BSc (Hons) - Criminology with Forensic Investigation (with integrated foundation year)

Year one

• Essential University Skills One
  Develop the academic and professional skills required for effective learning and successful progression through your chosen course.
• Essential University Skills Two
  Further develop the skills acquired in Essential University Skills 1.
• Contemporary Issues and the Media
  Explore a range of contemporary issues through the lens of the media that relates to your subject area.
• Families, Communities and the Criminal Justice System
  Gain an understanding into the psychological and societal risk factors and pre-cursors to criminality.
• Professional Practice in the Community
  Develop your awareness of community groups and activities to help your understanding of society.
• Introduction to Policing, Criminology and Law
  Gain a basic understanding of the English and Welsh Legal and Criminal Justice system, and Criminology as a discipline.

Year two

• Crime and Deviance
  An introduction to the concept of crime and deviance in both its historical and contemporary context.
• Criminal Justice System
  An introduction to the structure of the Criminal Justice System of England and Wales.
• Becoming a Criminologist
  An introduction to the wide range of professions that studying Criminology and associated disciplines can lead to.
• Forensic Evidence
  An introduction to the fundamental principles of Forensic Science, including different categories of evidence and their analysis.
• Crime Scene Investigation
  Learn to perform techniques involved in crime scene investigation and recovery of evidence as practised by UK forensic agencies.
• Crime Stories
  Study and practice the qualitative social scientific research methods used in Criminology.

Year three

• Explaining Crime
  Explore how society decides what is and is not ‘criminal’. Definitions of ‘criminal’ and ‘criminality’, taking into account social contexts of crime such as youth, race and ethnicity will be discussed.
• Bringing Offenders to Justice
  Examine, analyse and evaluate policy, procedures and practices involved in bringing offenders to justice.
• Prison and Punishment
  Consider the nature and development of penal institutions, the penal regimes within late-modern societies, and the role of rehabilitation.
• Exploring Research
  Learn the skills required to conceive, design, conduct and interpret scientific research.
• Social Exclusion
  Explore ways of understanding and enacting social justice in the context of social welfare and crime control polices.
• Science and Justice
  Understanding the investigation process and the management of forensic evidence, with particular reference to the role of an expert witness presenting evidence in court.

Year four

• New Challenges in Criminology
  Consider crime and social harm beyond national borders, exploring innovative ways to consider crime, harm and victimisation.
• Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System
  Critically examine current debates and controversies in society concerning marginalisation, social exclusion and discrimination and their relationship to the criminal justice system.
• Miscarriages of Justice
  Develop the skills and knowledge to record, manage and interpret evidence coherently in the written and spoken word as required in a court of law.
• Death Investigation
  Investigate the ways in which medical science and principal evidence can assist in the resolution of legal issues in the criminal and civil courts pertaining to death.
• Dissertation
  Pursue an investigation on a topic of interest in criminology.