Undergraduate BA (Hons)
Criminal Justice and Criminology
Study the criminal justice system and gain the skills you need to kick-start a career in the field.
What causes crime rates to rise or fall, and who benefits? How can we deal with offenders? Can crime be prevented? On this cutting-edge, critical and career-driven course, you’ll assess the criminal justice system, from prevention to sentencing, developing your own view of what works and what doesn’t.
You’ll be studying with academics with vast professional experience in the field, for example as criminal lawyers, psychiatrists, police analysts, and civil servants in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice.
You’ll develop in-depth knowledge of the principal concepts and theoretical approaches in criminology. You’ll explore key issues in criminal justice and criminology within a wider sociological and social policy context. As you progress, you can tailor your studies to your own ambitions through a wide range of modules.
This course is recognised as providing education of outstanding quality and relevance. (Skills for Justice, skills and standard-setting body.)
Kent achieved the second highest score for criminological research quality in The Times Good University Guide 2023.
Develop practical skills in criminal justice: train in the UK's first Restorative Justice Clinic or volunteer with one of our partners.
We have links with solicitors, as well as professionals in the fields of forensic psychology, restorative justice and youth justice.
Adding a year in industry to your degree helps you to gain valuable experience and shows employers you are ambitious and committed.
Our typical offer levels are listed below and include indicative contextual offers. If you hold alternative qualifications just get in touch and we'll be glad to discuss these with you.
BBC
Distinction, Merit, Merit
112 Tariff points from your IB Diploma, Typically H5, H5, H6 or equivalent
English Language at grade C/4
Pass the University of Kent International Foundation Programme.
The University will consider applicants holding T level qualifications in subjects closely aligned to the course.
Obtain Access to HE Diploma with 45 at level 3 Credits with 18 credits at Distinction and 24 credits at Merit
This module listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation. You study a combination of compulsory and optional modules and may also be able to take ‘elective’ modules from other degrees, tailoring your studies to your ambitions.
Legal Process will introduce the institutions and procedures of the English legal system, and the principles and doctrines on which it is based. Through consideration of the constitutional framework underpinning the legal system, there will be critical discussion concerning the development and operation of the English legal system in its social, economic and political context. A careful consideration of the sources of law will provide the basis for a sound understanding of the common law, legislation, European law, civil procedure and criminal procedure. The nature, extent and effectiveness of access to legal remedies in this country will be considered and students will be given the opportunity to develop certain general and legal skills, particularly legal research skills.
The purpose of Reading Law is to prepare non-law students for the study of criminal law, which may follow this module. The main sources of law will be carefully examined to enable students to find, read, understand and cite statutes, statutory instruments and law reports. In addition, secondary resources including books and journals will be located and utilised. The fundamental concepts of judicial precedent and statutory interpretation will be considered, along with sources of law emanating from the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Union
This module introduces students to the politics of social policy. Students will explore the role of politicians, pressure groups, the media and public opinion in shaping responses to social problems, and the party-political and ideological approaches to policy-making. Students will explore the tensions between welfare and the economy and the main tensions between individualism and collectivism in the political environment of the contemporary welfare state. Students will be introduced to the role of politics in social policy making to understand the different value positions political parties hold. Students will examine these issues through reference to different policy sectors, such as employment, social security, health, housing, and education.
This module introduces debates about the nature of social research methods principally in sociology, criminology, social history and psychology, with reference to social policy, politics and other social sciences. It will introduce students to social research from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students will develop key study and research skills for research methods module in Stage 2 and the dissertation in Stage 3.
This introductory course in criminology and criminal justice will introduce students to the ways in which images and notions of crime are constructed and represented, including the links between crime and the key social divisions of age, gender and ethnicity. They will be introduced to the workings of the criminal justice system and its key agencies. Students would cover the measurement of crime, media representations of crime, the aims and justifications of punishment and the structure and operation of the criminal justice.
This module introduces students to the history of Britain in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, through an exploration of changes and continuities across three themes:- the political world; the economy, and social life. The political world theme engages with the creation of a mass democracy in 1918, the varying fortunes of the political parties and Britain's changing place in the world. The economy theme explores the impact of depressions and recoveries, industrial relations, affluence and globalization. The social life theme draws out the human scale of such experiences, looking at changing social conditions, the experience of war and shifting social attitudes to gender, sexuality and religion. Students will consider the range of primary sources that historians use to analyse past events and processes, building skills in documentary analysis.
This module follows on from Foundations in Social and Criminological Research 1 in developing students' skills in research and critical thinking. The emphasis in this module is on quantitative methods: evaluating the use of quantitative research in 'real life’ contexts, and developing skills in analysing quantitative data. Students will explore descriptive statistics, the evaluation of research designs and learn how to use SPSS to handle quantitative data.
The module will discuss classical and contemporary sociological perspectives (including Marxism, Weberianism, feminism and Bourdieusian), examining how they address key sociological debates, such as modernity, social order, conflict, agency and power. The module will also discuss key sociological concepts (such as class, gender and 'race'), explaining how they are used to understand social practices and structures in everyday life.
This module is concerned with contemporary issues, developments, practices and research in criminal justice. In line with current policy developments it will address the connections between criminal justice policies and other policy developments and critically examine 'new' policy initiatives including such measures as community crime prevention; developments to involve and protect the victims of crime; moves towards broader conceptualisations of justice, including reconceptualisations of crime as social harm. The module examines contemporary policy developments in sentencing, hate crime, racism in criminal justice practices, amongst other issues.
This module introduces students to the use of qualitative methods for research in the social sciences in the interpretive tradition. It builds on the Stage 1 module, Foundations of Social and Criminological Research SAPO3130 and prepares students for sociological and socio-historical dissertations at Stage 3 SOCI5510. The module looks in detail at how sociologists and social historians do research. It contextualises the evolution of their research methods in relation to different schools of thoughts and critical perspectives, e.g. feminism. It exposes students to different tools of research including semi-structured and oral history interviews, focus groups, archival work and documentary analysis, ethnography, and visual, sensory, mobile and material methods.
Human cognition is a key theme in psychology and knowledge of this area aids in interpreting and understanding behaviour in a range of contexts.
This module will examine the cognitive processes involved in attention, memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision making and consider the ways in which research on these processes contributes to our understanding of human behaviour. We will consider topics such as memory, false memories, effective learning and problem-solving, and errors and biases in everyday thinking. It provides a good basis for modules in social cognition, applied cognitive psychology, and other areas of psychology.
This module concerns the application of psychological theory and research to issues in criminal justice. We will consider psychological research and application in areas such as offender profiling and investigative psychology, detecting deception, confessions and false confessions, jury decision making, and eyewitness testimony. Recent psychological findings will be emphasised. Students will be encouraged to take a critical approach to assessing the validity of theories and applications. Students should gain an understanding of the potential and limitations of psychology's contributions to criminal justice.
This module will introduce students to the utility of criminal psychology within the criminal justice context. It will introduce students to various topics such as the history of criminal psychology, how the field has been shaped, theories, the emergence, persistence and desistence of offending. The module will help students develop an understanding of criminal psychology and its importance in criminal justice contexts from different perspectives.
This module will cover key criminal justice agencies, contestability, and privatisation; the contested purposes of prisons; offending behaviour programmes in prison and probation; 'alternative' models of offender rehabilitation such as democratic and hierarchical therapeutic penal regimes and the ‘good lives’ model; practice skills in working with offenders; parole, risk, and resettlement; and desistance from crime.
This module will cover: The history of youth crime and youth justice; the age of criminal responsibility; theoretical debates surrounding youth crime; the media construction of youth crime; the politics of youth crime; the structures and technologies of the youth justice system; restorative youth justice; and the relationship between the youth justice system and other branches of social policy.
This module will provide an overview of drug-related offending and the rehabilitation of offenders in the context of wider society. There will be a critical exploration of the relationship between drugs and crime and the effectiveness of treatment in the context of reducing criminality. It will review the laws relating to drug offences and look in detail at the development of government policy linking the criminal justice agenda with treatment. The module will also consider international approaches to the drug-crime link, and address the importance of gender and ethnicity in relation to drug offences.
Restorative justice has emerged in recent years as a new way of thinking about how we should view and respond to crime. Restorative approaches are making significant inroads into criminal justice policy and practice and this module provides students with an opportunity to engage in an increasingly dynamic and interesting field in contemporary criminal justice. The main aim of this module is to provide students with a critical understanding of restorative justice. It explores key values, issues and debates in restorative justice set in the context of theoretical arguments and criminal justice policy and practice.
The module will open with the concepts and theoretical underpinnings of restorative justice and go on to explore restorative justice and offenders, restorative justice and victims, emotions in restorative justice, the role of the community and the role of the state. It will close with critical issues and debates in restorative justice and future directions.
The module is intended to increase awareness of continuity and change in patterns and perceptions of crime and the responses to it by the legal system and other agencies over the period from 1750 to the present day.
Students will study historical perspectives on the history of crime and punishment – Whig, Marxist, revisionist etc.
They will have a chance to undertake critical evaluation of the sources of crime history and learn about change and continuity in the criminal justice system over the period covered.
The module will use the lenses of emotions and affect to explore a range of contemporary sociological issues and sites. Drawing both on feminist approaches and the recent turn to affect and emotion in the social sciences, the course will consider issues of identities, politics and place, in ways that question some of the binaries of social science thinking around public/private, local/global, intimate/political. Students will gain both a broad-based understanding of the theoretical and methodological frameworks for considering emotions sociologically, as well as a more detailed series of topics which use these frameworks in empirical contexts.
The first half of the module will provide the theoretical, conceptual and methodological underpinnings for the sociological study of emotions, around themes of neoliberalism, identities and politics, and methods for studying emotions. The second half of the module will be topic based around themes such as the body, home, work, care, media, violence, friendship and migration.
This module encourages students to take an international view of social policy, beyond the nation state, and to develop understanding of the global links and comparisons that can be used to consider welfare in this way.
Introductory lectures and seminars will present the challenges and risks facing contemporary welfare regimes, including neoliberalism, globalisation and financial uncertainty, and the notion of mixed economies of welfare. Another block of learning will provide accounts of comparative approaches to welfare and explore histories and contemporary dynamics of welfare in the US and in mainland Europe. Finally, a series of welfare topics on migration, care, work and citizenship will be introduced in order to explore issues and policy responses within a global framework.
This module provides students with an understanding of contemporary cybercrime, its implications and its sociological meanings. It examines how cybercrime functions, how it relates to wider criminological debates and theories, and how it raises challenges in our understanding of the nature of crime, criminality, crime control and policing. Students will become familiar with cutting edge research and theories in the field of cybercrime, and debates that are developing both within the UK and across the world. By focusing on the differing levels of both action and actors, this unit will provide a holistic and nuanced understanding of these vital contemporary challenges facing society. This module equips students with the necessary theoretical and practical tools and modes of social enquiry to make sense of an increasingly digital and networked world.
This module is about time. It explores the different temporalities that underpin social life and how ideas and norms about time are embedded in institutions and everyday practices. It does so in relation to ongoing debates about the acceleration of everyday life, the context of the development of movements for 'slow' ways of living and contest over ‘whose time counts’. It includes discussion of different temporal concepts, e.g. memory, extended present, projectivity, futures, waiting, rhythm, acceleration, speed, slowness, cyclical time, clock-time, schedules, balance, calibration, timescapes. It seeks to cultivate a temporal sensitivity to doing and critiquing research, e.g. time-use diaries, rhythmanalysis.
You have the opportunity to select elective modules in this stage.
The placement year is taken between Stage 2 and 3 and is an opportunity to apply your criminological learning in practice. You will learn about the pragmatic contexts in which state, private or voluntary sector providers of justice operate and also develop your knowledge about employment opportunities in these areas. Not only will a placement year help you to gain work experience and contacts, it will also encourage you to look at your studies in a new light.
The option of a placement year is open to students on the Criminal Justice and Criminology degree programme who have attained a good academic record at Stages 1 and 2, and have successfully completed an interview process.
Going abroad as part of your degree is an amazing experience and a chance to develop personally, academically and professionally. You experience a different culture, gain a new academic perspective, establish international contacts and enhance your employability.
You can apply to add a year abroad to your degree programme from your arrival at Kent until the autumn term of your second year. The year abroad takes place between Stages 2 and 3 at one of our partner universities. Places and destination are subject to availability, language and degree programme. For a full list, please see Go Abroad.
You are expected to adhere to any academic progression requirements in Stages 1 and 2 to proceed to the year abroad. The year abroad is assessed on a pass/fail basis and will not count towards your final degree classification.
Human cognition is a key theme in psychology and knowledge of this area aids in interpreting and understanding behaviour in a range of contexts.
This module will examine the cognitive processes involved in attention, memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision making and consider the ways in which research on these processes contributes to our understanding of human behaviour. We will consider topics such as memory, false memories, effective learning and problem-solving, and errors and biases in everyday thinking. It provides a good basis for modules in social cognition, applied cognitive psychology, and other areas of psychology.
This module concerns the application of psychological theory and research to issues in criminal justice. We will consider psychological research and application in areas such as offender profiling and investigative psychology, detecting deception, confessions and false confessions, jury decision making, and eyewitness testimony. Recent psychological findings will be emphasised. Students will be encouraged to take a critical approach to assessing the validity of theories and applications. Students should gain an understanding of the potential and limitations of psychology's contributions to criminal justice.
This module will introduce students to the utility of criminal psychology within the criminal justice context. It will introduce students to various topics such as the history of criminal psychology, how the field has been shaped, theories, the emergence, persistence and desistence of offending. The module will help students develop an understanding of criminal psychology and its importance in criminal justice contexts from different perspectives.
The aim of the Dissertation is to enable students to undertake independent research. In the course of their projects, students will deepen their critical understanding of research design and the application of specific techniques, and will further develop theoretical and practical understandings of the approaches of the relevant discipline.
This module will cover key criminal justice agencies, contestability, and privatisation; the contested purposes of prisons; offending behaviour programmes in prison and probation; 'alternative' models of offender rehabilitation such as democratic and hierarchical therapeutic penal regimes and the ‘good lives’ model; practice skills in working with offenders; parole, risk, and resettlement; and desistance from crime.
This module will cover: The history of youth crime and youth justice; the age of criminal responsibility; theoretical debates surrounding youth crime; the media construction of youth crime; the politics of youth crime; the structures and technologies of the youth justice system; restorative youth justice; and the relationship between the youth justice system and other branches of social policy.
This module will provide an overview of drug-related offending and the rehabilitation of offenders in the context of wider society. There will be a critical exploration of the relationship between drugs and crime and the effectiveness of treatment in the context of reducing criminality. It will review the laws relating to drug offences and look in detail at the development of government policy linking the criminal justice agenda with treatment. The module will also consider international approaches to the drug-crime link, and address the importance of gender and ethnicity in relation to drug offences.
Restorative justice has emerged in recent years as a new way of thinking about how we should view and respond to crime. Restorative approaches are making significant inroads into criminal justice policy and practice and this module provides students with an opportunity to engage in an increasingly dynamic and interesting field in contemporary criminal justice. The main aim of this module is to provide students with a critical understanding of restorative justice. It explores key values, issues and debates in restorative justice set in the context of theoretical arguments and criminal justice policy and practice.
The module will open with the concepts and theoretical underpinnings of restorative justice and go on to explore restorative justice and offenders, restorative justice and victims, emotions in restorative justice, the role of the community and the role of the state. It will close with critical issues and debates in restorative justice and future directions.
This module traces the way in which criminal justice and criminal justice policy have become increasingly politicised in recent years. It utilises topics such as terrorism, dangerous offenders, penology and capital punishment to highlight the interaction between popular opinion, research, policy formation and the criminalisation of particular groups within society. The module will analyse the manner in which crime has become such an important issue on the political agenda, as well as examining the important role that pressure groups (such as NACRO and the Howard League for Penal Reform) have played in mediating political rhetoric and policy.
The module is intended to increase awareness of continuity and change in patterns and perceptions of crime and the responses to it by the legal system and other agencies over the period from 1750 to the present day.
Students will study historical perspectives on the history of crime and punishment – Whig, Marxist, revisionist etc.
They will have a chance to undertake critical evaluation of the sources of crime history and learn about change and continuity in the criminal justice system over the period covered.
The module will use the lenses of emotions and affect to explore a range of contemporary sociological issues and sites. Drawing both on feminist approaches and the recent turn to affect and emotion in the social sciences, the course will consider issues of identities, politics and place, in ways that question some of the binaries of social science thinking around public/private, local/global, intimate/political. Students will gain both a broad-based understanding of the theoretical and methodological frameworks for considering emotions sociologically, as well as a more detailed series of topics which use these frameworks in empirical contexts.
The first half of the module will provide the theoretical, conceptual and methodological underpinnings for the sociological study of emotions, around themes of neoliberalism, identities and politics, and methods for studying emotions. The second half of the module will be topic based around themes such as the body, home, work, care, media, violence, friendship and migration.
This module encourages students to take an international view of social policy, beyond the nation state, and to develop understanding of the global links and comparisons that can be used to consider welfare in this way.
Introductory lectures and seminars will present the challenges and risks facing contemporary welfare regimes, including neoliberalism, globalisation and financial uncertainty, and the notion of mixed economies of welfare. Another block of learning will provide accounts of comparative approaches to welfare and explore histories and contemporary dynamics of welfare in the US and in mainland Europe. Finally, a series of welfare topics on migration, care, work and citizenship will be introduced in order to explore issues and policy responses within a global framework.
This module provides students with an understanding of contemporary cybercrime, its implications and its sociological meanings. It examines how cybercrime functions, how it relates to wider criminological debates and theories, and how it raises challenges in our understanding of the nature of crime, criminality, crime control and policing. Students will become familiar with cutting edge research and theories in the field of cybercrime, and debates that are developing both within the UK and across the world. By focusing on the differing levels of both action and actors, this unit will provide a holistic and nuanced understanding of these vital contemporary challenges facing society. This module equips students with the necessary theoretical and practical tools and modes of social enquiry to make sense of an increasingly digital and networked world.
This module is about time. It explores the different temporalities that underpin social life and how ideas and norms about time are embedded in institutions and everyday practices. It does so in relation to ongoing debates about the acceleration of everyday life, the context of the development of movements for 'slow' ways of living and contest over ‘whose time counts’. It includes discussion of different temporal concepts, e.g. memory, extended present, projectivity, futures, waiting, rhythm, acceleration, speed, slowness, cyclical time, clock-time, schedules, balance, calibration, timescapes. It seeks to cultivate a temporal sensitivity to doing and critiquing research, e.g. time-use diaries, rhythmanalysis.
You have the opportunity to select elective modules in this stage.
We use a variety of teaching methods, including lectures, case-study analysis, group projects and presentations and individual and group tutorials. Study groups are normally no more than 15-20 students and give you the opportunity to discuss a topic in detail.
Modules are usually assessed by a combination of coursework and written examinations. Some modules take the form of an extended dissertation or essay. Both Stage 2 and 3 marks count towards your final degree result.
If you choose to take the placement year, you will have the opportunity to spend 900 hours in a relevant professional setting, approved in advance to be suitable for your respective degree. Although you are responsible for obtaining your own placement, guidance will be offered in the form of tutorial support and access to networks of providers developed and maintained by the School. You will be visited once (where possible) during your placement, to ensure that the placement activities are suitable and achieving the programme learning outcomes. Assessment is on a pass or fail basis and the marks gained do not contribute to the final degree classification.
For a student studying full time, each academic year of the programme will comprise 1200 learning hours which include both direct contact hours and private study hours. The precise breakdown of hours will be subject dependent and will vary according to modules.
Methods of assessment will vary according to subject specialism and individual modules.
Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.
For programme aims and learning outcomes please see the programme specification.
The variety of careers related to crime control have increased in recent years, with traditional justice agencies joined by companies in the voluntary and private sectors. Recent graduates have gone on to work in areas such as:
Some of our graduates choose to go on to postgraduate study, including training to become a lawyer.
I’ve found myself doing a lot better because of the skills I picked up during my placement year.
The 2024/25 annual tuition fees for this course are:
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
For students continuing on this programme, fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.*
The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.
Fees for undergraduate students are £1,850.
Fees for undergraduate students are £1,385.
Students studying abroad for less than one academic year will pay full fees according to their fee status.
Find out more about accommodation and living costs, plus general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.
Kent offers generous financial support schemes to assist eligible undergraduate students during their studies. See our funding page for more details.
We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.
Next steps
We are no longer accepting applications for this course for entry in 2024.
Please see our alternative course - Criminology.
We welcome applications from students all around the world with a wide range of international qualifications.
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