BA (Hons) Criminal Investigation with Psychology (Full Time)

The aim of this course is to integrate criminological and psychological knowledge with the investigative process, developing your understanding of the complex investigative stages within the broader criminal justice system.

Key elements include:

• Both course teams include staff with expertise in the applications of their disciplines to professional criminal justice experience, including crime-related psychology, criminal law, probation, policing, drugs services and government research
• Enthusiastic, approachable and supportive tutors dedicated to your academic and professional development
• Associate lecturers with very high-level professional experience
• Study of how crime is defined, investigated and prosecuted and how defendants and victims are processed by the criminal justice system in England and Wales, in a comparative context
• Wide variety of guest speakers able to offer up-to-date professional and academic insight
• Opportunities for voluntary work experience, internships and work shadowing
• Active learning through seminars and formative assessments
• A wide, imaginative and professionally relevant range of assessment strategies and activities
• Teaching programme under continuous review, via engagement with student representatives and feedback exercises
• Joint degrees coordinator to ensure that you are fully integrated into the Criminology and Psychology programmes.

The Criminology team at Solent has consistently scored well in the National Student Survey. An external examiner noted that the team had generated ‘a community of scholars’.

Industrial focus

Employability is at the heart of this course. Students graduate with professional and managerial skills and knowledge used in frontline criminal justice organisations, including the police, courts, probation and victim services and prisons, in addition to their support services in the public and private sector.

Graduates from this course are attractive to a wide range of potential employers and are now working in all of these fields. Tutors are working to smooth the process of applying for these roles via enhanced application and employment training.

A wide range of criminal justice professionals give lectures on the practical aspects of criminal justice and potential careers in the field. There are also many opportunities to undertake voluntary work in relevant fields, and to take part in work shadowing and internships.

The course is international in orientation, drawing comparisons in approaches and practice from a variety of jurisdictions. This emphasis is important both academically and professionally in the context of increasing globalisation.

Course content

Year 1

Six core units:

• Introduction to Cognitive, Developmental and Social Psychology
• Introduction to Abnormal, Biological and Personality Psychology
• Criminological Research Methods and Skills
• Criminal Process and Responsibility
• Crime and the Individual
• Introduction to Criminology.

Year 2

Six core units:

• Social Psychology
• Criminological Research Methods and Skills II
• Policing, Politics and Social Change
• Developmental Psychology
• Criminal Evidence and Procedure
• Critical Issues in Criminal Investigation.

Year 3

Three core units and two option units (one from Criminology and one from Psychology):

• Project Design and Dissertation
• Crime, Risk and Community Safety
• Leadership and Management in the Investigative Context.

Options:

• Dangerous Offenders
• Landmark Cases in Criminal Justice
• Security, Policing and the State
• Alcohol, Drugs and Crime
• Crime and Media Culture
• Political Violence and Counter Terrorism in Northern Ireland
• The Psychology of Crime
• Visual Perception
• Work and Occupational Psychology
• Cyber Crime
• Curriculum Plus.

Why choose Solent?

The course is delivered by an established team of specialist staff drawn from a wide range of relevant professional and academic experiences and supported by a diverse range of visiting speakers and associate lecturers from the criminal justice community.
If you are interested in combining a broad awareness of crime, deviance and social control with an understanding of the scientific study of human behaviour and their application to the investigation of crime, then this is the ideal course for you.

• There are currently field visits to a variety of locations relevant to the chosen study pathway. Recently these have included study visits to criminal justice institutions and academic partners in the USA.
• The course is particularly well connected with local and national criminal justice agencies who contribute to the development and delivery of the programme.
• The course has a consistently excellent record for student satisfaction and offers a range of opportunities to undertake voluntary work and internships in preparation for employment in the criminal justice sector.

Assessment

A wide and innovative variety of methods is used, ranging from conventional essays and exams to group and individual projects and presentations.

Key career skills

Research methods, critical analysis and interpretation of information, communication, teamworking and leadership.

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Projects/work experience

• A developing range of internships and temporary work experiences, including at the Association of Chief Police Officers Criminal Records Office and the Prison Service.
• Positions on Criminal Justice panels, such as the Youth Offender Panel.
• Special constables, work shadowing and volunteering opportunities in a range of criminal justice settings.

Key info from UNISTATS