Criminology

Year 2

Compulsory modules

• Crime and Intersectionality

  In this module, you’ll get to grips with intersectionality - a way of understanding someone’s identity as made of characteristics such as race, gender and class. Intersectionality offers you a unique way to study crime. You’ll discover how criminal justice institutions, such as the police and criminal courts, respond to and discriminate against different social groups.

• Researching Crime: Methods, Approaches and Ethics

  In this module, you’ll explore the key research methods of Criminology. You’ll gain invaluable critical skills, as you look at:

  • research methods
  • design 
  • processes
  • outcomes.

  You’ll also understand the ethics of research, including:

  • the requirements of conducting research with vulnerable populations
  • how your identity can help or hinder research relationships.

   

• Public Criminology

  In this module, you’ll dive into real world problems of crime and criminal justice. You’ll apply your criminology knowledge to:

  • find solutions to key questions of crime and justice
  • find solutions to problems in current practice
  • explore how these solutions can inform future research. 

  You’ll examine case studies from current policy and practice. You’ll apply the insights of those currently working in criminal justice, including:

  • practitioners
  • policy-makers
  • politicians.

  You’ll gain a strong understanding of how criminology works in real life, and you’ll explore why there is a disconnect between the classroom, and criminology in practice. 

   

• Globalisation and Crime

  In this module, you’ll explore and examine areas of crime and crime control across different regions of the world through the lens of 'globalisation', plus the increased interconnectedness of social relations across the globe

  You’ll use a combination of theoretical concepts and case studies to interrogate and understand the interconnectedness of crime and responses to crime in the contemporary world.

   

• Gender and Society

  In this module, you’ll look at gender and its central role in society. You’ll explore the social processes that affect the lives and roles of people in society. You’ll consider the centrality of gender in everyday life, and how society reflects and reproduces gender relations.

   

Optional modules

• Organised Crime

  In this module, you’ll get a comprehensive introduction to organised crime. Through a blend of case studies and theoretical discussions, you will learn about a range of criminal organisations, from mafias, drug cartels, and human trafficking rings to cybercrime syndicates and money-laundering operations.
  
  You’ll be encouraged to critically assess the ways in which criminal organisations operate, the challenges they present to law enforcement, and the impacts they have on our society, economy, and culture. Emphasis will also be placed on exploring emerging trends and future challenges to prepare you for analysing the evolving threats of organised crime across national and international contexts.
   

• Criminology Work Based Learning

  In this module, you’ll kick-start your career and gain key work experience in organisations related to crime. You’ll complete a placement or work-based learning activity in:

  • a public sector organisation
  • a non-governmental organisation (NGO)
  • a voluntary organisation.

  Whether working with the police, prison services, schools or charities, you’ll gain invaluable skills for your future career and a strong knowledge of how organisations identify and fight crime.

   

• Green Criminology

  You'll engage with the emerging field of Green Criminology. You'll learn the key theoretical concepts of green criminology and environmental justice. 

  You'll focus on understanding Green Criminology as a transnational field. Including the social issues impacting individuals on a global scale. 

   

• Ethics for the 21st Century

  You'll explore recent social and technological developments such as:  

  • globalisation
  • social media and the internet
  • medical and scientific advances
  • mass migration.

  You'll look at the new ethical challenges they present that are prominent in public debate and a source of conflict and division in society. You'll analyse some of these ethical issues from a philosophical perspective. 

  You'll consider whether corporations have moral responsibilities, as well as the best ways to combat racism. Also, you'll examine how epistemic vices such as close-mindedness, intellectual arrogance and dogmatism are fostered by the prevalence of conspiracy theories, fake news, and testimonial injustice?

  Are we right to assume that democracy is the only morally-defensible way to govern a country? Can technology and science help us to improve ourselves?

• Independent Study in Criminology

  This module gives you the chance to do independent study on a topic that fascinates you. With support from expert tutors, you’ll submit a proposal for independent study. We’ll agree to a programme of work and assessments, tailored to your interests.

• Contemporary Security Studies

  What is security? How can we achieve it? Who should provide it? In this module, you’ll dive into key debates on security, and its definitions. You’ll join policy makers, academics and civil servants as you discuss fundamental issues of security. You’ll explore the different ways we look at security, and the things it protects, for example:

  • the nation-state
  • the environment
  • the economy
  • a ‘way of life’.

  You’ll also look at the implications of security on peace and current global conflicts, as well as everyday violence and exclusion.

• Sports Criminology

  This module will lead you to explore a range of contemporary issues related to sport and criminology, including the interplay with the role of sport in wider society. You'll consider sport not only as a crime generator but also as a means of crime prevention and desistance from crime. You'll explore the contentious blurred line between cheating and criminality. You'll examine high profile cases of crime within the field of play, plus global criminality connected to sport. 
  
  You’ll enhance your academic and research literacy, as well as active citizenship by considering how crime and sport cross into everyday lives and real world situations.
   

• Uncivil Society: Constituting Global Order

  How do we govern the world when it’s no longer dominated by states and national governments? How do different types of migration shape the movement of people across the world? In this module, you’ll get to grips with a key part of international relations - borders and solidarities (groups with a common identity or interest). You’ll explore the various forms of borders and solidarities, including:

  • migrations across national boundaries
  • regional organisations
  • trade agreements.

  You'll then link them to key forces and events, such as: 

  • NGOs
  • corporations
  • colonisation
  • refugee movements
  • the migrant ‘crisis’.

  You’ll gain valuable practical and professional knowledge as you explore leading issues today and how global governance or migration shapes our lives.

• Nations and Nationalism

  In this module, you’ll explore the effect of nationalism. You’ll get to grips with the different concepts, debates and controversies in the study of nationalism. You’ll gain fantastic analytical skills as you apply these approaches to real world cases and explore the implications of their different perspectives. 
  
  You’ll also look at how globalisation impacts the politics and identity of a country. You’ll analyse whether globalisation is a force for good, or if it is divisive, leading to nationalist resistance.

Optional Year Abroad

Optional modules

• Year Abroad

  This module offers the opportunity to study abroad, experience a new culture, and apply your skills in different contexts to enhance your employability. It will help you develop self-management, cross-cultural communication, and interpersonal skills.

  You’ll receive support to secure a place at a partner institution abroad, where you can choose modules related to your degree or explore new areas that complement your studies.
  
  Studying at an international university will help you enhance your interpersonal skills through cross-cultural communication with students and tutors, allowing you to build lasting relationships. You'll also improve your study skills by focusing on your chosen areas of interest, gaining valuable international experience that will strengthen your CV.

  This year abroad module lasts for one academic year and is taken after the conclusion of your second year of study, once you’ve completed all your level 5 studies. Your year abroad is not credit-bearing.

Final Year

Compulsory modules

• Dissertation in Criminology

  This module gives you the chance to do independent research on a topic that fascinates you. With the support of expert tutors, you’ll choose a dissertation topic based on your interests. 

  For your dissertation, you may choose to combine the knowledge and skills of two subjects. In this case, you can have one supervisor from each subject. 

   

Optional modules

• Advanced Study in the History of Crime

  In this module, you’ll gain specialist insight into the history of crime. You’ll choose a topic based on staff research interests, meaning you’ll always be taught by an expert. You’ll gain invaluable critical skills as you dig into the current research around your topic. You’ll also develop excellent research skills, including how to analyse primary sources.

• Border Criminology

  In this module, you’ll examine border criminology, which is the study of the intersection of border control and criminal justice.  You’ll get to grips with key issues around:

  • migration
  • punishment
  • citizenship and belonging.

  You’ll investigate core developments of border criminology, including:

  • immigration removal centres
  • foreign national prisons
  • policing of borders.

  You’ll gain key critical skills as you explore debates surrounding immigration, punishment and national identity. You’ll examine the institutions concerned with border control, and the increasing use of punishment and force around immigration control in the UK and abroad.

• Dealing with Drugs: Control and Intoxication

  In this module, you’ll bust some key assumptions around psychoactive drugs. You’ll look at why we use them and how we control them in society. To explore the relationship between drug use, individuals and public morality, you’ll investigate:

  • criminological insights
  • sociological insights
  • historical insights
  • policy insights.

  You’ll gain key critical skills as you debate drug policies and how we can lessen the harm of substance abuse. You’ll look at alternative ways to regulate drugs than our current ‘war on drugs’ mentality. You’ll also explore the future of synthetic drugs. 

• Independent Study in Criminology

  This module gives you the chance to do independent study on a topic that fascinates you. With support from expert tutors, you’ll submit a proposal for independent study. We’ll agree to a programme of work and assessments, tailored to your interests.

• Interdisciplinary Dissertation in Criminology

  For your dissertation, you’ll carry out research on a topic that fascinates you. The topic will be interdisciplinary, meaning that it will be relevant both to Criminology and your other subject. This allows you to be creative in your thinking, making original or unusual connections between your different subject areas. 

  Whatever the topic, you’ll gain in-depth knowledge of it. You’ll develop excellent project management skills as you define your research area, plan your research and manage your own schedule. You’ll also acquire great research skills to take forward into your career.

• Picturing the Criminal: From Mugshot to Fine Art

  In this module, you’ll study images of crime, including:

  • the world’s most troubling mugshots
  • early crime-scene photographs
  • bloody and brutal paintings
  • criminal courtroom artworks.

  Seeing and picturing is a key way of understanding crime. You’ll get to grips with the fast-growing field of visual criminology. You’ll discover the importance of images at the birth of criminology, and how they perpetuate stereotypes about race and gender. You’ll also consider why, because of this, criminologists have been sceptical about working with images. 

  You’ll have the rare chance to go behind the scenes and visit Western-Europe’s most unique visual arts and social scientific-imaging collections, held in Oxford at:

  • the Pitt Rivers Museum
  • the Ashmolean Museum.

• The Carnival and Pleasures of Crime

  Why do people enjoy committing crimes? How might crime offer identity and purpose? In this module you’ll explore criminal acts and the role of:

  • pleasures
  • performance
  • identity 
  • meaning.

  You’ll think about the multiple meanings and actions that crime holds for different people across time. You’ll consider the social benefits of crimes and resistance to the law. You'll also explore how different interpretations of crime might affect crime control and criminal justice.

   

• Sex That Offends

  This module introduces you to case studies, concepts, and debates, with a focus on sexual offences and other serious crimes. You will explore themes of consent and harm, drawing on critical criminology, feminist theory and socio-legal studies. 

  You will look at how the criminal law and cultural norms have constructed certain behaviours and identities as deviant. 

  From a criminological perspective, you will go beyond the headlines to examine the role of:

  • labelling
  • moral panics 
  • changing social attitudes towards sex.

  This will help you to develop your critical thinking skills.

   

• The Prison and Imprisonment

  Should we punish prisoners, or support them to re-enter society? In this module, you’ll dive into the key issues of prisons. You’ll consider modern prisons, globally and historically. You’ll examine prisons through:

  • prisoners
  • prison staff
  • wider society. 

  You'll trace the evolution of the prison - from the rehabilitative ideal of the post-war period, to the greater focus on punishment today. You’ll look at how political parties use prison policies to win votes, rather than reduce crime. 

  You’ll dive into the inner workings of prisons, from governance to administration. You’ll look at the routines of prison life and how prisoners cope with and give meaning to them. You’ll consider sentence progression for different types of prisoners, and you’ll explore how well prisons prepare inmates for life after release.

• Policing, Security and Society

  This is a key time to study policing in western countries. The response to crime in the west is changing fast as policing moves towards privatisation in the digital age. 

  You’ll analyse modern policing in the west and its former colonies. You’ll examine the history of policing. You’ll compare policing in other countries to policing in the UK. You’ll also look at the rise of neo-colonial policing today (the use of economic, political and cultural pressures to control other countries).

  You’ll explore areas like: 

  • securitization
  • militarization 
  • transnationalism 
  • human trafficking.

   

• Forensic Anthropology

  In this module, you’ll analyse human bones from archaeological sites. You’ll get to know the ancient diseases that we can understand through human and animal bones. You’ll gain key practical skills through lab-based sessions and through researching primary material. You’ll also learn how forensic anthropology can help us understand different populations.

• Crimes of the State and Resistance

  In this module, you'll explore crimes and harms that are perpetrated by the state, including the potential to resist state-perpetrated atrocities. 

  You will examine historical and contemporary case studies. along with theoretical concepts from a state crime framework. You'll build your criminological understanding about state crime and its:

  • nature
  • objectives
  • motivations 
  • denial. 

  You will engage and explore the resistance and challenges within, including:

  • social movement activism
  • legal challenges 
  • armed liberation struggles.