STUDY

This module introduces you to key university academic skills to set yourself up for the rest of your degree. You will develop your academic skills through practical activities and tasks that relate to your degree. You will also explore core concepts and principles that underpin research in the social sciences. The module has a developmental approach to learning and teaching reinforced through regularly meetings in small groups with your tutor.  

This module gives you a solid foundation in criminology using a topic-based approach. You will examine how we can make sense of crime and criminality and explore key areas of debate and controversy within the discipline of criminology. Crime dominates much discussion on the political and social stage and this module enables you to take part and contribute to these public discussions in an informed and knowledgeable way. You will be able to discuss the cause and nature of crime and criminality. Important practical data skills of mapping crime data are a key part in this module.  

This module explores the links between criminology and psychology. You will explore key psychological approaches and perspectives to understand how human behaviour is influenced by biological, behavioural, cognitive, and psychoanalytical processes.  

The focus of the module is to provide you with a grounding in the fundamentals of psychology to complement your understanding of criminology.  

All criminal activity is defined by laws that flow through a political process and this module aims to explore how political institutions, debates, ideas and policy debates shape the definition and response to crime. You will explore how different political choices are framed and implemented in the UK. You will explore the links between political ideas, institutions such as parliament and the branches of government along with wider questions and debates about justice and punishment.  

Sociology is a subject that provides an analysis of the modern social world. It is also a subject that came into being with that modern world. This module introduces you to key features of the sociological perspective and what many call the sociological imagination. It is concerned with making the everyday strange and the far away near to gain a better grasp on key aspects of social life. This leads into a key concern of sociology with questions of power and inequality. Students will be able to engage with key debates about the nature of inequality and power using contemporary examples and analysis.  

Contemporary criminal justice is shaped by the past and this module provides you with the historical context to better understand contemporary criminological debates. You will have an introduction to the history of crime, crime control and punishment in England and Wales, Europe, the Islamic and Asian world as well as ancient Rome and Greece. The module reflects the interdisciplinary nature of criminology. Using scholarship from criminology, philosophy and humanities the module will locate contemporary debates within a wider historical context and help you develop a critical understanding of today’s crime issues and questions.  

This module grounds you in the principles of social science research and methods employed to find out about our social world. You will explore the research process and focus on specific methods that interest you and relate to your field of study. This will include being able develop and analyse social surveys and questionnaires, use interviews, and explore already existing data sources. You will gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to undertake independent, ethical and robust research in the social sciences. This module is an important stepping stone to your final year independent project module. 

Being able to answer why questions about crime and deviance is an essential part of the study of criminology. This module builds upon the foundations laid in the module Introduction to Criminology. You will explore the range of theories used to explain crime and criminal behaviour and the theoretical debates around three broad levels of criminological explanation: the individual, the situational, and the structural. You will also explore more recent approaches that centre on green crime and the relationship to wider society and a range of political and social issues.  

This module examines youth crime from competing criminological perspectives. It evaluates the association between young people and crime in historical, sociological and legal perspective. You will explore how social constructions of youth and crime shaped criminal justice policy and systems. You will develop and in-depth consideration of the procedures, policies and social challenges of youth crime with lots of examples and case studies. The focus will be on the United Kingdom but with significant comparative analysis to show you similarities and differences in how youth crime is framed. 

You will explore the considerable changes in the governance and perceived legitimacy of the police service, its accountability and the relationships with the public whose consent is sought for policing over the last 50 years. You will relate the development of policing to wider systems of formal and informal social control relate and explore changes over time. You will discuss the range of interactions of the police with other institutions of social control in modern society such as welfare, education, health, or even financial agencies as well as newer forms of private policing.  

This module examines the institutions, practices and processes that make up the criminal justice system.  You will focus on policing, the courts, the penal system and the probation service but also analyse the social, economic and political factors that underpins the values, practices and processes of these institutions. There has been much discussion about the nature of criminal justice and the apparent failure of key institutions to deliver justice, protection for the public and the punishment of criminals. You will explore the role of the media, public opinion and political expedience in these debates.  

This module introduces you to key concepts, modes of reasoning, systems and practices that make up the English legal system and aspects of criminal law. You will explore the key elements of common law reasoning and statutory interpretation, the main features of the English legal system with particular reference to criminal law. In practical terms, the module engages with the interpretation and application of cases and statutes, with analytical appreciation of competing interpretations of the law in relation to practical scenarios. You will be able to respond to problem questions and develop presentation skills appropriate to the study of law. 

This module allows you to engage with selected contemporary issues, debates and perspectives in criminology. Based primarily on weekly seminar discussion of an identified journal article, book chapter, or report, the module will focus on critical analysis, appreciation and discussion of each issue and facilitate engagement with broader subject areas of criminology. Students will develop a critical overview of the discipline as it stands and the extent to which it is equipped or willing to engage with certain types of crime. Some topics will allow introductory insights into emerging, specialist fields of enquiry. Recent issues explore include sex work, pornography, left and right wing extremism, black criminology, gendered victimisation, and pre-empting crime 

Social theory allows you to dig deep into the big questions in our social world about how power works, what is the glue that keeps society together most of the time and how and why do societies change. You will harness the power of thinking theoretically to be creative, tackle contemporary issues and open new insights into your social world. We will do this through the ideas of important theorists from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a few will be familiar like Weber, Du Bois or Durkheim but many new such as Archer, Latour, Chodorow or Luhmann. You will engage with the insightful, often challenging and sometimes counter-intuitive perspectives that come from a range of contemporary social theorists. 

Getting meaningful work is probably one of your key aim when you graduate. Work and employment are also one of the central areas of interest across the social sciences. You will explore your current and future career aspirations, develop a CV and be able to undertake a work placement of work shadowing. You will also complete the Future me programme at the University of Suffolk as part of the module.

In this module you will produce a final year project that allows you to exercise your independent judgement and skills in the development and execution of a project or dissertation relevant to your field of study. Under the supervision of an assigned tutor, the module provides you with the opportunity to independently apply the core subject knowledge and skills developed over the course of your degree. Over the course of the year you will undertake independent analysis and research, and communicate and present it to high professional standards. This project can take the form of a traditional research dissertation, but you also have the flexibility to undertake an alternative, such as a reflective report based on an independent project pursued in a practice / work setting. 

Penology considers both custodial and non-custodial punishment and various issues and dilemmas that might derive from penal intervention. You will explore issues such as the ‘Americanisation’ of the penal system and the impact of prison privatisation alongside assessing the ethos and effectiveness of incarceration. 

Victims of Crime allows you to recognise the extent, patterns and impact of victimisation which is fundamental to enable informed discussion regarding crime and deviance. Through exploring the concept of victimisation, the experience of crime victims and developments in response to them, you will have the opportunity to broaden their understanding of contemporary crime and criminal justice. 

The module explores key issues, themes and debates from the field of drugs, crime and society. You will explore established and more recent academic and policy debates surrounding drug use, regulation and criminalisation. It is expected that you will come to the module with a 'taken-for-granted' perspective on the nature of drugs, their links with crime, and their wider social consequences and the module aims to challenge some of these. 

This module explores the branch of psychology known as forensic psychology and how it is applied in legal and criminal justice settings. You will discuss the theory and practice of contemporary forensic psychology and explore the role it plays in prisons, probation, policing, and the courtroom. You will appreciate the interaction between psychology and the investigation and detection of crime, legal and trial processes and in dealing with offenders. You will also examine key issues involved in the practice of forensic psychology such as the efficacy of methods concerning the prediction and classification of offenders, interviewing techniques and different approaches to prevention and rehabilitation.  

This module will allow you to develop a critical understanding of the concepts of ‘offender’ rehabilitation and the changing nature of rehabilitative enterprises over time. You will examine the role of risk in the organisation of the criminal justice system and as a response to offending and research about desistance from crime. We will explore the purposes of sentencing in criminal courts, and how rehabilitation as an aim of sentencing is achieved. The module also provides an in-depth look at the role of key agencies involved in the delivery of rehabilitation, for example the Probation Services. We will also look at the journey through the criminal justice system from the perspective of its subjects (i.e. those sentenced by the courts and made the subject of a community or prison sentence). 

This module will develop your skills in processing large and complex datasets in the social sciences and visualise analysis to distil and convey findings to wide audiences. The module explores the key principles which make for effective data visualisation and communication, and the core workflows involved in processing, analysing and visualising data using appropriate software tools. In addition to developing your skills and competencies in analysing and presenting quantitative data, the module critically examines how quantitative data is used in the social sciences and how its use and presentation affects the development and evaluation of public policy.