Program Overview

Criminology and Criminal Justice BA (Hons)

Overview

Keele is proud to have pioneered the teaching of undergraduate Criminology in the UK. Delivered by research-active criminologists who work closely with a range of criminal justice agencies, this programme will help to prepare you for a career within areas such as policing, probation, prisons, criminal justice, and youth justice.

Why Study Criminology and Criminal Justice at Keele University?

• Keele pioneered the teaching of undergraduate Criminology in the UK
• Global Top 300 for Social Sciences (Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings, 2022)
• Focus on the application of knowledge to real-world challenges and issues in Criminal Justice
• Opportunity to take a placement year or international year, and to engage with external partner agencies as part of your studies
• No. 1 in the UK. Britain's best university, as ranked by students (Student Crowd University Awards, 2022)

Course Structure

Year 1

• Understanding Crime, Understanding Criminal Justice: This module aims to lay the foundations for your criminological studies and to ignite your ‘criminological imagination’. The module introduces you to criminology as a subject, to where our understanding of ‘crime’ comes from, and to the ways in which criminological theories and ideas can help us to understand contemporary crime problems.
• Policing, Prevention and Punishment: How and why is crime committed? How can crime be prevented, and whose responsibility is it to prevent it? How is crime investigated, and how are perpetrators identified and prosecuted? How do we punish convicted offenders, and what do we hope to gain from that punishment?
• Murder, Death and Destruction: This module introduces you to the ways in which criminologists and criminal justice professionals attempt to theorise, contextualise and respond to the most serious forms of criminal and harmful behaviour in society.
• Becoming a Social Scientist: This module transitions you to university scholarship and introduces the employability and professional skills that a social science degree provides through a range of action-focused activities.

Year 2

• Challenges and Issues in Criminal Justice: This module examines current and emerging challenges and issues in criminal justice policy, process and practice.
• Social Science Research Methods and Data Analysis: This module introduces you to the core social science of designing, implementing, and analysing social phenomenon.
• Social Science at Work: This module begins to introduce you to possible careers for social scientists and links to the work you are doing in your subject core and option modules asking the question ‘how can we mobilise academic study into the real world?’
• Crime Across Borders: This module introduces cross-border crime and the impacts of globalisation and technological innovation on crime and criminal justice.
• Prisons, Punishment, Probation: What is it like to live in or work in prison? Why do many people return to prison repeatedly? Are prisons doing more harm than good?
• Social Design: Social Design is an interdisciplinary module exploring the interplay between societal structures, human behaviour, and crime.

Year 3

• Dissertation/Criminal Justice Research Project: You will identify and explore a challenge or emerging issue in criminal justice policy and/or practice in a systematic and evidence-based manner, and develop a set of critically informed proposals for evidence-based policy and/or practice.
• Engaged Social Science: Moving on from the previous skills modules, you will further consider how your degree can link to a range of life skills and careers through engagement with community groups, activists and people working in public and private sectors.
• Policing the 21st Century: The module will explore changes, challenges and opportunities in 21st century policing relating to topics such as decision making, public protection, response policing, roads policing, vulnerability and risk, domestic abuse, counter terrorism, community policing, policing and the digital and police investigation.
• Crime Prevention, Partnerships and Community Safety: This module explores the issue of crime prevention and reduction through the lens of multi-agency partnership working involving a range of partner agencies from across criminal justice, local government, the public sector and beyond.
• Harm, Justice and Power: What, and who, is criminology for? Criminology has long debated whether it should support governments, or whether it should seek to challenge unequal power relations and systemic injustices within contemporary societies.
• Crime: from the Everyday to the Extremes: This module explores how the extreme and the everyday intermingle. It looks on the one hand, at extreme perspectives, groups, and actions, and on the other hand, discusses a range of everyday experiences of citizen involvement in processes of legal and extra-legal crime control and punishment.
• Beyond Human: Beyond Human explores social behaviour, structures, and interactions among non-human entities, such as animals, artificial intelligence, and other forms of non-human life, seeking to understand the social dynamics present in non-human societies and their interactions with human societies.

Entry Requirements

• A Level: BBC
• BTEC: DMM
• T Level: Merit
• International Baccalaureate Diploma: 554 in three Higher Levels or 29 points
• Access to HE Diploma: 112 UCAS points in any Access to HE Diploma including Distinction in at least 15 Level 3 credits
• Welsh Baccalaureate / Bagloriaeth Cymru: The Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate is equivalent to one full A Level at the same grade and can be included alongside 2 other A Levels in a standard A Level offer for this course

Fees and Funding

• UK: £9,535 for the 2025/6 academic year (subject to Parliamentary approval)
• International: Band 1, £17,700 for the 2025/26 academic year

Additional Opportunities

• Foundation year
• Placement year
• International year
• Study abroad
• GCP Elective Pathways

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

• Teaching: Criminology and Criminal Justice at Keele is taught by research active staff through diverse teaching methods and assessments
• Assessment: From essays, class tests to poster presentations, we use a broad range of assessment styles to reflect the knowledge and skills gained throughout the programme

Foundation Year

• Our Foundation Year provides an excellent alternative route to Keele, offering preparation for your chosen degree with guaranteed entry onto your undergraduate course once you successfully complete
• The Foundation Year is a two-semester programme which provides a tailored pre-degree programme of study to better prepare you for the BA (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice degree

Career Opportunities

• As a Keele graduate, you will attain various professional attributes that will enhance your career prospects, enabling you to apply your practical research skills with an understanding of crime and criminal justice systems
• Graduates of this programme may wish to pursue a career as a:
  • Police Officer
  • Youth Work
  • Probation Officer
  • Prison Officer
  • Immigration Officer
  • Social Worker
  • Solicitor
  • Community Development Worker
  • Local Government Officer
  • Civil Service
  • Government