This course allows you to specialise in the study of criminology within a social policy degree. It explores the nature, extent and causes of crime, justice, social harm and deviance in national and international contexts, as well as examining the policy responses to them within a broader conceptual and theoretical framework of social policy and related social science subjects.

The course seeks to address key questions such as: what are the serious crimes and other social harms that people experience? Why do they occur? How effective are criminal justice systems, policymakers and governments in tackling and responding to crimes and social harms? 

You will take compulsory first-year units that introduce you to the theoretical and conceptual debates about the meaning and existence of crime, harm and deviance in contemporary society, the way that crime is understood and represented and the range of responses to various crimes. In the second and third years you will learn about key thinkers in criminology and the policy responses to harm then select from optional units, which may include: Criminology Placement; Youth, Sexualities and Gendered Violence; Youth Justice; Punishment in Society; Globalisation, Crime Harm and Justice; Climate Emergency; Harms of the Powerful; Violence, Conflict and Forced Migration; Drugs and Society; and Understanding 'Terrorism'.

In your third year you will also complete a dissertation in a particular area of social policy or criminology that interests you.