Course summary

Students studying criminology at Brunel will be taught by academic staff who are themselves actively engaged in criminological research activities – an experience which enriches the already substantial and supportive learning resources that are on offer to our students. Criminology is a fast moving constantly evolving subject which reflects current social, political and public disputes. Therefore, students are provided with opportunities and the resources needed to assist them in developing an increased awareness and appreciation of their own values and those of their cultural and political environment, and an understanding of how alternative values impact upon rival interpretations of evidence. The criminology department at Brunel both recognises and emphasises the importance of theory that is based on evidence and encourages students to engage in critical evaluation of concepts of crime and deviance, including state crime, crimes of the powerful, crime prevention, security, and crime control policies, as well as other responses to crime and deviance. It nurtures a lively debate and dialogue between a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives, employing both quantitative and qualitative data in considering the distribution of crime, and processes of criminalisation and victimisation over space and time. As a forward-thinking critical criminology degree student will be encouraged to engage in debates about race, gender, migration, social harms, green criminology and a wide variety of other current topics while being furnished with the necessary research training in both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis to engage with and challenge debates as they evolve. The programme sets out from a broad multi-disciplinary Social Sciences content at FHEQ Level 4 where criminology students will be studying alongside sociology students in some modules as well as on criminology specific modules and then to a more focussed disciplinary content at FHEQ Level 5, and more specific thematic content at FHEQ Level 6, where students are encouraged to personalize their studies through their choice of a range of advanced optional modular blocks.