About This Course

The course was one of the first to take an internationally comparative perspective across a broad range of criminology and criminal justice issues. It is designed to meet the needs of three groups of potential students: those requiring a thorough research training specialising in criminology and criminal justice; those who are interested in pursuing criminology and criminal justice to an advanced level; and practitioners in the criminal justice field who wish to expand their horizons from national to international levels. The programme components consist of a generic research module (The Research Process) for training in qualitative and quantitative research methods in the Social Sciences, specialised training in Applied Research Criminology and a module on international case studies in Criminology, which allows students to incorporate their particular research interests and areas of enquiry in comparative criminological and criminal justice research. The MA includes a 20,000 word dissertation.

Careers

The course prepares for a wide range of employment including:

Law-enforcement agencies: the police, customs, the prison service
Public administration: including crime prevention units, offender management, general administration, international institutions
Political associations, work for members of parliaments, for lobby groups related to the criminal justice system and to issues of social justice broadly conceived
Research institutes, researching criminological and sociological issues
Academic institutions such as universities