Undergraduate

Criminology

Criminology student Megan Witty with Humberside Police
criminology-subject-taster
student using crime scene lab
student on police placement
lecturer showing student how to examine evidence in crime scene lab
We pioneered this exciting area of study and were one of the first universities to teach criminology courses over 50 years ago. We’ve been at the forefront ever since.
The practical skills you’ll develop with a Criminology degree at Hull are career-enhancing and give you an edge over the competition.
We’re one of the few universities with a replica crime scene training facility. Giving you the chance to get hands-on experience of crime scene investigation and forensic science.
You could apply for a placement with Humberside Police thanks to our close relationships with criminal justice agencies.
Criminology is a life-changing industry. You’ll study the causes of crime and join the search for solutions. And graduate ready for a broad range of careers.
Benefit from opportunities including valuable industry insight, career support and real-world experience. It’s all part of our Career-ready Guarantee.
Criminology student Megan Witty with Humberside Police
criminology-subject-taster
student using crime scene lab
student on police placement
lecturer showing student how to examine evidence in crime scene lab
Criminology, Sociology & Professional Policing - Criminology

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Duration

Mode

  • Standard course
  • With a foundation year

Investigate the nature of crime. Its causes. Its consequences. And join the search for solutions.

A pioneer of this exciting area of study, we’ve built a powerful reputation and strong links with criminal justice agencies. These partnerships give us unique insight into the world of criminology. So everything you learn is shaped by the latest industry knowledge and techniques.

You’ll get hands-on training in our replica crime scene, the chance to apply for a Humberside Police placement, and develop in-demand skills on this career-focused course.

Then graduate ready to work in this life-changing industry.

  • Gather evidence

    in our replica crime scene

  • Joint 4th in UK

    for Value Added 1

  • Annual

    Careers in Criminal Justice Fair

  • 94.9% of students

    in work or further study 15 months after graduating 2

  • Placement available

    with Humberside Police

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Course overview
Module options

About this course

Studying Criminology at Hull means learning at one of the UK’s leading centres in this field.

You’ll be taught by expert staff that specialise in current criminology and criminal justice issues including artificial intelligence and predictive policing, modern-day slavery, knife crime, mental health and crime, organised crime, cyber-terrorism and security issues.

You’ll graduate with practical experience that gives you an edge over the competition.

We’re one of the few universities in the UK to have a replica crime scene training facility on campus. So you can get to grips with collecting evidence, exploring criminal activity and see the world of forensic science brought to life.

You’ll put the theory into practice on field trips to courts, police stations and prisons, as well as policing projects and placements. All thanks to our close partnerships with local, regional and national criminal justice agencies.

You’ll get the chance to apply for a semester-long placement with Humberside Police. And can also meet significant regional and national employers at our annual Careers in Criminal Justice Fair.

Scheduled study hours and how you’re assessed

Throughout your degree, you’re expected to study for 1,200 hours per year. That’s based on 200 hours per 20 credit module. And it includes scheduled hours, time spent on placement and independent study. How this time is divided across the year varies and depends on the module you are studying.

How you'll be assessed depends on the course you study, and the modules you choose. You may be assessed through a mix of examinations, coursework, presentations and group projects.

Choose your modules

Each year, you’ll study modules worth a certain number of credits, and you need 120 credits per year. Most modules are 20 credits – so you’ll study six modules each year. Some longer modules, such as a dissertation, are worth more. In these cases, you’ll study fewer modules - but the number of credits will always add up to 120. Some modules are compulsory, some are optional, so you can build a course that’s right for you.

Preparing for Learning in Higher Education

This module is designed to give you the best possible start to your university studies, making sure you have all the essential skills you need to succeed. Through lectures and workshops we will teach you how to write in an academic style, how to find quality sources, how to reference work, culminating in writing up a mini-research project.

Core•20 credits

Introduction to Social Science

This module is designed to provide you with an understanding of the key concepts underpinning research in the social sciences, including the value of appropriately used sources and data.

Core•20 credits

Research in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Education

This module will equip you with the necessary skills to conduct and analyse research in a specific interest, supported by academics within your subject. You'll navigate through the research process, from identifying an area of interest to presenting their findings to your peers.

Core•20 credits

Group Challenge (Humanities)

Formulate and execute a group led enquiry into texts, cultural artifacts, film, music or dance. You'll explore their topics in groups at supervised workshops and develop questions on the cultural object relates to the living world of human experience, as well as developing your own methods to answer these questions.

Compulsory•20 credits

Foundation in Data Analysis

Develop a strong foundation in data collection and analysis. This module will introduce you to qualitative and quantitative data and how to analyse it; the collection of primary and secondary data; the production of high quality graphics; and report writing.

Compulsory•20 credits

Academic Writing Skills

Developing confidence in expression, oral as well as written, is a key feature of this module, which also aims to familiarise you with submission and assessment procedures in the context of Higher Education. This is a clear building block onto your degree programme and places you at a distinct advantage when you move into the following year.

Compulsory•20 credits

Students who require Foundation Year study will register on the Criminology with Foundation Year programme.

Upon successful completion with a score of 50% or above you will progress directly onto BA Criminology. The foundation year has been designed to prepare you for entry on the degree.
6 Modules

Becoming a Criminologist

This is a foundational 40 credit module designed to introduce Criminology as a discipline in the 21st century and support you in an inclusive learning environment as you transition to higher education. You will learn about the practical and theoretical foundations you need to reach your potential for the years ahead. You will have the opportunity to use our Crime Scene Room to bring theory and practice together. Students are also supported in their academic and study skills, digital literacy, and teamwork to inform future studies.

Compulsory•40 credits

Criminal Justice Institutions

Study the procedures of criminal justice – and the role of institutions such as the Police, CPS, courts and prisons, responsible for investigation, prosecution, conviction and punishment. 

Compulsory•20 credits

Crime, Deviance and Society

Look back to the origins of criminology by focusing upon the concepts and study of deviance. You'll trace how crime and deviance have been - and continue to be - deeply intertwined. 

Compulsory•20 credits

Social Research in Practice

The module takes an integrative approach to research ethics and design. It's a foundation for skills in understanding research and practical skills for conducting independent research.

Compulsory•20 credits

Criminology in Late Modernity

Examine how current criminological theory explains recent developments in crime and crime control, drawing from postmodern criminology, cultural criminology and masculinities. 

Compulsory•20 credits
5 Modules

Global Insecurities – Future of Humanity

Explore current insecurities and examine how private troubles and public issues are linked. You'll develop your ability to link academic theory and findings to real-world situations like modernity, globalisation and its (broken) promise; colonial legacies and neo-colonial realities; and migration and dislocation.

Compulsory•40 credits

Think You Know Policing?

Think you know Policing? Now is your chance to think about it. This module provides you with a grounding and understanding of the range of theoretical issues involved in policing, and its key social functions of order maintenance and crime control. You'll consider the practical and political issues that face the public police in pursuing these and what Policing really means.

Compulsory•20 credits

Getting Ready for the Dissertation

This module prepares you for your final year and your dissertation research project. You will have the opportunity to engage with agencies and the challenges they are facing. You will discover the diversity of potential research topics and methodological approaches.

Compulsory•20 credits

Exploring Murder

You'll examine the responses to murder from criminal justice systems in an international context, and explore representations of murder in the mass media and popular culture. 

Optional•20 credits

Offending and Victimisation

Why do burglars choose some houses and not others? Does alcohol make people violent? How do offenders think about their chances of getting caught? How does being a victim affect mental health and how does childhood adversity affect crime as an adult? This module focuses on the individual, as a victim, an offender, or both. It explores how people make decisions to commit crime and how being a victim of crime affects behaviour.

Optional•20 credits

Punishment, Dangerousness and Risk

Examine why and how we punish offenders through a critical overview of the operation of the penal system. You'll explore ideas about dangerousness, public protection, and risk in our penal system and how this has influenced policy and practice in recent decades.

Optional•20 credits

Representations of Crime

Examine and analyse the relationship between media and crime, criminals, victims and the criminal justice system. Where crime and media collide, we will consider the news reporting of crime, media constructions of women and children, crime films and cybercrime. You will engage first hand with media representations of crime, victimisation and punishment through analysis of texts including films, documentaries, games and music.

Optional•20 credits

Transnational Organised Crime

Learn the concepts behind our grasp of transnational organised crime. You'll cover areas including the drugs and arms trade; people trafficking; cybercrime; and terrorism. 

Optional•20 credits

Geographical Information Systems

Develop your understanding of the principles and processes behind GIS, the nature and use of spatial data and the application of GIS on this practical module.

Optional•20 credits

Ritual Crime, Magical Practices and Myth

In this exciting module, you will look at religion, magic, and myth as contested sites that are tangled up in processes of colonization, criminalization, and exclusion. Together, we will look at issues such as bodily rituals and ritual killings, criminalization of religious practices, (mis)conception of voodoo, or illegal animal killings to name just a few.

Optional•20 credits

Sexuality, Deviance, and Race: Visuals of Society

In our day to day lives, we experience and witness ethical challenges, injustices and violence. This module exposes injustices and explores the power of representation. Visual analysis of the complex relationship between sexuality, deviance, and race on national and international levels will feed into broader social discourses. Case studies and internet usage will provide knowledge of the mechanisms that are able to produce and recognise the power of the image – both human and object.

Optional•20 credits
11 Modules

Dissertation (Criminology)

You’ve made it through two years of studying other people’s research. Now it’s your time to create your own! In this 40 credit module, you can choose any topic from criminology and sociology to explore in more detail. With support from your dissertation supervisor and using the research competencies you have developed throughout your programme, you will develop a research question and find a way to answer that question. Interview police officers, survey students, search historical archives – the questions and methods are endless.

Compulsory•40 credits

Terrorism and Cybersecurity

Terrorism and cyber security have become prominent and challenging public policy problems since 2000, that involve the whole of government and a large number of civic society organisations. This module helps you to understand the drivers to these forms of criminality and provides tools to help you identify those at risk and to suggest ways to contain and roll back these threats in future.

Optional•20 credits

Modern Slavery in the UK

Slavery in the UK has risen exponentially over the past 20 years - now reaching some 136,000 victims. You'll consider definitions of slavery and how its scale is measured. You will adopt a social harm perspective, maintaining a victim/survivor focus whilst formulating proactive strategies for more effective preventative approaches to modern slavery.

Optional•20 credits

Sex Work, Policy and Crime

Critically examine the historical, legal, social and cultural dimensions of the sex industry by using the major theories of crime and deviance. You'll explore why there is a market for sex in the first place, and the economic, cultural and social factors which impact upon the realities of the work. You will look beyond media stereotypes at what working in the industry can be like.

Optional•20 credits

Drug Use Today

This module introduces the study of ‘the drug problem’, in Western society. You'll explore the sociological and psychological perspectives used to explain drug-using behaviour. 

Optional•20 credits

Mental Health, Illness and Society

What constitutes mental health, mental illness, treatment, justice & human rights is a contested topic with various ideological tensions. You'll take a multidisciplinary approach to the study of mental illness and persons with mental disability. You will consider the implications of the professional power of institutional psychiatry, the historical shifts in mental health care policy, the role of the criminal justice system, and the disability rights advocacy and human rights perspectives.

Optional•20 credits

Restorative Justice and Peacemaking Criminology

Restorative justice aims to repair the harm caused by offending behaviour by including people with a direct stake in the offence in finding a solution to benefit all. You'll examine the development of restorative justice and peacemaking criminology, analysing their key concepts, values, principles and practices - as well as the controversies surrounding them.

Optional•20 credits

Histories of Punishment

Study the history of punishment and penal policy between the mid-eighteenth and the early twentieth century. You'll examine public punishments, notably execution, transportation overseas, the birth of the prison, the operation of the Victorian penal system and the ways in which different offenders have been punished. You'll explore how these things have changed over time - for example, in the case of female offenders and juvenile offenders.

Optional•20 credits

Criminal Justice and Community Safety Placements

Experience the nature and range of work carried out by the police and other criminal justice agencies on a work placement. You'll learn about their priorities, organisation, work activities, and daily routines from the people who do the job and gain a range of skills to enhance your employability.

Optional•20 credits

What Works?

Everyone has ideas about how to reduce crime, make police more effective or improve victim satisfaction. But how do we know what works? This module introduces you to the methods that explore what works in Criminology and equips you with the necessary critical and methodological skills.

Optional•20 credits

Quantitative Data Analysis

Quantitative data analysis skills are used widely across an ever-increasing range of professions. On this module, you'll learn valuable transferrable skills, highly sought after by many potential employers. You will take part in practical computing workshops, and gain hands-on experience in applying a variety of data analysis tools, including SPSS, Python and R).

Optional•20 credits

Surveillance and Social Control

You'll study a range of theoretical perspectives on the emergence of a surveillance society - and examine the impact this is having on policing, criminal justice and social justice. You will also explore some of the wider social, political, economic, and cultural drivers behind the emergence of ‘new surveillance’ technologies.

Optional•20 credits

Contemporary Imprisonment

Study the contemporary sociology of imprisonment. You'll examine current controversies in the use of prison sentences and consider the effects of incarceration on offenders. 

Optional•20 credits

Criminal Investigation

Learn specialist investigatory techniques and consider how this produces evidence in the courtroom. You'll explore topics like offender profiling and forensic investigation, through the medium of miscarriages of justice that focus on key issues around race, gender, religion and other social characteristics. You'll also get practical experience by taking part in crime scene room simulations.

Optional•20 credits

Environmental Crimes and Green Criminology

Explore different types, causes and actors of eco-crimes perpetrated against the environment and non-human species through the critical lens of green criminology. Through practical examples and contemporary issues, you will analyse important topics such as wildlife crimes, food crimes, environmental activism and the involvement of organised and corporate crime. 

Optional•20 credits

Doin’ Time: American Prison Culture of the 20th and 21st Centuries

On this module, you'll analyse a range of cultural texts to understand and explain the complexity of the American prison system in the 20th /21st centuries. We explore the American “Prison Industrial Complex” in terms of race, gender, class, economics and politics. The prison system – as represented in texts varying from The Shawshank Redemption to Poems from Guantanamo – is used to better comprehend the broader sociology of the US.

Optional•20 credits

Advanced GIS

Get a practical overview of the principles and applications of current surveying, monitoring and spatial analysis methodologies. You'll gain a practical understanding of how to use environmental and social science digital data sources and learn how to build a digital database, including methodologies enabling the processing of disparate datasets, and advanced spatial analysis and modelling techniques.

Optional•20 credits
17 Modules

Playlist

Dr Mike McCahill

Course Overview 2 mins

Criminology facilities

Course highlight 2 mins

Criminology in 60s

Course Overview 1 min

Police Placement

Course highlight 2 mins

Entry requirements

What do I need?

We consider experience and qualifications from the UK and worldwide which may not exactly match the combinations above.

But it's not just about the grades - we'll look at your whole application. We want to know what makes you tick, and about your previous experience, so make sure that you complete your personal statement.

Have questions? Our admissions team will be happy to help.

What do I need?

If you require a student visa to study or if your first language is not English you will be required to provide acceptable evidence of your English language proficiency level.

See other English language proficiency qualifications accepted by the University of Hull.

If your English currently does not reach the University’s required standard for this programme, you may be interested in one of our English language courses.

Visit your country page to find out more about our entry requirements.

Fees & funding

How much is it?

Additional costs you may have to pay

Your tuition fees will cover most costs associated with your programme. There are some extra costs that you might have to pay, or choose to pay, depending on your programme of study and the decisions you make:

  • Books (you can borrow books on your reading lists from the library, but you may buy your own)
  • Optional field trips
  • Study abroad (incl. travel costs, accommodation, visas, immunisation)
  • Placement costs (incl. travel costs and accommodation)
  • Student visas (international students)
  • Laptop (you’ll have access to laptops and computers on campus, but you may want your own)
  • Printing and photocopying
  • Professional-body membership
  • Graduation (gown hire and photography)

Remember, you’ll still need to take into account your living costs. This could include accommodation, travel, food and more.

How do I pay for it?

How much is it?

Additional costs you may have to pay

Your tuition fees will cover most costs associated with your programme. There are some extra costs that you might have to pay, or choose to pay, depending on your programme of study and the decisions you make:

  • Books (you can borrow books on your reading lists from the library, but you may buy your own)
  • Optional field trips
  • Study abroad (incl. travel costs, accommodation, visas, immunisation)
  • Placement costs (incl. travel costs and accommodation)
  • Student visas (international students)
  • Laptop (you’ll have access to laptops and computers on campus, but you may want your own)
  • Printing and photocopying
  • Professional-body membership
  • Graduation (gown hire and photography)

Remember, you’ll still need to take into account your living costs. This could include accommodation, travel, food and more.

How do I pay for it?

Our academics

We were one of the first to teach criminology degrees over 50 years ago.

We remain at the forefront today with research leaders on issues such as violent crime, social justice and desistance, prisons and restorative justice, cybercrime, and intelligence.

See more academics for this subject
Alice Rizzuti
Featured academic

Dr Alice Rizzuti

Alice’s expertise is in food crime and the involvements of organised crime and mafia-type groups as well as green criminology. She was a Research Associate for the CRIME - Countering Regional Italian Mafia’s Expansion – project.
Dr Helen Nichols
Featured academic

Dr Helen Nichols

Helen’s research focuses on the experience and impact of contemporary adult male imprisonment. She has published a book on the subject and continues to actively research in the field of penology, currently exploring the wellbeing of prison governors.

Take a look at our facilities

Crime Scene Training Facility

Get to grips – literally – with topics from modern-day slavery to knife crime, and from domestic violence to cybercrime in our on-campus crime scene training facility.

Brynmor Jones Library

Our seven-storey library is a superb learning space. As well as over a million books, there’s a variety of study areas, and one amazing view.

Open-Access PCs

You’ll find over 400 open-access PCs at your disposal in our library. There’s also group learning rooms with big-screen PCs, teaching rooms and private study rooms – plus interactive projector tables.

Group Lecture Theatres

Collaborate with our expert academics and your fellow students in group lecture theatres.

See more in our virtual tour
crime scene lab littered with evidence

Look around

Look around

Look around

crime scene lab littered with evidence
Brynmor Jones Library Observation Deck
Brynmor Jones Library Reading Room
Wilberforce TV Teaching Room
Two female police officers

Future prospects

The knowledge and skills you’ll gain on a Criminology degree at Hull are genuinely career enhancing.

Through placements, work experience and a diverse course of study and research, you’ll gain the key skills that are in demand across a wide range of careers.

Helping witnesses cope with the emotional impact of giving evidence in court, supporting vulnerable young people and their families, and helping offenders lead law-abiding lives after release from prison, are all jobs our graduates have gone on to do.

You could go onto roles within the police force, HM Prison Service, the Probation Service, legal professions, social work, the charity sector or the Civil Service.

University of Hull Open Day

Your next steps

Not ready to apply?

Visit our next Open Day, and see all that Hull has to offer for yourself. Talk to our lecturers about your subject, find out what university is really like from our current students, and take a tour of our beautiful campus and amazing facilities.

Book your place now

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LLB (Hons) Law with Criminology
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BA (Hons) Criminology with Forensic Science

 

1. Criminology is ranked joint 4th for Value added score out of 86 Institutions the UK for Value Added.  The Guardian University Rankings 2025

2. 94.9% employability (Criminology) UK domicile full-time first degree leavers; Higher Education Graduate Outcomes statistics, for the academic year 2021/22, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency June 2024.

All modules presented on this course page are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.

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