Criminology and Criminal Justice
Entry requirements
A level
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
UCAS Tariff
About this course
If you're interested in the problem of crime in contemporary societies, our criminology and criminal justice course is for you.
As a criminology student you'll investigate the nature of crime and criminality, studying society's response through the criminal justice system. You'll learn how societies try to control and punish crime and disorder, gaining a theoretical and practical understanding of this fascinating subject.
Criminology takes a social sciences approach by studying and classifying crime, and exploring theories around criminal behaviour. As well as the theory, you'll learn how society deals with criminal behaviour by studying institutions and roles such as the police, courts, prisons and probation service.
The course offers a wide choice of options in your final year and you'll be expected to undertake an independent piece of research on a relevant topic of particular interest to you.
Our foundation year course is perfect if you want a degree in criminology and criminal justice but you don't meet the standard entry requirements. First we prepare you for your degree during your foundation year, bringing you up to speed with academic skills and a firm grounding in the subject. Then you can go on to do the full undergraduate degree.
Modules
Year 1: Introduction to Crime and Punishment (Core), Developing Skills for Justice (MW) (Core), Applied Criminology (Term 1) (Core), Research Skills in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Term 2) (Core), Contemporary Issues in Criminology (Core), Criminal Justice Process (Term 2) (Core)
Year 2: Theoretical Criminology (Term 1) (Core), Crime and Social History (Core), Essential Skills for Justice (MW) (Term 1) (Core), Crime Policy into Practice (Term 2) (Core), Policing and Society: Critical Perspectives (Core), Applied Research & Evaluation (Term 2) (Core), Optional placement (Optional)
Year 3: Leadership Skills for Justice (MW) (Term 2) (Core), Cybercrime (Term 1) (Optional), Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Justice (Term 1) (Optional), Youth Crime and Gangs Policy (Optional), Work-based learning in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Term 1 and 2) (Optional), Policing and Criminal Investigation (Term 2) (Optional), Mentally Disordered Suspects, Defendants and Offenders (Optional), Psychological Criminology (Optional)
For more information about individual modules, please visit our course pages via the link below.
Assessment methods
We'll assess you with a mixture of coursework and exams. Coursework includes essays, reflective reports and group and seminar presentations. You'll be given plenty of feedback to help you improve.
You will also have the chance to complete a work-based learning module, where you'll be assessed on your practical work. In your final year, you'll complete a project based on your own independent research.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Stratford Campus
Royal Docks School of Business and Law
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Sociology
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Sociology
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
We have quite a lot of sociology graduates, although numbers fell last year. But graduates still do pretty well. Most sociology graduates go straight into work when they complete their degrees, and a lot of graduates go into jobs in social professions such as recruitment, education, community and youth work, and housing. An important option for a sociology graduate is social work - and we're short of people willing to take this challenging but rewarding career. Sociology is a flexible degree and you can find graduates from the subject in pretty much every reasonable job — obviously, you don't find many doctors or engineers, but you do find them in finance, the media, healthcare, marketing and even IT. Sociology graduates taking further study often branch out into other qualifications, like teaching, law, psychology, HR and even maths, so don’t think a sociology degree restricts you to just one set of options.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Sociology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£18k
£19k
£23k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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