Criminology with Forensic Psychology MSc

Course content

What will you study on the MSc Criminology with Forensic Psychology?

The programme is constructed of five core modules covering, in turn, contemporary criminological theory, methods, issues and debates and psychological approaches towards the causes and management of offending behaviour.

Students then choose one optional module (selected from the list below) that enable a focus on areas of special interest, including institutions of criminal justice, community safety, drugs, youth and adult offending and comparative perspectives on each of these areas.

The modules cover all types of crime, including white collar crime, state crime, digital and on-line crimes, sexual and violent crimes, discrimination and hate crime, drugs, terrorism issues and policing, as well as looking in depth at the criminal justice system and its different institutions.

Students are able to work in computer labs on specialist information retrieval, and gain data analysis skills with the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the qualitative data analysis package NVivo.

In addition, all students complete a 15,000-word research Dissertation under the supervision of a member of staff on a topic they choose, drawing on both criminological and psychological perspectives.

Not all of the optional modules listed will be available in any one year. Module availability is dependent on staffing and the number of students wishing to take each module.

This module forms the core of the MSc Criminology with Forensic Psychology. It has two major aims. First, the module aims to get you to engage in a discussion of major theoretical trends and debates in contemporary criminology, with particular attention to the links between these perspectives and criminal justice research, practice and policy-making. Your studies will interrogate theoretical criminology in a dynamic way, in dialogue with the social and political contexts of its production and circulation in our increasingly interdependent world. The second aim of the module is to equip you with basic knowledge and skills in contemporary criminological research methods. In this section of your studies you’ll combine conceptual sessions on the main qualitative and quantitative methods deployed in criminological research with practical exercises tailored to familiarise you with computer-assisted data analysis software.

This module forms the core of the MSc Criminology with Forensic Psychology course. In this module you’ll use the criminal justice system and its different institutions to critically examine contemporary issues, debates and policy relating to crime control, the processing of defendants through the criminal courts, sentencing and punishment. You will explore shifts and changes in criminal justice responses to assess whether we are witnessing an era of tightening and punitive crime control policy. The module takes as a central underpinning that we live in a world of enhanced ‘securitisation’ along with emerging and sophisticated ‘risk’ identification and offender management strategies; in turn having a bearing on who, and how people enter the criminal justice system. It incorporates the intersections of migration and criminal justice, how gender, race and class interact with the criminal justice system, sentencing and imprisonment trends, and new considerations of restorative and integrative justice. The module takes a comparative perspective to assist an understanding of different approaches and responses to crime, offenders and criminal justice in other European and international jurisdictions, and to consider whether they provide ideas for alternative policies in this area. You’ll study this module alongside the core module ‘Psychological Interventions and Responses to Offending’ and visits to the criminal courts and one of HM Prisons embed learning across both modules.

This module aims to develop your understanding of fundamental psychological explanations of criminal behaviour, its aetiology, and its ramifications in determining criminal justice and penal responses and/or psychological treatment interventions. You will examine the synergies and connections between criminology and psychology (in particular forensic psychology), and look at how these disciplines feed into each other. We will examine psychological explanations for violence and sexual violence, and how these fit within theories that have arisen from within criminology. Finally, you will look at key contributions psychology has made to our understanding of offenders, the investigative process, and offender management.

This module is core to the MSc Criminology with Forensic Psychology programme and aims to develop your understanding of how psychology interacts with the criminal justice system. You will consider the psychological and psycho-social dimensions of crime and offending, and the psycho-judicial reactions to it. The module will require you to look at key contributions psychology makes to criminal justice and its related institutions – from delinquency interventions, ‘therapeutic jurisprudence’ and specialist courts, how we understand offenders’ experiences of prison, and specialist offender assessment tools and behavioural treatment programmes both within the community and in prison settings. Through an analysis of the relationship between decisions made at different stages of the criminal justice system, such as by the police, the courts, the parole board, and the implications of those decisions at subsequent stages in the legal process, you’ll be encouraged to reflect upon the application of psychology to the practice of criminal justice.

A core module for the MSc Criminology with Forensic Psychology programme, this module will acquaint you with the principal qualitative and quantitative research methodologies deployed in criminological and psychological enquiry. This module will develop and advance your knowledge and critical appreciation of research enquiry, interpretation and practice. It will equip you with the core skills involved in developing, conducting, analysing and presenting criminological and psychological research findings.

This module aims to provide you with the opportunity to develop a detailed and advanced understanding of a particular aspect of criminology, criminal justice and forensic psychology. You will define your own topic area, write a proposal for your dissertation work, conduct a comprehensive review of existing knowledge on the subject, formulate a methodology for conducting your own enquiries and write an in-depth report of the findings of your research. Alternatively, you may choose to conduct a theoretically oriented piece of work involving the systematic analysis of an issue or area of policy/practice.

The module aims to provide you with an opportunity to undertake work experience commensurate with your postgraduate level of study and, by so doing, to advance your knowledge, critical thinking and understanding to an appropriate level. You will be provided with an opportunity to work alongside key decision makers in organisations where global governance occurs. Providing an alternative to the dissertation credit for your degree, the Practicum will enable you to develop advanced insight into core issues in global governance, developing your capacity for problem solving, interpretation and critical construction of knowledge.

Crime and disorder reduction remains a dominant issue on local and national governments' agendas. This module enables you to understand and analyse developments in crime and disorder reduction in urban localities though partnership working. You’ll examine crime and 'disorder' in its sociospatial aspects, exploring 'urban' and 'neighbourhood' dimensions of crime in the contemporary context, local modes of regulation and national-level policies to deal with neighbourhood problems, their problems and merits. Alongside the theoretical background to crime reduction, you will critically review applied practitioner solutions to crime prevention and reduction in a partnership context. The module prepares you with an understanding of key issues of public protection in the partnership context, including the National Offender Management Service (NOMS); risk assessment with regards to victims of crime; compliance to national standards; a critical appraisal of 'What Works' with offenders, tackling offending behaviour and restorative justice. The learning outcomes will enable you to develop a detailed knowledge and understanding of the theoretical and policy concepts relevant to practice within the criminal justice system.

The module will be delivered at HMP Wandsworth and provides a unique experience that involves reflection on the learning journey and the meaning of learning with, and from others. Using the criminal justice system to examine contemporary issues and debates relating to crime control, the criminal courts and sentencing, and theories of punishment and imprisonment the module focuses on the criminal justice system as a series of interlinked institutions in which ideas of rehabilitation, system reform, and social justice are embedded.

With increasing amounts of social activity taking place on the Internet cybercrime is becoming an important area of study. By exploring the history, nature and patterns of cybercrime this module introduces you to the sociological and criminological study of crime on the Internet. Through a series of examples and case studies of Internet related crime you’ll be required to consider the diversity of cybercrime as well as its prevention and detection.

What is cybercrime? What criminological theories can we use to explain cybercrime? What harm does cybercrime cause? How do people become victims of cybercrime? How is cybercrime policed? How can cybercrime prevented? These are some of the questions that you will tackle in class.

This module is designed to provoke you to critically analyse selected issues in the study of cybercrime and its control. This aim translates into the following objectives:

• To provide you with a critical introduction to the concept of cybercrime;
• To examine the impact of cybercrime on contemporary society;
• To develop an understanding of the relationship between developments in information technology and social harm;
• To understand how the study of cybercrime challenges existing criminological theories and criminal law;
• To develop your critical and written communication skills in relation to cybercrime issues;
• To help you develop independent research and learning

This module aims to help you develop advanced skills in the application of criminological theories and concepts in relation to drugs, drug use, and drugs control and in critically analysing the relationship between drugs and crime. You will critically evaluate the laws, policies and institutions of drugs control within their social, political and economic contexts and compare and contrast the role of the criminal justice system in responding to drugs in various countries. The module also aims to get you to foster a critical interest in the reform of drugs control policy and institutions at both national and international levels.

This core module on the MA Environmental Law and Justice critically evaluates perspectives on green criminology, and crimes against the environment (including animals). It considers contemporary perspectives on green offending, the regulation of environmental problems, and global perspectives on green crimes, green criminality and the effectiveness of justice systems in resolving environmental problems. It also adopts a critical approach to theoretical debates on animal rights, the legal personhood of animals, and the tension between the continued exploitation of natural resources and the prosecution of environmental crime. In this module you will also critically examine the link between environmental offending and mainstream crimes, including the link between violence towards animals and violence towards humans and the extent to which corporate environmental crime constitutes a ‘crime of the powerful’ or a corporate-state crime. The module will require you to critically examine theoretical concepts and practical considerations in environmental justice and consider how examining environmental harms inevitably results in a wider definition of green ‘crime’ than simply considering those activities defined as such by the criminal law. The module will also help you to develop knowledge and skills appropriate to working in the environmental justice sector with NGOs, local authorities and other policy and enforcement bodies.

This module aims to engage you in exploring criminological issues from a global perspective, particularly in respect of contemporary debates on the policing of transnational problems and the development of global policing. The module considers policing in a wide rather than narrow context identifying that the changing nature of crime and crime control in a 'globalised' world and the emergence of crimes which transcend national borders requires a globalised approach to crime and justice. The module provides you with a comparative analysis of different countries' approaches to and systems for dealing with crime and the 'globalisation' of criminal justice and explores global policing systems. The module seeks to equip you to undertake your own international and or comparative research and analysis informed by the overarching and illustrative themes and questions raised in lectures and seminars.

In this module you’ll critically evaluate contemporary perspectives on human rights and justice systems. You’ll learn to critically explore concepts, debates, literature (i.e. recent research and policy material) related to the operation of human rights within the British criminal justice system and internationally. It will foster engaged and critical thinking about human rights in terms of its impact on the operation of the criminal justice system and the wider application of human rights discourse to issues such as free speech and environmental protection and ecological justice. In this module you’ll consider the apparent conflict between contemporary perspectives on human rights and the administration of justice systems as well as wider issues relating to how both theoretical and practical conceptions of human rights impact on the extent to which respect for rights is embedded into justice policy. You’ll be required to adopt a critical approach to theoretical debates on human rights, justice, and the tension between state justice policies and the rights of individuals and marginalized groups.The module aims to allow postgraduate students to engage with a range of issues that they are likely to encounter in contemporary practice settings. The module requires you to critically examine theoretical concepts and practical considerations in human rights and will appeal to anyone seeking an academic and technical exposure to human rights prior to undertaking doctoral work. The module also helps you to develop knowledge and skills appropriate to working in the NGO sector, local authorities and other policy and enforcement bodies within the public justice sector that are bound by the provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998 and whose decisions and actions are ultimately amenable to challenge on human rights grounds.

In this module you will explore issues under the inter-related headings Interpersonal Violence and Hate Crime ranging from domestic violence to far right extremism in both real world and virtual settings. The late twentieth and early twenty first century has seen a growing focus on these issues and in this module you will examine why this is the case, highlighting transformations in the economy, technology, social structure and social relations, the emergence of identity politics and the development of new academic discourses and theoretical perspectives. Within this overarching context, you’ll examine different forms of interpersonal violence and hate crime. This will include analysis of the contested knowledge base from which estimates and accounts of their nature and extent can be drawn. Finally, the module will also ask you to critically evaluate policy and practice relevant to these issues, questioning the extent to which existing responses are adequate and effective.

Placement learning aims to link your academic studies to a placement organisation providing an opportunity for you to apply, consolidate and develop skills and knowledge from University to the placement and future employment