Course summary

Working with vulnerable people, victims or offenders is a rewarding career for graduates looking to make a difference. The Foundation Degree in Criminology with Social Justice gives you the opportunity to learn the criminal justice system from a range or perspective, from hands-on work to academic study and research. You will learn the theories of crime and deviance and apply them to the policies of government to determine the impact on the individual and society. The Foundation Degree in Criminology is designed to provide a structured, progressive, learning experience, within which students can pursue their own interests and develop aptitudes, through enquiry, experimentation and research- based learning within a range of creative and professional contexts to enable progression into their chosen career path. This qualification has distinctive strands. The first through social research methods as a key to empirical positivist criminology; evaluation of theoretical concepts to explain the root cause of crime and therefore management of crime. Research skills are important to criminologists and the related subjects of psychology and sociology in order to assess and challenge both theories and practice and on a wider scale government policy. Students will undertake practical primary research projects in both years which are then analysed, and reflected upon to improve performance and become reflective and reflexive practitioners. This research is underpinned by the theoretical knowledge covering social, cultural, political and economic change which then define crime and deviance. The subject modules in level 4 are developmental and flow and expand into level 5. For example, Foundations of Criminology indeed lays the foundations of the historical development of criminological theory and its contentious nature in the study of street crime. This then leads into Crime Culture and Social Change which informs the level 6 options should a student opt to take the BA top-up. This knowledge supports the other key contemporary modules of Modern-Day Slavery and Hate Crime which are priorities in the criminal justice system.