Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Criminology with Year Abroad (M902)

Criminology at the University of Birmingham is about understanding the social implications of crime – and its impact on local and global communities. Criminology as a discipline helps to make sense of crime and related issues of punishment and victimisation. A unique aspect of the University of Birmingham’s Criminology Degree programme is the focus given on social harm to the study of crime. What is distinctive about studying Criminology at Birmingham is a focus on the social drivers and social origins of crime. This means that there is an interest in the social context within which crime is committed and the relationship between crime and other social problems such as poverty and inequality. This will provide students with the opportunity to think more broadly and critically beyond the confines of ‘crime’ that criminology traditionally offers. The BA Criminology degree has been carefully construcd to provide students with a unique opportunity to develop their skills in explaining complex social problems in terms of criminological theory and to be able to apply conceptions of human rights in order to evaluate efforts to prevent harm and ensure personal safety. By studying a Criminology degree at the University of Birmingham, students will be confident in both applying and understanding: The traditional criminological questions from various standpoints. Students will be able to contextualise the causes of crime within their societal context and re-evaluate criminal justice responses on the basis of the harms caused. Contemporary debates around harm and crime and be challenged to consider how societies should respond to pressing problems, such as domestic violence, knife crime, or drug related crime, as well as supra national issues like genocide and transnational crime. The development of the criminal justice institutions (police, prisons and courts) in the UK and a comparative context, as well as the inter-relationships between these systems, as mechanisms to respond to crimes and social harms. The construction and representation of crimes and social harms, and of responses to these in policy making, mass/social media and public opinion. The understanding and appropriate use of research strategies and methods in criminological research. This degree will follow the same programme as the standard BA in terms of Years 1 and 2. However, the third year will be spent abroad at a university in the EU or elsewhere in the world. After completing the year abroad, students will return for their fourth and final year to the same BA degree programme.