UDCRIPOL - BSc Criminology and Policing

The BSc Criminology and Policing undergraduate degree combines these complimentary subjects, allowing the student to explore relevant theoretical perspectives and real-world issues in relation to crime, victimisation, policing, and criminal justice. Criminology is an ever-evolving discipline and the course content reflects current social, political and public disputes, as well as key developments in policing.
Via a wide range of engaging modules, learning activities and events, the student will be encouraged and supported to achieve their potential for success in terms of academic and professional development. The teaching, learning and assessments are developed to enhance the student’s knowledge and key transferable skills, which will appeal to employers within policing, the criminal justice sector, and beyond. The criminology team maintain strong links with key partners in policing and local authorities to offer complimentary student activities, events, trips, and opportunities linked to criminology and policing. There is also an emphasis on the link between teaching and research, whereby staff research provides the basis for teaching and learning on a range of modules. Students are also encouraged and supported to explore their own research interests and develop key transferable skills via criminological research modules and a final year independent criminology research project. The final year dissertation can be a springboard for postgraduate study and/or to demonstrate employability skills.

The course is delivered to students through a range of pedagogic methods including formal lectures, seminars, workshops, project-based research activity, group work and individual tutorials held in staff feedback hours. Lecturers and academic mentors deliver a range of academic support sessions and assessment workshops to support student success. The course combines face-to-face, blended, and online learning.

All modules use Weblearn facilities to provide consistent access to key information such as the schedule, assessment details, discussion board, and a range of relevant learning resources and links. The students are encouraged to engage in active learning via contact between peers, lecturers, and academic mentors. CIT and other media are used to encourage collaboration among the cohort of students on the course. The course will also progressively examine ways of further developing the link between face-to-face and online learning as ideas and technology develop and as resources permit.

To accommodate research leave for academic staff and to ensure that modules are viable in terms of student numbers, the Criminology subject group may withdraw one or more optional modules for a year. To gauge the number of students on optional modules at levels 5 and 6 in the following academic year, module conferences will take place in the spring semester on the core modules, to ensure that students are informed about their options, are able to select their modules at the next level of study and to enable the subject group to make adjustments for any modules which need to be temporarily withdrawn.

The course includes core modules where students learn and engage with key criminology and policing theories and concepts, as well as criminological research methods. Throughout the course, students will also enhance their professional development and improve their employability skills. The final year criminology research project encourages students to develop their research skills, as well as gain detailed knowledge on a topic of their choice.

The course aims to offer students the opportunity to:

1. develop the intellectual skills necessary for the understanding, critical evaluation and application of a range of theoretical approaches
2. develop competence in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies
3. develop an ability to manage student’s own independent learning and research skills
4. develop a specialist area of interest culminating in the production of an in-depth piece of independent research at level 6.

In line with the Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ), on successful completion of this course the student will be able to:

0. demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition, and creativity and will act as inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioners/professionals in their discipline.
1. deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within Criminology and Policing
2. devise and sustain arguments, and/or solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of Criminology and Policing
3. describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship in Criminology and Policing, recognising the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge
4. Manage their own learning to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (for example, research articles and/or original materials appropriate to Criminology and Policing)
5. apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding to initiate and carry out projects
6. critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem
7. communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences
8. exercise initiative and personal responsibility, including decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts
9. undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature
10. demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition and creativity and be able to act as inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioners/professionals in their discipline

QAA Statement for Criminology
https://www.qaa.ac.uk/the-quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements/criminology

A wide range of assessment methods are used, with the choice of assessment instrument chosen to test the specified learning outcomes. Overall, the strategy is to promote written, oral, and research skills, which reflect the student’s understanding of criminological theory, policing, and good academic and professional practice.

Level 4 formative assessments help support and prepare students for summative assessments and seek to encourage students to assimilate and describe theories, facts and figures and connect with academic literature. Students are also given tools and guidance to encourage independent research and to develop their time management, employability and critical thinking skills. Level 5 assessments
require students to critically evaluate the knowledge and theories they have encountered and practically demonstrate their ability to undertake independent research and professional development activities. Level 6 assessments test critical knowledge of applied areas of criminology and policing and the ability to be an independent researcher.

Assessments are part of the learning process and confirm the outcomes of the learning process.
The marking criteria for coursework and examinations are published with the assessment details for
clarity and the moderating process is articulated. Each assessment offers constructive and timely
feedback to further develop students written and oral communication skills and help develop and
demonstrate good academic practice. The assessment process also provides an insight into
learning problems and thus triggers individual intervention and remedial action where necessary. Furthermore, the assessment process helps by providing module leaders with feedback on curriculum design and delivery and – via the ongoing iterative process of module monitoring – make a significant
contribution to the continued development and improvement of the course.

A variety of assessment methods are used including coursework essays, reports, critical reviews, and briefing papers; unseen and seen written examinations; multiple choice question examinations; individual and group project assignments; laboratory and computer-based investigations; poster, podcast and oral presentations; and a level 6 independent research project.

At level 6 there is an optional work experience module providing students with an opportunity to apply for a placement either in the criminal justice sector or in a private, statutory or voluntary organisation related to criminal justice and criminology. Students taking this module produce a reflective report on their experience and an appraisal of their skills and abilities in the placement to enhance their personal development.

There may also be opportunities for students to study for part of their degree in another country.

Part-time Structure

Students take 60 credits per academic year - over six years.
All modules are 15 credit core modules, unless stated otherwise.

September Starters
Level 4
Autumn – Year 1

SC4054 Traditional Criminological Theories and Concepts (core)
SC4057 Becoming a Criminologist (core)
Spring – Year 1
SC4058 The Development of Criminological Thought (core)
SC4061 Shades of Deviance (core)
Autumn – Year 2
SC4055 The Criminal Justice Framework (core)
SC4056 Key Concepts in Policing (core)
Spring – Year 2
SC4059 Issues in the Criminal Justice System (core)
SC4060 Researching Crime and Deviance (core)
February Starters
Level 4
Spring – Year 1
SC4054 Traditional Criminological Theories and Concepts (core)
SC4057 Becoming a Criminologist (core)

Summer – Year 1
SC4058 The Development of Criminological Thought (core)
SC4061 Shades of Deviance (core)
Autumn – Year 2
SC4055 The Criminal Justice Framework (core)
SC4056 Key Concepts in Policing (core)
Spring – Year 2
SC4059 Issues in the Criminal Justice System (core)
SC4060 Researching Crime and Deviance (core)

Level 5
Autumn – Year 3
SC5064 Criminological Research in Context (core)
SC5057 Crime Prevention and Environmental Design (core)
Spring – Year 3
SC5066 Criminological Research in Practice (core)
SC5060 Criminology Today (core)
Autumn – Year 4
SC5055 Perspectives on Policing (core)
Option from the Autumn options or SC5053 Crime in Context if options not selected in time
Spring – Year 4
SC5062 Becoming a Criminal Justice Professional (core)
Option from the Spring options or SC5051 Youth, Crime and Violence if options not selected in time

Level 6
Autumn – Year 5
SC6057 Policing Strategies and Investigations (core)
Option from the Autumn options or SC6051 Serious and Serial Offenders
Spring – Year 5
SC6052 Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism (core)
Option from the Spring options or SC6058 Global Crime and Disorder

Autumn – Year 6
SC6P050 Criminology Project (30 credits year module across both semesters) (core)
SC6054 Punishment and Prisons (core)

Spring – Year 6
SC6P050 Criminology Project (30 credits year module across both semesters) (core)
SC6053 Victims and Crime (core)

At Level 4 students will begin processes of personal development planning in core modules and start to build up a record of achievements. Students are encouraged to participate in workshop discussions, reflecting specifically on what they have learned from modules and the ways in which this knowledge may be used in, or applied to, the wider social world. Level 5 and level 6 modules contain embedded activities and opportunities to reflect on the learning process and personal development planning. Modules focused on research methodologies provide a forum in which students can reflect on their practice as a researcher, the ethical dimensions, and the ways in which this practice may be applied to solving problems in the context of volunteering activity and/or employment. Self-directed project research at level 6 provides an opportunity for students to consolidate this reflection, bringing together particular substantive areas of interest with methodological issues and considering how this might provide a basis for further self-development and contribution to the wider social world in the future.

The successful completion of this course offers students improved employability in the criminal justice and security services sector, as well as broader career opportunities in the private sector, public services, and charity sectors. The student will be able to apply specialist subject knowledge gained from both disciplines and critical life skills developed during three years of study. The course is also excellent preparation for research, further professional development, and postgraduate study.

Our criminology and sociology graduates have gone on to careers including police officers, counter fraud criminal investigators, support workers, probation officers and teachers, securing jobs at the Metropolitan Police Service, HM Government, Rethink Mental Illness and the National Probation Service.

Continuing your studies with us

The School of Social Sciences has a wide range of exciting industry-linked postgraduate courses available on a full-time and part-time basis in criminology, security, diplomacy, international relations, sociology and psychology. The following courses would be ideal for progression after this course:

• Human Rights and International Conflict - MA
• Organised Crime and Global Security - MA
• Woman and Child Abuse - MA

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have at least:

• a minimum of grades BBC in three A levels (or minimum of 112 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg Advanced Diploma)
• GCSE English at grade C/ grade 4 or above, or Higher Diploma (or equivalent)

If you don’t have traditional qualifications or can’t meet the entry requirements for this undergraduate degree, you may still be able to gain entry by completing our Criminology (including foundation year) BSc (Hons).