COURSE CURRICULUM

The Criminology and Criminal Justice BA (Hons) with Foundation Year offers a comprehensive and socially engaged route into understanding crime, justice, and the systems that shape them. Beginning with a foundation year, the course develops essential academic and employability skills through modules focused on digital literacy, critical thinking, community engagement, and sociological inquiry. Students explore the relationships between individuals, communities, and institutions by examining themes such as surveillance, inequality, identity, and social change. As the course progresses, students gain a strong grounding in criminological theory, the criminal justice process, and contemporary issues including policing, punishment, media influence, and social justice. They also learn how crime and deviance are shaped by historical, political, and cultural forces. Practical modules across all years build key skills in research, communication, and teamwork, while offering opportunities to design and implement real-world justice projects. The course’s Mental Wealth program, embedded throughout, emphasises emotional intelligence, leadership, and career-readiness by encouraging reflection on personal and professional development. In the final year, students can specialise through optional modules in areas such as cybercrime, youth justice, race and ethnicity, psychological criminology, and mental health in the justice system. Fieldwork, court visits, and contact with community organisations provide meaningful insights and direct experience of justice in practice. The course equips graduates with critical insight and practical capabilities for roles in policing, probation, youth work, policy, and social research, while also supporting progression to postgraduate study. Revised to reflect current social and academic debates, the course ensures students are equipped to navigate and shape responses to crime and justice in a complex, rapidly changing society. It encourages a reflective, justice-oriented mindset that challenges systemic inequalities and empowers students to become change-makers in their communities and beyond.