Criminology and Criminal Justice
Wrexham University
UCAS Code: M240 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Wrexham University
UCAS Code: M240 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Accepted alongside A-Levels as part of overall 96-112 UCAS Tariff requirement.
Access to HE Diploma
96-112 UCAS Tariff points
96-112 UCAS Tariff points
Accepted as part of overall 96-112 UCAS Tariff requirement.
96-112 UCAS Tariff points from International Baccalaureate Certificates
96-112 UCAS Tariff points
Accepted alongside Irish Leaving Certificate Higher Level as part of overall 96-112 UCAS Tariff requirement. Where GCSE Maths, English and/or Science are required these must be at O4 or above.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Scottish Advanced Higher
96-112 UCAS Tariff points
Scottish Higher
96-112 UCAS Tariff points
UCAS Tariff
Accepted as part of overall 96-112 UCAS Tariff point requirement.
About this course
Why choose this course?
Our Criminology and Criminal Justice degree will allow you to explore a fascinating array of questions from why people commit crime and how it affects society, to historical landmarks in the justice system and high-profile cases that have shaped the legal landscape.
You will:
Utilise cutting-edge facilities, including a modern moot court room and 'learning crime scene house'
Experience the field of criminology and criminal justice first-hand with site visits to operational areas of the criminal justice system such as a working prison
Gain practical skills and enhance your employability through a variety of voluntary work opportunities
Benefit from the invaluable insights of a team of expert lecturers and also high profile guest speakers, including judges, police officers, probation officers, and youth justice professionals
Graduate ready to make an impact, with the skills to pursue careers in youth justice, probation, the prison service, the police, and other voluntary organisations
Key Course Features:
You will have the opportunity to customise your degree to suit your interests and career goals with a range of optional modules.
This degree offers a Work-Based Learning module, allowing you to gain experience in professional criminal justice practice through a work-based placement, ultimately enhancing your employability and experience in the criminology and criminal justice field.
You will be part of a close-knit community and given the opportunity to join our active Criminology and Criminal Justice Society where you can get involved with fun, interactive events, guest talks, conferences, and charitable fundraisers.
The course has learning and teaching approaches that aim to enhance your student experience through thought-provoking activities, structured classroom sessions, and critical debates.
The course allows you to study criminology and criminal justice through social, political, and psychological lenses, focusing on modern policing methods, policy development, and the workings of magistrates and crown courts.
You will examine criminal law and the roles of the various agencies that make up today’s criminal justice system.
Modules
What you will study
YEAR 1 (LEVEL 4)
The first year of our criminology degree provides an introduction to practice matters relating to working in the community justice system and understanding and engaging with offending behaviour. The range of modules explored in year one provide knowledge and understanding of the causes of crime at a societal and individual level and explores the work of the agencies that make up the criminal justice system.
MODULES
Study Skills in Higher Education (core)
Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice (core)
Signal Crimes and Criminals (core)
Drugs, Alcohol and Crime (optional)
Crime, Society and Social Policy (optional)
Introduction to Forensic Psychology (optional)
Attachment and Crime (optional)
YEAR 2 (LEVEL 5)
The second-year is designed to build directly on the skills and knowledge acquired during year one. You will study criminal law and in traditional lecturers and field trips where possible e.g. to prison and court, you will learn about advanced issues in effective practice with particular types of offenders. Criminological and research theory is explored to begin the process of developing students’ abilities to think theoretically and critically about the practice of criminal justice.
MODULES
Research Methods (core)
Criminology (core)
Crime and Criminal Behaviour (core)
Social Difference and Inequality (core)
Work-based learning (optional)
Working in Custodial and Community Settings with people who have offended (optional)
Criminal Law and the Criminal Justice Process (optional)
YEAR 3 (LEVEL 6)
In the final year, modules develop your abilities to apply theoretical and critical perspectives to criminal justice processes and practice. Some degree of choice is also offered in relation to modules options. The socio-political nature of criminal justice policy-making is explored and a critical lens is brought to bear on the criminal justice system.
You may then choose to explore how guilt and innocence might be negotiated in police and courtroom, the contribution forensic psychology might make to understanding crime, youth justice or multi-agency criminal justice response to crime. Students will also complete their own research project (option to conduct primary or secondary data collection) which explores an area of interest to themselves under the supervision of one of the experienced criminology lecturers in the department.
MODULES
Research Project (core)
Control, Justice and Punishment (core)
Optional
Multi-Agency working to manage risk and dangerousness (optional)
Youth Justice (optional)
Terrorism (optional)
Policing Contemporary Communities (optional)
The information listed in this section is an overview of the academic content of the programme that will take the form of either core or option modules. Modules are designated as core or option in accordance with professional body requirements and internal academic framework review, so may be subject to change.
Assessment methods
Teaching & Assessment
There is a variety of assessment methods for this course, including essays, presentations, case studies and examinations. In Year 3 you will be required to do a research project on a topic of your interest.
Flexible, accessible and inclusive teaching methods are utilised across the degree programme. Students will attend face-to-face lectures three days a week. Students are encouraged to participate in site visits to operational areas of the criminal justice system, which in the past have included visits to a crown court and a prison.
Wrexham University is committed to supporting our students to maximise their academic potential.
We offer workshops and support sessions in areas such as academic writing, effective note-making and preparing for assignments. Students can book appointments with academic skills tutors dedicated to helping deal with the practicalities of university work. Our student support section has more information on the help available.
In terms of particular needs, the University’s Inclusion Services can provide appropriate guidance and support should any students require reasonable adjustments to be made because of a recognised prevailing disability, medical condition, or specific learning difference.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Wrexham
School of Social and Life Sciences
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if the overall teaching satisfaction score here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Sociology
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Social policy
Sorry, no information to show
This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Sociology
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
We have quite a lot of sociology graduates, although numbers fell last year. But graduates still do pretty well. Most sociology graduates go straight into work when they complete their degrees, and a lot of graduates go into jobs in social professions such as recruitment, education, community and youth work, and housing. An important option for a sociology graduate is social work - and we're short of people willing to take this challenging but rewarding career. Sociology is a flexible degree and you can find graduates from the subject in pretty much every reasonable job — obviously, you don't find many doctors or engineers, but you do find them in finance, the media, healthcare, marketing and even IT. Sociology graduates taking further study often branch out into other qualifications, like teaching, law, psychology, HR and even maths, so don’t think a sociology degree restricts you to just one set of options.
Social policy
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Just over 1,600 students graduated in social policy in 2015, which makes it one of the smaller social studies subjects. This is a popular subject at Masters level — 750 Masters in social policy were awarded last year - and so a lot of the more sought-after jobs in management and research tend to go to social policy graduates with postgraduate degrees. For those who leave university after their first degree, then jobs in social care (especially community and youth work) and education, the police, marketing and human resources and recruitment are popular — along with local government, although there are fewer of those jobs around than in the past. This degree is a bit less reliant on London for jobs than other similar subjects, so if you'd like to work outside the capital, it might be worth considering - although the jobs still tend to be in big cities.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Sociology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£19k
£23k
£24k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Social policy
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£19k
£23k
£24k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Explore these similar courses...
Lower entry requirementsSame University
Higher entry requirements
Nearby UniversityThis is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Course location and department:
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
