Program Overview

MA Criminal Justice

Why study this course with LJMU?

• Learn from research-active staff and local criminal justice professionals
• Engage with the theory, policy, and practice of the institutions and agencies of criminal justice
• Choose from an extensive range of module options
• Generous funding scholarships available for home and overseas students
• Ideal for undergraduates and those currently working with or would like a career involving criminal justice agencies
• Part Time Study Option

About this course

LJMU's Criminal Justice masters is a stand-alone qualification designed to enhance your career prospects in criminal justice agencies, the probation service, the police and third sector agencies.

The MA Criminal Justice programme offers the opportunity for undergraduates, practitioners, and criminal justice professionals to critically engage with a broad range of issues that impact on the effectiveness and integrity of the workings of the criminal justice system.

Through exploring a series of theoretical and policy-orientated debates relevant to the delivery of contemporary crime control and management, and assessing their cultural, social and symbolic consequences, the course helps you to develop a comprehensive and critically aware understanding of the manufacture and delivery of criminal justice policy.

During the programme you will evaluate discriminatory practice in the criminal justice process and the causes of miscarriages of justice. Your evaluations will be informed by a critical understanding of sources of data and research methodologies and, through option modules, you will develop an in-depth knowledge of particular issues relating to criminal justice in England, Wales and elsewhere.

Course modules

Core modules

• Researching Crime and Criminal Justice (30 credits)
  • This module aims to give you a comprehensive and critical guide to both the theory and practice of research on crime and the criminal justice process.
  • It aims to prepare you for the compulsory dissertation on the MA Criminal Justice course, enable you to develop an advanced and critical knowledge of the key ontological, epistemological and methodological issues that impact on research into crime and criminal justice, consider and demonstrate a critical appreciation of the particular research theories, and methods of data collection and analysis, which researchers use to study crime and criminal justice, and examine and demonstrate advanced and critical understanding of issues relating to the politics and ethics of crime and criminal justice research.
• Key Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice (30 credits)
  • This module aims to provide you with the opportunity to critically analyse key issues in contemporary criminal justice at an advanced level.
  • It helps you develop advanced knowledge and critical understanding of specific issues relating to the principles and practice of criminal justice in England and Wales.

Optional modules

• Sex, Crime and Society (20 credits)
  • This module will critically evaluate the phenomenon of sexual offences from a variety of perspectives: historical and modern; social/cultural; ethical and moral; political.
  • Within these contexts, the criminalisation of sexual behaviour will be evaluated and the law applied critically to specific factual situations.
  • The module aims to develop a knowledge and understanding of the principles, policies and doctrines relating to the criminalisation and de-criminalisation of sexual, and sexually-related behaviour within society, and provide a critical analysis of the rationale for, and scope of, a selective range of sexual offences in their socio-legal context.
• Drugs, Alcohol and Criminal Justice (20 credits)
  • This module aims to develop your understanding of drug and alcohol use within contemporary society.
  • It deconstructs the drug and alcohol status quo so you can acknowledge the complexities and contradictions that exist within this sphere.
  • It aims to provide a broad critical understanding of the different paradigms and perspectives on substance (mis)use and relevant policy in relation to crime and criminal justice, set a critical socio-cultural scene for you to build up a comprehensive picture of drug and alcohol use within contemporary capitalist society, develop your understanding of drug policy and critically consider the rationale and motivations that mould policy developments within this sphere, and develop your knowledge of how drug and alcohol users are responded to within a criminal justice context.
• Youth Justice (20 credits)
  • This module aims to give you a critical, theoretically-informed and socially-orientated grounding in the study of youth justice.
  • It enables you to develop an analytical approach to understanding the treatment and experiences of young people within, and at the hands of, the criminal justice system, consider the historical basis of the youth justice system and how political influence has played a significant role in the current development of youth justice policy, and critically compare youth justice policy and practice in England and Wales.
• The Sociology of Policing (20 credits)
  • This module seeks to critically explore the complex and dynamic relationship between policing services/agents and members of the diverse public these organisations serve.
  • It will help you develop a critical appreciation of the historical and conceptual development of modern policing forms, evaluate contemporary policing structures/methods
    etworks, and explore future challenges for service provision.
• Research Dissertation (60 credits)
  • The aim of this module is to explore the complex and dynamic relationship between policing services/agents and members of the diversity of publics these organisations serve.
  • It seeks to help you to develop a critical appreciation of the historical and conceptual development of modern policing forms, evaluate contemporary policing structures/methods
    etworks, and explore future challenges for service provision.
  • It encourages you to engage with the evolving and multi-faceted challenges facing the workings of one of the key institutions of criminal justice, whilst also exploring the emerging ethical, moral and practical concerns raised by the increasingly powerful played by the private and quasi-private forms of policing and security management, and improves your understanding of the role the police as an organisation, in shaping notions of belonging, citizenship and identity.
• Advanced Critical Criminology (20 credits)
  • This module is designed to examine the social construction of crime.
  • It aims to provide a balance between theoretical perspectives and empirical, practical knowledge about the power imbalances in society, critically examine the relationship between these imbalances and crime (reported and unreported), as well as the criminal justice system's responses to them, and equip you with the skills required to demonstrate a critical understanding of crimes involving the abuse of social and/or individual power.
• Delivering Rehabilitation (20 credits)
  • This module critically evaluates, at an advanced level, the role and function of the prison and probation services in relation to the delivery of state punishment and rehabilitation.
  • It aims to critically reflect on the values and principles that underpin the delivery of contemporary penal policy through the creation of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), and scrutinise the extent to which contemporary penal policy and practice actually delivers a more systematic approach to the management of offenders.
• International Dissertation (60 credits)
  • This module allows students to showcase their knowledge of an international criminal justice issue, enabling them to create a well-structured and extensive assignment that demonstrates critical thinking and the use of suitable research methods.

Your Learning Experience

• Teaching Assessment
• Study hours: Typically, students attend teaching on two or three days per week. Days of attendance vary according to timetabling requirements.
• Part time study students study over two years and typically have a longer period for their dissertation module in their second year.
• Teaching methods: Teaching is delivered through a series of lectures, workshops and seminars by expert staff and local criminal justice professionals.
• Applied learning: Through exploring a series of theoretical and policy-orientated debates relevant to the delivery of contemporary crime control and management, and assessing their cultural, social and symbolic consequences, the course helps you to develop a comprehensive and critically aware understanding of the manufacture and delivery of criminal justice policy.
• How learning is monitored on your programme: To cater for the wide-ranging content of our courses and the varied learning preferences of our students, we offer a range of assessment methods on each programme.
• Assessment methods on this course include essays, projects, portfolios, dissertation and presentations.

Career paths

• Further your career prospects
• LJMU has an excellent employability record with 94% (HESA 2022) of our postgraduates in work or further study fifteen months after graduation.
• Our applied learning techniques and strong industry connections ensure our students are fully prepared for the workplace on graduation and understand how to apply their knowledge in a real world context.
• The Masters in Criminal Justice offers vocationally relevant knowledge and skills.
• It will be particularly relevant if you are currently working with or would like a career involving criminal justice agencies, the probation service, social science departments, the police, community-based correction/treatment and third sector agencies.

Tuition fees and funding

• Home: £9,545
• International: £17,750
• Fees: The fees quoted above cover registration, tuition, supervision, assessment and examinations as well as library membership and student IT support with access to printed, multimedia and digital resources including programme-appropriate software and on campus wifi.
• Financial Support: There are many ways to fund postgraduate study for home and international students. From loans to International Scholarships and subject-specific funding, you’ll find all of the information you need on our specialist postgraduate funding pages.
• Additional Costs: In addition to fees, students should also keep in mind the cost of accommodation, travel costs and field trips unless paid for by LJMU, stationery, IT equipment, professional body membership and graduation gown hire.

Entry requirements

• Qualification requirements:
  • A minimum 2:2 ideally in Criminal Justice, Criminology, Sociology, Law or related Social Science and Humanities subjects
• Alternative qualifications considered:
  • To demonstrate a comparable academic standard through past studies and/or where work experience
• Plus:
  • A genuine enthusiasm to study issues related to the organisation and delivery of criminal justice
• International requirements:
  • IELTS 6.5 (Minimum of 5.5 in each component)
  • Other international requirements: International students entering on a Student visa cannot study part-time
• Further information:
  • Extra Requirements: RPL is accepted on this programme
  • RPL: RPL is accepted on this programme

How to apply

• To apply for this programme, you are required to complete an LJMU online application form.
• You will need to provide details of previous qualifications and a personal statement outlining why you wish to study this programme.