BSc (Hons) Criminology with Integrated Foundation Year

Foundation in Knowledge and Skills

In this module, you will develop your basic knowledge and skills to support your academic development and improve your confidence in your academic writing and reading.

Stories, Evidence, and Truth in Society

This module explores how stories, evidence, and claims to truth shape identity, society, and systems of meaning. You will investigate how individuals and communities construct narratives, how evidence is interpreted, and how truth is contested in social, historical, legal, and cultural contexts. 

You will examine how stories influence personal identity and collective memory; how narratives are used; how psychological processes shape our understanding of truth; and how creative and historical narratives influence society’s perception of reality. 

Through case studies and examples from literature, media, legal cases, and historical events, you will build foundational academic skills and develop confidence in analysing how truth is created, communicated, questioned, and validated.

Human Behaviour, History, and Justice

This module introduces you to the ways human behaviour, historical change, and justice systems shape one another.

Drawing on subject-specific areas, the module develops foundational academic skills while encouraging you to critically understand why societies behave as they do, how ideas of justice emerge, and how individuals and communities respond to change. 

You will explore how historical events influence contemporary social behaviour; how justice systems evolve; how psychological explanations inform decision‑making and social norms; and how social, political, and cultural forces shape the human experience. 

Project

This module is an applied piece of work related to your chosen degree. It will require you to apply the knowledge and skills developed throughout the foundation year and will enhance your ability to work individually and as part of a team.

During the project, you will develop in-depth knowledge of your chosen future specialisation. You will be encouraged to demonstrate creativity in the design, planning and execution of a project.

Society: People, Groups & Relationships

To understand a broad area of everyday functioning and experience in terms of the behaviours, feelings, attitudes, and mental processes involved in interpersonal and intergroup relations. 

The module aims to use functional analysis so that a broad experience can be broken down into a series of questions concerning the sub-functions and behaviours involved, allowing the psychological constructs and theories that are associated with those behaviours to be elucidated and explored. 

Exploration will involve appropriate methods to investigate what psychological constructs and theories relate to relevant behaviours and function.  

The module will explore the experience of relationships through the processes related to forming an impression of people, feeling attracted or not to them, wanting to be their friend, getting to know them and forming a relationship with them, through a variety of behaviours, such as approaching them, talking to them, and meeting them socially. 

Psychological theories and empirical findings from investigations into impression formation will be introduced, and methodology will be explored. 

Becoming a Social Scientist: Study & Research Skills

The module introduces research design skills essential for success and growth throughout an undergraduate degree. It provides guidance on the basics of data analysis using JASP software and covers key concepts in time management and teamwork.

Critical thinking skills are developed to enhance the ability to present convincing arguments and evidence in written work. Academic reading skills are also supported to enable access to complex scientific reports.

Additionally, the module offers instruction on producing high-quality assessments, including creating references and citations using APA style, presenting information effectively, and writing well-structured essays.

Reflection on strengths and weaknesses is encouraged to facilitate continuous improvement and progress toward academic goals.

Study skills are developed within a supportive and psychologically safe environment, offering opportunities to build confidence and knowledge without fear of judgment.

Learning is facilitated through various teaching methods, including lectures, discussion groups, interactive workshops, labs, problem-solving exercises, group work, independent study, and research participation.

The module accommodates all levels of ability, welcoming both those new to academic study and those seeking to further enhance their skills.

Criminal Law

This module introduces you to the different aspects of criminal law, which examines the theory underpinning criminal law and the elements of criminal liability, as well as providing an understanding of a range of criminal offences and the ability to analyse and evaluate related case law.

You will also continue to develop legal reasoning, research and referencing skills.

Positive Psychology, Wellbeing & Human Flourishing

Based on the discipline of Positive Psychology, the module will explore the experience of living well relating the need to understand well-being, emotions, motivation, aspirations and goals to self-development, personality traits, needs for achievement, self-efficacy, and self-esteem, environmental influences and the enhancement of well-being. 

Psychological theories and empirical findings from investigations into needs, motivation and traits will be introduced, as will the use of selected nonparametric statistics.

This module aims to give understanding a broad area of everyday functioning and experience in terms of the behaviours, feelings, attitudes, and mental processes involved in that experience. 

The module aims to use functional analysis so that a broad experience can be broken down into a series of questions concerning the sub-functions and behaviours involved, allowing the psychological constructs and theories that are associated with those behaviours to be elucidated and explored. 

Exploration will involve appropriate methods to investigate what psychological constructs and theories relate to relevant behaviours and function. 

The module will explore the experience of positive psychology relating the need to understand one’s own motivation, aspirations, and goals to self-development, personality, need for achievement, self-efficacy and self-esteem. 

Psychological theories and empirical findings from investigations into emotions, traits and environments will be introduced and non-parametric methodology will be explored.    

Thinking with Machines: Cognitive Science in the Age of AI

The module will explore the experience of using everyday technologies such as cash machines, mobile phones, electronic tablets, computers, and AI-driven systems (e.g. chatbots and recommendation systems, alongside key AI approaches such as Narrow AI, Generative AI, Reinforcement Learning, Expert Systems, Computer Vision, Multimodal AI, Robotics, and Artificial General Intelligence). It will relate the need to learn and remember how to operate them to processes of memory, attention and decision-making on the one hand, and their usability and human–machine interaction on the other.

Psychological theories and empirical findings from investigations into learning, perception, memory, attention and human–computer interaction will be introduced, alongside emerging perspectives on human interaction with artificial intelligence, including issues of trust, agency and ethics. Experimental methodology will be explored, including how psychological questions are translated into testable designs.

The module will also introduce foundational statistical concepts to support the interpretation of psychological research, including descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), relationships between variables (correlations), and an introduction to group comparisons (t-tests). Emphasis will be placed on understanding and interpreting data in applied contexts rather than complex calculation.

Crime, Justice and Social Change

Theories surrounding crime and its conceptual construction will be explored.  Alongside this, a consideration of the role and function of law in society will be made. Students will undertake introduction to criminal profiling, an exploration of what leads people to commit crime and will consider the relevance of class, culture, age, and gender. Historical links to criminal behaviour, mental health, and sexuality will also be explored.    

How society manages crime and criminals will be introduced with a view to understanding the courts and prison system.  Attention will then be paid to the concept of Moral Panic leading to deviance amplification and the role of the media in the creation of new crimes.  An examination of theories relating to punishment, retribution, reparation, and restorative justice with give students an excellent understanding of this field. 

Criminal Evidence

This module will introduce the legal, procedural, and evidential rules relating to criminal evidence from arrest to court.

You will study a fictional case study to examine the different types of evidence, the admissibility of evidence, the use of evidence in court, and its probative value.   

You will continue to develop legal reasoning, research and referencing skills

Cybercrime and Digital Security

Cybercrime is one of the major crimes done by computer expert. In the age of technology and digitalisation, crime has become more diverse and often easy commit. This module constitutes and introduction to cybercrime and cyber security. The module will cover key emerging research on this contemporary topic of criminology. 

The module will introduce key issues related to cybercrime and cybersecurity. Some key areas that will be covered include stealing ideas in the digital domain, use of bots in cybercrime, digital evidence and themes and models of cyber security. Some other issues such as, cyberbullying, trolling and hate speech will also be explored. 

Criminal Behaviour: Theories, Evidence & Applications

This module is designed to provide the opportunity for students to explore a comprehensive range of key construct, theories, and research in mental health and forensic psychology.

We will examine the numerous ways that psychological research, methods, and expertise are applied to both the study of psychopathology, and to issues that come before the legal system.   

Forensic psychology, topics include antecedents of criminal behaviour, eyewitness testimony and identification, lie detection, psychological assessments, offender treatment, and correctional psychology. 

The module establishes who administers the law and the legally mandated professional roles that support this. Different types of criminal law will be discussed and case studies will be used to consider how these might be dealt with. 

Criminology Classics and Controversies 

This module will provide a comprehensive and critical knowledge of classic and contemporary criminological cases and the role of criminology in today’s understanding of different forms of crime.

Students will have the opportunity to compare and contrast as well as note the similarities on profiles of criminological cases.  

   The focus of this module is to introduce to a selection of important controversial cases in the field of criminology and deviant behaviour.

The field of criminology has experienced a prominent growth in recent years, giving rise to varied forms of criminological cases.

This module will consist of classic cases as well as controversial cases in the field. 

Critical perspectives in crime and criminology like Marxist Criminology, Constitutive and post-modern approaches and feminist criminology will be introduced.

Scientific Inquiry: Quantitative & Qualitative Analysis

This module develops students’ understanding of key research designs and analytical approaches in psychology, including experimental, survey, and qualitative methods, alongside an introduction to research ethics and integrity.

Students will explore how different research designs relate to forms of reasoning, including causal inference in experimental research and predictive reasoning in correlational studies. The module covers core analytical techniques such as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for group comparisons, multiple regression for multivariate analysis, and thematic analysis for qualitative data.

Through this, students will gain practical and conceptual knowledge of how to investigate and analyse psychological data using a range of methodological approaches, as well as research ethics considerations.

Cyberlaw, AI and Emerging Technology

The aim of this module is for you to develop an understanding of a range of contemporary legal and regulatory issues relating to the internet, internet-related technologies, the web and various online ecosystems.

The module will consider discrete thematic, contemporary topics all connected to the online cyber sphere.  Some of the topics are regulatory, others concern civil law, and some involve criminal offences.

It is a highly topical module and ever-changing as human engagement with these online ecosystems is in a constant state of flux and development. 

The module will examine domestic, comparative and international legal and regulatory responses, offering a contextual, critical perspective on the subject matter.   

Managing Research Projects: Communicating Evidence with Impact

The Independent Project in Psychology is demanding of a wide range of skills, from project management to presentation of results in an accessible form. 

This module aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop their project management skills, to further develop their scientific reasoning and reporting skills, and to learn skills enabling the production of a poster presenting research work.   

The course will cover the project management skills involved in independent psychological research and its presentation. 

Areas covered will include time-management, assertiveness, risk assessment, scientific reporting, and use of visual presentation software.   

Young People and Crime

To establish a firm understanding of crime in relation to young people, the crimes that they commit, profiling and crimes that are committed against them.

This module aims to give you an understanding of the role of the youth justice system and explore what efforts are made to reduce recidivism and promote restorative justice.

Criminology in Professional Practice

This module aims to introduce you to the practice of ‘real-life’ criminology.  It will equip you with an idea of where you could apply the skills learned in this degree.  This module will aim to introduce you to the professional areas of practice that your degree might take you into.

Independent Project

The Independent Project provides an opportunity to apply appropriate knowledge, concepts, techniques and research methods of psychology to an in-depth study of a particular question or problem related to psychology.

This module aims to foster a greater understanding of the processes involved in undertaking a research project and marks the culmination of your learning experience.

The study will enable you to produce a written research report, and a poster presenting a summary of your research and findings.