Program Overview

• Become proficient at using both psychological and criminological approaches to solve complex problems in real casework on cold cases and case reviews
• Consider in-depth many aspects of criminology, including miscarriages of justice and investigating serious crimes
• Learn from a teaching team with wide ranging practitioner experience offering genuine insight into the criminal justice system
• Benefit from interactive and practical teaching approaches that bring theory and practice to life
• Opportunities for field trips to places such as Belfast and Turin

Criminology has never been concerned solely with crime. Criminologists have always wanted to define the nature of crime and understand the criminal mind. Although you learn a lot about both criminology and psychology on our joint honours programme, the unique value of its interdisciplinary approach is that it provides deeper insights into criminal behaviour.

In Year 1, you gain an awareness of the key principles and concepts underpinning the study of crime. You also study modules on Crime Through Time, Police and Police Work, Victimology and Foundations in Psychology.

In Year 2, you develop your understanding of contemporary criminological theory and study modules on Penology, and Society and the Individual. Optional modules may include Comparative Criminal Justice, Writings on Crime, Morality and Deviance, and Violent Crime. You also develop your ability to approach research in criminology.

In Year 3, you broaden your knowledge of topics in the field and put into practice your independent research skills by specialising in a topic of your own choice for your final year project. You can choose from a wide range of special interests from both fields, including Forensic Criminology, Crime and Humanity, Media Psychology and Eyewitness Psychology.

During the course you also acquire skills of gathering data using quantitative and qualitative methods, synthesising and interpreting evidence and assembling arguments, presenting evidence and formulating findings and conclusions.

You have the opportunity, too, to become a member of The British Society of Criminology, which has been in existence for 50 years, and is the society for criminologists, both academic and professional, within the United Kingdom.