Criminology - MA

This module offers you the opportunity to critically explore a range of contemporary criminological theories, including new and emerging theoretical perspectives. You are introduced to the key conceptual and theoretical aspects of a range of different contemporary approaches used to make sense of crime, deviance and harm.  

In this module, you will be introduced to a number of key issues in Criminological research and debate. This module focuses on a number of issues which are commonly overshadowed in mainstream criminological curriculums. Through engaging with this module, you will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to critically analyse contemporary criminological knowledge and to understand Criminology as a discipline. In doing so, you will engage with a number of controversial and challenging topics, showing an appreciation for both methodological and theoretical challenges encountered when engaging with these issues. 

This module is designed to enable you to develop an understanding of the research process and the nature and variety of research methods together with the need for an evidence base to guide decision making process. The design of the module allows for face-to-face and blended learning. Its characteristic features are to encourage you to see qualitative and quantitative methods as equally valuable and often complementary and to involve you, wherever possible, in using and applying the methods rather than merely talking about them. 

The module provides you with an understanding of the contested cultural meanings underpinning crime, specifically crime encountered in online mediated settings. Drawing upon critical theoretical perspectives including cultural criminology, ultra-realism and strands of media analysis, this module offers you a contemporary platform for studying crime, harm, victimisation and subsequent responses within cyberspace.

This module is designed to develop learners’ understanding of the key theories of punishment through a brief exploration of the history of penal theory and a reflection on the contemporary challenges and controversies in the context of England and Wales. Further, the module allows you to understand developments in offender management within England and Wales. You will learn about the historical underpinnings of probation, and how it has adapted and responded to challenges in more recent times. Additionally, the module will provide a broad explanation of the historical and current challenges of policing in England and Wales. It will address some of the ongoing controversies faced by policing in recent times and address the way policing has changed in both how it is understood and delivered in today’s age.

This module provides you with the opportunity to carry out a self-directed, empirical and critical investigation of a specific Criminology or Security Studies topic. A dissertation will usually contain an extended literature review, methodology, summary of findings and conclusion, although this is an indicative guide only and the final product will vary dependent upon topic and method selected.  

This postgraduate module provides you with an opportunity to engage with some of the key aims of your programme by examining contemporary debates that surround the phenomenon of homicide and multiple homicide, and a range of separate and related forms of violence. You will be given case studies of serial murderers, violent crimes, and harms caused by powerful interests. This will be achieved by focusing on both historical and contemporary cases within both a national and international context. By presenting both a theoretical discussion and real life cases, this module provides an opportunity to develop knowledge and critical understanding of criminology and related disciplines both in theory and in practice.  

The content of the module includes both theoretical and case study overviews that will examine the complex range of abusive behaviours, from coercive control to image based abuse.  We will explore a range of theoretical approaches including individualist, familial/systems and structuralist to strengthen our understanding of these harms.  We will critically consider definitions, what we know/don’t know about the extent of the issue and consider the nature and impact of the harm caused.  We take a holistic approach by considering by the victim-survivor and the perpetrators of harm and what can be done to prevent these forms of violence in society.  We will give consideration to the different cultural social contexts of domestic abuse and sexual violence from childhood through to older age and in doing so you will be encouraged to explore the module content through an intersectional lens and with a trauma informed approach.   

Originating at Temple University in Philadelphia, the Inside-Out model of prison education facilitates dialogue and education across profound social differences. University postgraduates (outside students) alongside incarcerated men and women (inside students) learn together on a module undertaken within the prison setting. The module is highly interactive and invites you to take leadership in addressing issues of crime, justice, and social concerns. Equality of status is at the heart of this innovative learning experience, alongside equality of expectation and outcome. Each student, whether inside or outside, undertakes the same learning process and assessment. All students read a variety of literature and engage with a number of reflective tasks. During class sessions you discuss issues in small and large groups, and in the final stages of the module students work together on a class project.  

This module introduces you to Green Criminology and its relevance to the contemporary experience of climate breakdown. You will critically apply associated concepts and theories to future criminal justice and security challenges stemming from climate breakdown including civil disorder, water scarcity, conflict and refugees. You will be able to distinguish the outsized contribution that countries, economies and corporations in the Global North make to climate breakdown and the disproportionate harms for countries in the Global South. They will assess proposed solutions and modes of adaption, resilience and resistance to these harms. 

Modern democratic states often rely on practices of detention and incarceration to demonstrate the power of the rule of law and social control. As a result, security and detention spaces like refugee camps, migrant detention islands, jails and for-profit prisons, war prisons, border checkpoints, and protest camps are no longer the only places where we see security practices and systems. The concepts and practices developed in these spaces are now utilised in an ever-expanding number of spatial, legal, and political contexts. Through diverse means, including contemporary surveillance technologies, we see the securitization of people and spaces. In this module, we will explore the way that prison regimes, practices, and systems have moved into other spheres and engage in a detailed historical and theoretical investigation of the complex and often-contradictory processes that produce them. 

This module will offer you the opportunity to deepen your understanding of the sources, dynamics and consequences of contemporary political violence, and to consider the significance of terrorism and conflict within the broader realm of politics and international relations (IR). It will also ‘critically’ analyse the policies and politics of preventing and countering terrorism at both the national and international levels. Many aspects of contemporary terrorism and violence play an important – even defining – role in international politics, yet they are neglected by mainstream approaches to IR and political theory.