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Criminology

MSc

Start dates: September 2025

Full time: 12 months

Part time: 24 months

Location: Headington

Department(s): School of Law and Social Sciences

Overview
Course details
Careers
Entry requirements
How to apply
Tuition fees

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Overview

Probe public perceptions, unpack theories and prepare to fight injustice with a degree designed to go beyond what you might expect from a criminology course.

Challenging current systems and viewing the world through a critical lens are at the heart of this course. You’ll learn from researchers looking at policing, youth justice, radicalisation, and more. This expertise fuels our teaching and means we can offer a diverse range of optional modules.

You might have already studied criminology and want to take your knowledge up a notch. Perhaps you work in criminal justice and want to extend your skills. Even if you’ve never studied the subject before, this course is perfect for people curious about crime and uncovering creative solutions to making the world safer.

With employability at the heart of the course, it draws on well-established links with organisations including Thames Valley Police, the Probation Service, victim support and young offenders charities. Thanks to our connections, you’ll be able to forge links for future opportunities with these organisations.

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Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Community of changemakers

    We place a strong emphasis on issues around social injustice and encourage you to be actively engaged in tackling issues you see in the world and your communities.

  • Insights into wider issues

    The unique social angle of the department means the research is diverse and covers everything from immigration to sexuality.

  • Much more than a grounding

    This course has been designed to challenge the way you think about the world and embrace different perspectives on problems. 

  • Links with top organisations

    Thanks to our partnerships with organisations like Thames Valley Police and the Tap Social Movement, you'll have opportunities to build relationships that could help further your career.

  • Make the degree yours

    Our optional modules give you the freedom to explore topics that interest you while the dissertation is your chance to focus on an area you care about.

Course details

Course structure

We kick off the course by looking at theory and the criminal justice system from a global perspective. Decolonisation, environment, gender and sexuality and online spaces are just a few of the important issues you’ll explore.

Understanding research methods used by criminologists will be key. Different members of the teaching team will talk to you about how they carry out research and develop creative solutions to current challenges. This will help you prepare for your dissertation.

Our optional modules will give you the chance to explore different areas. All of these are designed by our experts to give you the latest insights into their research. Perhaps you’ll look at decolonialism in criminology in more depth. Or you might enjoy exploring different types of online crime with support from the Institute for Ethical AI.

Your dissertation gives you the opportunity to put all your skills into practice. Past students have looked at everything from legislation around factory farming and whether it protects animals from cruelty to public perceptions of homelessness and criminality.

Students looking at their laptops

Learning and teaching

You’ll learn directly from leading researchers in criminology, and collaboratively from those studying with you. You’ll be able to nurture your interests and develop your expertise in criminal justice.

You’ll experience high-quality learning through a diversity of methods, including: 

  • lectures
  • seminar discussions
  • group work presentations
  • individual presentations
  • individual and small group tutorials
  • workshops and practical skills classes.

Assessment

Assessment is conducted through a variety of assignments linked to the expected learning outcomes. Accessibility and inclusion is fundamental to our MSc Criminology, which means that there are alternative assessments such as presentations and video essays, empowering you to showcase your skills and knowledge beyond traditional essay-writing and exams. You will be assessed with the following methods:

  • presentations
  • video essays
  • projects
  • policy reports
  • essays
  • written dissertation.

You will receive feedback over the course of the year from your lecturers on your work and progress.

Study modules

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

  • Advanded Research in Criminology

    You’ll examine the main approaches to research in the field of criminology. This will equip you with the knowledge and skills to apply and assess the principles and methods informing criminological research. You’ll be involved in practical sessions to practise carrying out interviews, surveys, virtual ethnography and creative data collection. Students will also explore different qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques such as critical discourse analysis, thematic analysis and content analysis. This module is designed to complement the MSc dissertation module so that students can make well-informed and justifiable choices about their research projects.

  • Contemporary Criminological Theory

    You’ll explore the theories that criminologists use today to understand and explain crime. This module will challenge your preconceptions about criminology, explaining how criminology has developed as an academic discipline and questioning whether criminology itself could be abolished. It will be accessible to those who do not have a criminological background, while enhancing and challenging the understandings of those who have previously studied criminology.

  • Criminal Justice Policy and Practice for the 21st Century

    In this module, you’ll gain a critical overview of key criminal justice policy and institutions around the world. You’ll explore issues of inequality, accountability, and discrimination within criminal justice processes, and groups affected by the criminal justice system, including women, ethnic minorities, Indigenous persons, youth, and victims. There will be opportunities to consider alternatives to traditional criminal justice approaches, such as alcohol and other drug treatment courts, restorative justice programs and abolitionist perspectives. External speakers will be invited to share their experiences of working in the criminal justice system, including a criminal judge, probation officer, victims’ support worker and NGOs working with those leaving prison.

Optional modules

Advanced Independent Study in Criminology

This module provides an opportunity to undertake an independent project of your own choosing. You will select a piece of individual work on a relevant topic, and will be able to choose your own method of assessment. You’ll be supported by a subject expert as your supervisor throughout the module.

Crime and Criminology in the Digital Age

You’ll learn about different types of online crime, their governance and regulation and the ethical issues in this area. This is an interdisciplinary module taught by the Criminology team and the Centre for Ethical AI here at Oxford Brookes. You will have the opportunity to analyse and interpret data yourself in this field and consider the future of criminology and crime investigation in the digital age.

Critical Criminology and Social Justice

This module introduces you to the intersections between critical criminology and social justice campaigns including the civil rights movement, women’s liberation, disability rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmentalism. You’ll investigate how criminology as a discipline has been shaped by these movements since the 1960s, looking at abolitionism, feminism(s), social constructivism, postmodernity, and queer theory. You’ll think about how understandings of “crime” have changed over time, for example, with the (de)criminalisation of certain groups, identities, and behaviours.

From Colony to Decolony: Decolonial Criminology

You’ll focus on decolonialism in criminology and criminal justice in this module. This will include examining key moments during the colonial era and their legacies in criminal justice institutions and society today. You’ll think about how abolition has grown out of the decolonial movement, and the implications that this has for criminal justice institutions today.

Placement

Optional modules

Work Placement or Work Based Research Project

You’ll be able to explore your criminological interests within a work placement or project setting. You will undertake a placement or work-based learning activity within a selected public sector organisation, NGO or voluntary organisation that engages in managing crime in some form. This may be a direct engagement such as policing or the prison service or in a more indirect way such as a voluntary sector service (for example a learning disability advocacy group) or in a public sector organisation (a school or a local authority). You’ll enhance your understanding of the wider societal context of crime and crime management and gain transferable skills outside of the classroom.

Dissertation / final project

Compulsory modules

  • Dissertation/Final Project

    You’ll have the opportunity to undertake an extended and supervised piece of independent research work on an appropriate topic chosen by you in consultation with a supervisor. You’ll be able to develop your research skills and gain the knowledge and insight that comes from conducting original research. You can choose to conduct an empirical primary research study using methods such as a survey, interviews or observation, conduct original research using existing primary sources or conduct a review and analysis of published evidence on a particular topic.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Research

We have a lively and supportive research culture with a number of specialist research groups led by internationally recognised academics, promoted through the Criminology Research Group, which all the teaching staff are members of. Our Criminology staff are also members of a range of university-wide interdisciplinary research groups, due to their wide-ranging interests and areas of expertise, so there are opportunities for you to form connections across the university too.

You can attend the Criminology Research Group seminars and other research events in the School of Law and Social Sciences and beyond. You will have the opportunity to become involved in research through specialist modules in which teaching staff have expertise. They also supervise dissertations in their specialist subjects.

Careers

Studying criminology at postgraduate level will give you a high level of critical thinking skills. Your transferable skills give you control over your career path and will open doors to opportunities across sectors.

Our graduates often gravitate towards roles in law enforcement or the criminal justice system, but those aren’t your only options. Your skills make it possible for you to engage with a wide range of careers including:

  • NGOs
  • charities
  • local authorities and government organisations
  • crime consultation
  • community support
  • security firms
  • research. 

Helping boost your employability is a priority for us. As well as relating your assignments to jobs you might do in the future, we support students to find placements with organisations such as:

  • Hope After Harm
  • Citizens Advice Bureau
  • Charities such as ‘SAFE’, Support for Young People Affected by Crime and Children Heard and Seen. 
  • Tap Social, a local brewery, who sell beer to support social justice movements.

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Entry requirements

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process


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Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£8,200
Home (UK) part time
£4,100
International full time
£16,450
Home (UK) full time
£8,800
Home (UK) part time
£4.400
International full time
£16,750

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Tuition fees

2024 / 25
Home (UK) full time
£8,200
Home (UK) part time
£4,100
International full time
£16,450
2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£8,800
Home (UK) part time
£4.400
International full time
£16,750

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

Postgraduate Master's Loan - England

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.