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Criminology and Criminal Justice at University of Portsmouth - UCAS

Course options

2023 - 20242024 - 2025
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There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

University of Portsmouth has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework.These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.

What does this TEF outcome mean?

Course summary

Overview Why do people commit crimes? And what should we do about it? From offender to victim, punishment to rehabilitation, this BSc (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice degree asks questions about the causes and consequences of crime. The answers may surprise you. They’ll certainly help you choose the right career path. As you become an expert on the criminal justice system in England and Wales, you’ll develop skills for a range of careers – from policing and prisons, to probation and rehabilitation, as well as roles fighting fraud in the private sector or influencing Government policy. And because crime doesn’t respect borders, this course also gives you a uniquely international perspective. Course highlights

  • Explore the latest national and international debates and research in topics as varied as hate crime, state crime, terrorism, gang crime and victimology
  • Get career-ready with an emphasis on skills and employability, including volunteering opportunities with organisations such as Hampshire Constabulary and local charities like Aurora New Dawn (supporting victims of crime) and Read and Grow Society (helping ex-offenders learn to read)
  • Learn from an international team whose experience spans law and criminal justice, policing, probation and more – including a former private detective doing important research into missing persons and an expert in European responses to domestic violence
  • Join lively debates in one of the country’s largest criminology departments and contribute your own ideas on how we should respond to crime as a society
  • Build a professional network by meeting practitioners from criminal justice agencies, businesses and charities
  • Customise your degree to match your ambitions: some modules reduce the amount to time you’d need to train for a policing career or as a probation officer ​
Careers and opportunities Crime is a fact of life, which means there will always be career opportunities around preventing it and dealing with the fallout. As our graduates’ career paths show, you’ll complete this course with a range of different professional routes open to you in the public, private and charitable sectors. There is good demand for jobs in the criminal justice and penal sector. For example, Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has developed a Probation Workforce Strategy to recruit skilled people to probation officer roles and invest in ongoing professional development. You'll graduate with the skills and knowledge you need to work in the police, probation and prison services in areas such as:
  • community safety
  • crime prevention
  • fraud investigation
  • youth offending teams
You'll also have relevant skills or knowledge to progress into other areas such as:
  • counter fraud roles in banking, the NHS or the DWP
  • economic crime investigation
  • policy analysis and formulation for councils or the Government
  • community rehabilitation
  • postgraduate study and research
Graduate destinations Our graduates have worked for organisations including:
  • Hampshire Constabulary, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley Police, South Wales Police, Kent Police
  • National Probation Service
  • G4S
  • Financial service companies
Roles our previous graduates have gone onto include:
  • investigative data analyst
  • police officer
  • probation service officer
  • youth offending support officer
  • offender case administrator
  • detective
  • personnel security analyst
  • private investigator
  • witness service team leader
Ongoing careers support Towards the end of your degree and for up to five years after graduation, you’ll receive one-to-one support from our Graduate Recruitment Consultancy to help you find your perfect role

Modules

Year 1 Core modules in this year include:

  • Crime and Society
  • Criminal Justice
  • Essential Skills for Criminologists
  • Psychology for Criminologists
  • Understanding Criminology
There are no optional modules in this year. Year 2 Core modules in this year include:
  • Comparative Criminal Justice
  • Questioning Criminology
  • Researching Criminology
Optional modules in this year currently include:
  • Crimes of the Powerful
  • Empire and its Afterlives in Britain, Europe and Africa
  • Engaged Citizenship in Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Forensic Developmental Psychology
  • Fundamentals of Forensic Investigation
  • Gang Crime
  • Global Environmental Justice
  • Global Security
  • Hate Crime
  • Intercultural Perspectives on Communication
  • Introduction to Teaching
  • Marketing and Communication
  • Missing Persons: Issues and Investigation
  • Modern Foreign Language
  • Modernity and Globalisation
  • Nationalism and Migration: Chaos, Crisis and the Everyday
  • News, Discourse and Media
  • Penology and Prison
  • Policing and Society
  • Principles of Economic Crime Investigation
  • Psychology and Security
  • Space, Place and Being
  • Transitional Justice and Human Rights
  • Underworlds: Crime, Deviance and Punishment in Britain, 1500-1900
  • Victims of Crime: Key Players in Criminal Justice
  • Wildlife Crime: Threats and Response
  • Youth Crime, Youth Justice
Placement year (Optional) On this course, you can do an optional work placement year between your 2nd and 3rd years to get valuable experience working in industry. We’ll help you secure a work placement that fits your situation and ambitions. You’ll get mentoring and support throughout the year. Year 3 Core modules in this year include:
  • Contemporary Criminologies
  • Criminal Justice and Human Rights
  • Dissertation / Major Project
Optional modules in this year currently include:
  • Applied Penology
  • Black Criminology, Race and the Criminal Justice System
  • Contemporary Terrorism and the Global Response
  • Crime and New Technologies: Theory and Practice
  • Dangerous Offenders and Public Protection
  • Economic Crime and Fraud Examination
  • Forensic Psychology: Investigation
  • Gender and Crime
  • Green Crime and Environmental Justice
  • Information Security Management
  • Intelligence Analysis
  • Introduction to Teaching
  • Management of Criminal Investigations
  • Miscarriages of Justice
  • Money Laundering and Compliance
  • Policing: Communities, Intelligence and Information
  • Policing: Law, Policy and Practice
  • Political Extremism
  • Professional Development: Recruiters and Candidates
  • Professional Experience
  • Treatment and Rehabilitation of Offenders
  • True Crime - The Making of a Genre
We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies. Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Assessment method

You’ll be assessed through: coursework examinations presentations group projects a dissertation or major project You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark. You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future. The way you’re assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows: Year 1 students: 18% by written exams, 7% by practical exams and 75% by coursework Year 2 students: 10% by practical exams and 90% by coursework Year 3 students: 8% by written exams, 13% by practical exams and 79% by coursework

How to apply

31Jan

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Application codes

Course code:
M930
Institution code:
P80
Campus name:
Main Site
Campus code:
-

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3

Entry requirements for advanced entry (i.e. into Year 2 and beyond)

We welcome applications for advanced entry. If you’d like to apply for advanced entry, you need to select the required year when you complete your UCAS application.

This course may be available at alternative locations, please check if other course options are available

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements

English language requirements

TestGradeAdditional details
IELTS (Academic)6English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.0 with no component score below 5.5.
PTE Academic54An overall score of 54 with a minimum of 51 in each skill.
TOEFL (iBT)7979 with a minimum of 18 in Reading, 17 in Listening, 20 in Speaking and 17 in Writing.
Cambridge English AdvancedCambridge English: Advanced (CAE) taken after January 2015. An overall score of 169 with no component score less than 162.
Cambridge English ProficiencyCambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) taken after January 2015. An overall score of 169 with no component score less than 162.
Trinity ISEPassTrinity College Integrated Skills in English (ISE) Level III with a Pass in all 4 components

Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students
80%
Employment after 15 months (Most common jobs)
95%
Go onto work and study

The number of student respondents and response rates can be important in interpreting the data – it is important to note your experience may be different from theirs. This data will be based on the subject area rather than the specific course. Read more about this data on the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

EU £9250 Year 1
England £9250 Year 1
Northern Ireland £9250 Year 1
Scotland £9250 Year 1
Wales £9250 Year 1
Channel Islands £9250 Year 1
Republic of Ireland £9250 Year 1
International £18100 Year 1

Additional fee information

Students who are resident in EU countries: please note that the net fee is inclusive of the Transition Scholarship Placement Year and Year abroad: UK/Channel Islands and Isle of Man students – £925 | EU – £925 (including Transition Scholarship)| International (Non-EU) – £2,000. Fees are accurate at the time of publishing and are subject to change at any time without notice. Fees may also go up in later years, in line with inflation. For more information about fees, go to port.ac.uk/ug-tuition-fees
Criminology and Criminal Justice at University of Portsmouth - UCAS