2012
Course overview
The inter-disciplinary approach to the Criminology and Criminal Justice MSc will enable you to develop advanced knowledge of key contemporary issues and debates surrounding criminal justice institutions, crime and punishment. The programme of study has been specifically designed to emphasise contemporary and comparative criminological perspectives, enabling you to address the challenges and lessons to be drawn from the emerging trans-national and global perspectives that are gathering influence and relevance in contemporary discourses. As well as studying a number of core units, a diverse range of fascinating optional units will enable you to tailor a pathway of study that is most relevant to your interests and career aspirations.
The MSc Criminology and Criminal Justice is suitable for graduates of Criminology, Social Sciences and other relevant disciplines, and will equip you with the skills and knowledge to enter a career across the range of criminal justice provision, in both domestic and international contexts. The course also aims to enhance the performance of professionals already established in the criminal justice arena, addressing the need for agencies to upgrade the knowledge and skills of their practitioners.
By furthering your qualitative and quantitative research skills, the MSc Criminology and Criminal Justice will provide a solid foundation for those of you wishing to later undertake subsequent research at MPhil and PhD level. It will enable you to significantly enhance your career prospects, and to achieve a valuable and internationally respected qualification that will be attractive to a broad range of employers.
Industrial focus
Students receive guest lectures from a wide range of criminal justice professionals who give a detailed insight into the practical aspects of criminal justice and into potential career in the field.
Course content
During the first and second semester you will study a number of core and optional units, and complete a research project. Your dissertation will be planned, researched and written during the third semester over the summer period.
Core units
Contemporary and Comparative Criminology
This unit is designed to ensure that you are conversant with the contemporary criminological terrain. You will be encouraged to connect an awareness of the ‘classic criminological canon’ with contemporary developments and debates including those concerning the implications of globalization and the impact on the international appreciation of criminology.
Contemporary and Comparative Criminal Justice
This unit will examine how crime, criminal Justice policy and practices have developed across different parts of the world and how this and cross-jurisdictional approaches to crime may impact on criminal justice in England and Wales. Major international shifts will be explored relating to the process of justice and the delivery of punishment broadening understanding of the different ways in which criminal justice manifests itself in cultures of control and law enforcement to reflect on what meaning remains for national specific concepts of crime and criminal justice .
Project Design and Professional Development
This School of Human Sciences based unit is designed to raise your awareness of the theoretical and practical issues involved in developing and conducting research. In common with the complementary Methods of Inquiry in the Human Sciences, this unit offers the development of knowledge and awareness from a range of perspectives relevant to the various fields of study on the basis that you should be able to demonstrate a broad awareness of methodologies beyond those with which you have an affinity or with which you intend to practice your own research endeavours.
Methods of Inquiry in Human Sciences
The unit will cover a range of research skills and methods necessary to investigate specific areas within the human sciences. You will be exposed to a variety of quantitative and qualitative investigative techniques, and the epistemological framework that underpins them. There is a central focus on research ethics and the application of research to policy and practice.
Masters Project
The Masters Project is where you will design, execute and present an individually demanding piece of work that deploys a systematic and in-depth understanding of the skills and debates relevant to their particular discipline of study. The template for the Project will be negotiated via a proposal that will be discussed with the supervisor to ensure that a researchable project exists.
Optional units
Contemporary Penology
This unit will provide students with a critical understanding of consistencies, contradictions and conflicts inherent in current penal policy in the 21st Century. Key discources and debates will be examined to critically engage with diversity and divison centred on poverty, social exclusion, race, gender and age.
Comparative Legal Systems
This unit will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of legal systems with the emphasis on criminal law in the global environment.
Comparative law will be examined in terms of its historical context, development and more recent issues which have created new challenges within the discipline. It will give an insight into the diversity of the legal systems in the world, with an in-depth examination into some of the major legal systems.
Comparative International Policing
This unit aims to provide students with an understanding of the international nature of policing. Specific consideration will be given to the globalised character of crime, its international affect upon the policing of nations causing the adoption of co-operation, investigation and prevention beyond localised jurisdiction.
Political Violence, Terrorism and Security
This unit aims to provide students with and understanding of the history and modern nature of terrorism. Attention will be given to the long standing problem of defining terrorism and historical cases will be studied to provide a wider context. The unit will focus on the root causes of terrorist conflicts, urban terrorism in Western Europe, the birth of global terrorism, Al-Qaeda and the global war on terror and will pose the question is the war on terror winnable?
Researching Historic and ‘True Crime’
This unit is designed to equip students to appreciate the cultural significance of criminal cases in popular memory through a critical analysis of historic and ‘true crime’ representations. Further, the unit will encourage students to develop skills in researching criminal cases and their representation using official and historical resources, and detailed critical analysis of popular narratives in a range of media. Students will be encouraged to engage in independent research using text-based and on-line and on-site archival materials.
Drugs, Crime and Justice
The unit will cover a range of critical issues relating to illegal drugs in the global and domestic context. In particular, it will focus on: the development of drug controls and drug policy within political, economic, and social structures; the links between production, trafficking, organised crime and terrorism; the links between theoretical perspectives, policy and practice; and the nature and context of criminal justice interventions.
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Assessment
You will be taught by friendly, experienced tutors from a variety of professional backgrounds in the criminal agencies, who pride themselves on providing students with excellent support and encouragement.
Your knowledge will be developed via lectures, seminars and workshops. You will also participate in group work, independent writing and research, group projects and discussions. You will be assessed via a number of 3,500 word assignments and individual and group presentations, in addition to a 20,000 word dissertation.
Key career skills
Research methods, critical analysis and interpretation of information, communication, teamwork and leadership.
Projects/work experience
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Internships with the Association of Chief Police Officers Criminal Records Office (ACRO)
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Temporary paid employment, where available, within the criminal justice sector
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Witness and Victim Services
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Probation
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Youth Offending Teams
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Other voluntary positions within the Criminal Justice process.
A 10 day comparative visit to the USA is also planned. The students will go during the Christmas break and visit key criminal justice agencies (e.g. the FBI, New Jersey State Police etc.), attend lectures and exchange views and ideas with the students of Ocean County College and Monmouth University. Note that this trip is open to all on the Criminology Programme but will require students to pay for their travel and subsistence.
Solent's special features
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The majority of our lecturers have an extensive professional background in the criminal agencies, and you will benefit from their range of expertise across a broad range of topics. To complement their professional backgrounds, our teaching team enjoy a well-established reputation for its research and publications, and all have active research interests. You will also be taught by lecturers from a range of other related disciplines, such as psychology and law.
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The criminology department has strong links with local, national and international criminal justice agencies, and a regular programme of lecturers delivered by a diverse range of criminal justice professionals will provide a detailed insight into the practical aspects of criminal justice. Our undergraduate students have recently enjoyed lectures delivered by serving and former Police Detectives, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the National Offender Management Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, Judges and Magistrates.
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Our undergraduate criminology programme is one of the top performing courses in the UK for student satisfaction; students’ high regard placed it fourth out of 38 Criminology courses in the UK, according to the National Student Survey 2010.
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Study trips to complement criminological theory may be offered to a variety of relevant locations.
Fees
Fees for the 2012/13 academic year are:
Full-time
UK and EU students: £4,500 per annum
Overseas students: £11,000 per annum
Part-time
UK and EU students: £2,250 pa
Overseas students: £5,000 pa