MSc Criminology & Social Policy

Program Overview

The MSc in Criminology & Social Policy offers a comprehensive examination of criminology, social policy, and their social and political contexts. It equips students with research methods and critical understanding of criminal justice, prisons, and violence. Graduates are prepared for careers in research, community safety, or further academic pursuits in criminology or social work.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This MSc in Criminology & Social Policy provides a critical and nuanced understanding of criminology, criminal justice, and social policy, as well as the wider political, economic, and social context within which criminological research takes place. The program equips students with social science research methods, alongside key issues, theories, and debates in criminology, social and penal policy and practice, schooling them in cutting-edge knowledge across these arenas. Graduates will be equipped to evaluate, design, and deliver research projects across justice-related and social science disciplines and develop an understanding of the impact that such research has on policy and practice, and vice versa.

Outline:

The program consists of six taught modules and a Masters dissertation:

Compulsory Modules:

• The Contexts of Criminal Justice Research: Provides a critical understanding of the core contexts, critical arguments, theories, and debates in penal policy and criminal justice practice.
• Contemporary Issues in Criminology: Offers a critical, sociologically-informed understanding of Criminology, tracing some of the major themes and topics that arise within this discipline.
• Prisons, Power & Punishment: Develops a critical understanding of the use, impacts, and harms of imprisonment.
• Qualitative Research Methods: Introduces the literature on qualitative research design and provides an understanding of different qualitative research methods and their limitations.
• Dissertation in Criminology: Provides the opportunity to undertake a piece of independent research, which is of professional or academic relevance to the student.

Optional Modules (choose two):

• Perspectives on Social Research: Provides an understanding of the philosophical underpinning of research methods practice in social science.
• Welfare Concepts and Ideas: Enhances knowledge and understanding of key concepts and ideas associated with the study of Social Policy.
• Approaches to Welfare: Past, Present and Future: Enhances knowledge and understanding of key issues associated with the development of welfare states in the UK and other countries.
• International Social Work: Themes and Perspectives: Develops a conceptual and theoretical understanding of global social issues, with a particular focus on the role of social work in addressing poverty and inequality and promoting human rights, social justice, and development.

Assessment:

The distinct modules will be assessed using a variety of standard (e.g., written assignments, examinations) and innovative, digital, and creative methods applied across collective and individual projects.

Teaching:

Classes comprise a mixture of lectures, seminars, group discussion, and self-directed learning. The program is delivered by a dynamic team of international scholars with globally-recognized expertise in Criminology.

Careers:

Graduates are prepared for careers in criminological research, community safety, local authority, voluntary and charitable sectors. The program also provides a platform for further progression to PhD study in Criminology or Justice Social Work.

Other:

The program is designed to appeal to prospective students wishing to progress to postgraduate study, those wishing to move into or advance their professional careers across justice-related disciplines, and those seeking a career in social science research.

| Fees | 2024/25 |

| ------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Scotland, England, Wales & Northern Ireland | Full time - £8,700 | | |Part-time - £4,350 | | | | | | | | Please note, Year 2 fee will be subject to an increase | International | £19,600 |