Criminology at Leicester offers supervision for the degrees of:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - full-time and part-time

Master of Philosophy (MPhil) - full-time and part-time

These degrees are available to study on campus and the PhD is also offered by part time distance learning.

Supervision and research areas

We offer PhD and MPhil supervision in Criminology in areas compatible with the research interests of our academic staff including:

Causes of crime

Victimisation and victimology

Crime prevention and security studies

Probation, prisons and offender rehabilitation

Gender crime and violence

Hate crime and social justice

Forensic science and psychology in criminal justice

Police and policing

Security and terrorism

Interested in a different research area?

It is important that the area you want to work in is broadly compatible with our research interests - otherwise we may not be able to accept your application.

PhD description

PhD students complete an independent research project under the guidance of a supervisory team. The maximum period of registration permitted before thesis submission is 4 years full-time / 7 years part-time.

Active research (including all experimental work, laboratory work, field work, and data collection) will typically take 3 to 3.5 years full-time / 6 to 6.5 years part-time. On completion of active research students may request approval to register for a writing-up period of up to 12 months. The period of active research and writing-up together must not exceed the maximum registration period.

The thesis should not normally exceed 80,000 words and must make an original contribution to knowledge and contain work of publishable quality. The thesis must then be defended in a viva voce (oral) examination before a degree can be awarded.