics informed by our latest research, from a curriculum constantly updated to reflect new ideas in areas as diverse as black studies, gender, class and inequality

• Learn how to persuade others through evidence-based argument, by taking a critical look at different ideas of society, crime and justice

• Go beyond issues of crime to explore the human experience more broadly – from migration to inequalities, from food to celebrity culture

• Practice analysing human behaviour through social research, so you can gain insights to help improve people’s wellbeing

• Customise your degree to match your ambitions: some modules reduce the amount to time you’d need to train for a policing career or as a probation officer

Careers and opportunities

Studying a combination of sociology and criminology opens up a wide range of potential careers, both in and out of the criminal justice system. Whether you’re attracted to careers that involve working closely with other people, or roles that call for rigorous and structured thinking, you’ll be well prepared.

This is because you’ll graduate with a set of skills that are transferable to all kinds of professions. Those skills include:

• insight into people and social dynamics

• critical thinking and analysis

• qualitative and quantitative research

• the ability to shape and communicate an argument

For proof that a wide range of employers value these skills, look at the diversity of roles our recent graduates have taken on. They include: police officer, recruitment consultant, litigation paralegal, digital forensics assistant and victim support caseworker.

What areas can you work in with a sociology with criminology degree?

You’ll graduate ready to pursue a career or further training in areas such as:

• health and social care

• law enforcement

• probation

• counselling

• advertising, marketing and media

• teaching and lecturing

• human resources and recruitment

• business administration and personnel management

You could also progress into research-related jobs or pursue further research and study at postgraduate level.

What jobs can you do with a sociology with criminology degree?

Job roles you could take on include:

• social researcher

• probation officer

• investigative analyst

• police officer

• human resource manager

• counsellor

• teacher

• charity worker

• detention custody officer

Year 1
Core modules in this year include:

• Criminal Justice (20 credits)
• Developing your Sociological Imagination (40 credits)
• Research Design and Analysis (20 credits)
• Theorising Social Life (20 credits)
• Understanding Criminology (20 credits)

There are no optional modules in this year.

Year 2
Core modules in this year include:

• Doing Sociological Research (20 credits)
• Questioning Criminology (20 credits)

Optional modules in this year include (20 credits each):

• Consumer Society: Critical Themes and Issues
• Contemporary Terrorism and the Global Response
• Crimes of the Powerful
• Digital Cultures: Exploring the Digital in the Humanities and Social Sciences
• Drugs and Society
• Emotions and Social Life
• Empire and Its Afterlives in Britain, Europe, and Africa
• Engaged Citizenship in Humanities and Social Sciences
• Equality Or Liberation? Theorising Social Justice
• Family, Career and Generation
• Gang Crime
• Gender and Sexuality
• Global Environmental Justice
• Global Security
• Hate Crime
• Health, Wellbeing, and Happiness
• Intercultural Perspectives On Communication
• Marketing & Communication
• Modernity and Globalisation
• Nationalism and Migration: Chaos, Crisis and the Everyday
• News, Discourse, and Media
• Penology and Prison
• Policing and Society
• Principles of Economic Crime Investigation
• Professional Experience
• Puritans to Postmodernists: American Literature
• Race and Racism
• Risk and Society
• Social Power, Elites and Dissent
• Sociology of Culture: Taste, Value and Celebrity
• The Sociology of Education
• Transitional Justice & Human Rights
• Understanding Personal Life
• Victims of Crime: Key Players in Criminal Justice
• Wildlife Crime: Threats and Response
• Work, Employment and Society
• Youth Crime, Youth Justice

Placement year (optional)
Have the opportunity to do a work placement year after your second or third year on this Connected Degree - we're the only UK university to offer flexible sandwich placements for undergraduates.

Year 3
Core modules in this year are:

Optional sociology modules in this year are (20 credits each):

• Challenging Global Inequality
• Consumer Society: Critical Themes and Issues
• Emotions and Social Life
• Equality or Liberation? Theorising Social Justice
• Family, Career and Generation
• Food, Culture and Society
• Gender and Sexuality
• Health, Wellbeing and Happiness
• Introduction to Teaching
• Nationalism and Migration: Chaos, Crisis and the Everyday
• Professional Development
• Professional Experience: Recruiters and Candidates
• Race and Racism
• Social Power, Elites and Dissent
• Sociology of Culture: Taste, Value and Celebrity
• Understanding Personal Life

Optional criminology modules are:

• Black Criminology, Race and the Criminal Justice System
• Consumer Society: Critical Themes and Issues
• Contemporary Terrorism and the Global Response
• Crime and New Technologies: Theory and Practice
• Dangerous Offenders and Public Protection
• Dissertation
• Economic Crime and Fraud Examination
• Emotions and Social Life
• Equality Or Liberation? Theorising Social Justice
• Family, Career and Generation
• Gender and Crime
• Gender and Sexuality
• Green Crime and Environmental Justice
• Health, Wellbeing and Happiness
• Introduction to Teaching
• Major Project
• Miscarriages of Justice
• Money Laundering and Compliance
• Nationalism and Migration: Chaos, Crisis and the Everyday
• Policing: Law, Policy and Practice
• Policing: Communities, Intelligence and Information
• Political Extremism
• Professional Development: Recruiters and Candidates
• Professional Experience
• Race and Racism
• Social Power, Elites and Dissent
• Sociology of Culture: Taste, Value and Celebrity
• The Sociology of Education
• Treatment and Rehabilitation of Offenders
• True Crime - the Making of a Genre
• Understanding Personal Life

You'll be assessed through:

• written essays
• group and individual presentations
• group and individual projects
• seminar participation
• examinations
• a 10,000 word dissertation

You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.