BSc (Hons) — 2025 entry Criminology

This module examines contemporary ways that power and (in)equality intersect with crime victimisation and the operation of the criminal justice system. The module considers how different sections of society are treated and affected by crime, victimisation and criminal justice, with a focus on socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, religion, and gender. It examines the tensions that arise within criminal justice and as affect social (dis)order and control. It aims to delineate how crime, victimisation and criminal justice processes reflect and reinforce wider patterns of discrimination and marginalization and to situate criminal justice within a wider global and local social context.

This module looks at the role of contemporary technologies within crime and the criminal justice system and critically engages with current thinking around the extent to which technology can be a ‘enabler’ or ‘facilitator’ of crime. The module seeks to develop critical understanding of the increasing role of technology within the criminal justice system – for example, forensic technologies such as fingerprinting and DNA profiles, ‘predictive’ technologies such as polygraph tests and neural scanning and enforcement/punitive technologies such as tasers. The module pays special attention to arguments that ‘technological fetishism’ may be undermining the autonomy of the justice system, with the result that ‘technological justice’ may be replacing due process and the rule of law, engaging with the increasing role of AI and automation within justice.

Within this module students will explore the relationship between drugs and wider society. Students will delve into what constitutes a ‘drug’ and will consider the boundaries between health and illness, licit and illicit drugs.  Students will be equipped to bring a critical lens to topics such as drug markets and recovery; and will develop a sociological understanding of why people take drugs and the ‘effects’ they have.  Throughout the module students will be encouraged to take a global perspective and consider how the relationship between drugs and society is historically and socio-culturally variable. Students will also increase their employability through working in groups to produce a digital deliverable.

This module focuses on social need and how societies organise to provide for those in need. We examine how poverty is defined and policies formulated in response to this, at local, national and global levels. Exploring how the political context changes overtime and diversity in cultural experiences, allows us to take a global perspective but to interrogate this by looking at particular welfare systems. We consider the relative position of social classes, generations, ethnicities, and men and women in respect to poverty, inequality and welfare. We explore the changing boundaries between the roles of the state, the market, the family and the voluntary sector in the mixed economy of welfare. Diverse topics are covered to facilitate this, such as: education, health, housing, criminal justice, arts and culture, and work and pensions ¿ which also encourages students to consider their own employability plans. As an urgent global challenge, which can significantly impact individual life chances, a sociological framework is utilised to understand poverty, incorporating both historical developments, such as workhouses and development of the NHS, and contemporary issues, such as food banks and the cost of living crisis.

A number of key global challenges are introduced in this module, focusing on the valuable contribution social research can make to addressing issues such as climate emergency and sustainable living, food insecurity, precarious work and resilience, energy crisis and health inequalities. We examine the role of research in developing, evaluating and improving policy at local, national and global levels. The process of policy making is studied at its different stages, how researchers can contribute and the types of interventions that are possible and effective. Only by understanding this process can research be designed and communicated in appropriate ways to inform policy and change behaviour, so increasing the value of the research, of the work of the researcher and the impact the research has.   The concept of research impact is explored as part of the module, in terms of making a positive contribution to improve practices, as well as in terms of academic agendas for impactful research and its relationship to funding. In particular, we employ the latest Research Evaluation Framework (REF) Impact Case Studies to explore good examples of impactful research. This also serves to reinforce an understanding of the relationship between good project design and research outcomes, and provides an opportunity to showcase the impactful work of Surrey University staff. Students will have the opportunity to study a series of specific social challenges, with access to academic experts sharing the challenges, recommendations and impacts of the research they have contributed to address these. Not only does this enable research-led teaching, but students will build up an understanding of the specific global challenges and policy areas, as well as what the research, policy making and evaluation career pathways can involve.

The relationships between crime and the media have long been the subject of intense debate. This module introduces students to the sociological analysis of crime and its representation in the media. We will explore how crime is portrayed in the media and assess the extent to which such media representations are accurate. We will also examine what effects, if any, these representations have on offending and public opinion about crime as well as on criminal justice.

This module will introduce students to the study of environmental crime.  It will examine a wide range of issues related to the damaging relationship between humans and the ecological world. It will include a detailed examination of specific topics such as climate change, corporate environmental crime, threats to biodiversity and waste crime.  Additionally, key theoretical debates surrounding the legal notions of harms against the environment and the classification of non-humans as victims of crime will be discussed. Students will be introduced to a range of approaches to policing different types of environmental crimes and the legal, financial and practical problems these present for governments and enforcement agencies.

This module examines the history, role, and function of the police service. We consider the nature of the policing task, the contemporary organisation of the service and a range of issues to do with accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness. We will also consider styles of policing, how they have changed over time and the investigation and detection of crime. We look also at some areas which have proved difficult for the service to police which include rape, domestic violence, drugs and organised crime and terrorism.

Work is important for individuals, for identity and survival, and for society, for stability and productiveness. This module focuses on the changing role of work, what impacts how it is experienced, and how theoretical approaches both inform and are informed by the study of working life. Students will explore the concept of work and its representation through different media, including film, music, fiction, art, photography, and virtual, augmented and mixed realities. The module offers a global perspective at its core, appreciating the importance of rooted historical accounts and diversity of cultural experience, but recognising the interconnectivity of issues of work and employment (as well as the lack of it) in the global economy. Students will also consider the future of work, its sustainability and connect this to employability, equipping students to evaluate their own work experience, resilience and career aspirations from a sociological perspective.

This module will focus specifically on the use of prisons as a form of punishment in society. This will include an examination of the growing prison crisis, the rise of supermax prisons and the privatisation of prisons. It will also consider how particular social groups experience prison, and the harms of imprisonment for individuals.

This module traces the social relations between youth, crime, and changing social, political and policy cultures. The ways young people have been responded to by a variety of controlling agencies, such as the police, prison system, and more social welfare orientated agencies such as social services has been a recurrent theme in criminology. This has encompassed critical questions with respect to; why young people receive more focus than adults? What kinds of young people are subject to greater levels of intervention? Whether this is just or necessary?  And in what ways have particular social control technologies affected the lives of young people? This module will place particular focus on specific digital capacities of control, how and why they have developed, and the significance these have for the practical outcomes of policy agendas such as ‘youth diversion’, ‘anti-social behaviour’ and ‘youth justice’, including whether these interventions work across international contexts from global and cultural capabilities perspectives. Overall, the module will encourage students to actively apply the linkages between historical, theoretical, and everyday policies of social control used against young people, and to demonstrate a critical knowledge of these debates and issues using a range of criminological and sociological approaches. Practice examples are offered throughout the module, to understand ways of working with young people in accordance with employability, as well as ways of utilising resources to support youth from a resourcefulness and resilience perspective.

Ideas of deviance and the impulse to regulate human behaviour accordingly have not always focused exclusively on more obvious and familiar “crimes”. A striking feature in the development of all societies has been the apparent need to police and control the bodies & associated pleasures of their citizens.  While this has always centred around predictably “deviant” activities like sexual behaviour, dance, carnival, and so on it is arguable that the will to proscribe ranges of ostensibly harmless enjoyments as deviant has expanded significantly in the aftermath of the “permissive” revolutions of the 60’s. Contemporary drug-culture, the multi-faceted sexual behaviours of the modern world, the explosion of pornography facilitated by the internet; the dance & club scene, extreme sports & bloodsports; ‘cruelty’ TV and so on all represent arenas where societal tensions between the experience of pleasure and the urge to criminalise it continue to develop. But given that the majority of pleasure-seeking behaviours are personal and non-harmful and given further that, (as Schlosser has recently argued) the drugs and sex industries now constitute bigger industries than traditional ones in advanced economies like the US, it is an obvious question to ask why the regulation of pleasure is still an issue at all? This level 6 module seeks to critically examine why the impulse to regulate bodies and their behaviour has developed in the way that it has and how this has manifested itself within modernity. It aims to challenge students across the Criminology and Sociology programmes to re-evaluate the nature of social order and to consider the relation between these social sciences in responding to this. .

This module focuses on victims of crime. Recent years have seen increasing awareness of and attention to victims’ experiences of crime and the criminal justice system. This module explores the nature and extent of victimisation, victim policy and practice, and the role of victims within the criminal justice system. The module covers theoretical perspectives on victims and victimisation, national and international policy development, the ”victims’ movement” and the nature and impact of public perceptions/attitudes towards different types of victim. The module critically examines who is and is not recognised as a victim, and how this has changed over time. The module explores new and changing approaches to responding to victimisation, including restorative justice.

This module builds upon students’ knowledge gained in year 1 of Criminal Law modules 1 and 2 (LAW1029 and 1030) to explore how the UK sentencing framework follows the principles of sentencing.   This module is interdisciplinary in nature, tracing the private and public conceptualisations of sentencing and penal policy (the latter covering prisons and community corrections) through changing legal, political, economic, and social cultures.   The Magistrates’ Court visit will aid and consolidate students’ understanding of the theory and enable development of practical and employability skills, such as networking with persons in the legal industry and securing a training contract. This Court visit also feeds directly into the Summative 1 and 2 assessments.

In the preface to the third edition of their textbook, Rogers and Pilgrim (2005) emphasize that their book is ‘A sociology of mental health and illness’ and not ‘The sociology of mental health and illness’.  They make this point because any book (or indeed course) on mental health and illness will have to be selective and will not be able to cover everything.  They also highlight how the word ‘sociology’ in the title is a little troublesome as “sociological analyses of our topic are not offered only by sociologists”.   In this module students will encounter a range of sociological perspectives on mental health and illness and will delve into critical debates surrounding definitions, concepts and the ways in which mental health has been ‘organized’ and responded to. Through focusing on topics such as inequalities, and mental health in prisons, students will be equipped to think critically about current, global, mental health care policy and practice. At points in the course, students will have the opportunity to meet professionals working in related fields and connect this to their own employability.  

Whilst the problem of hate crime has been, until relatively recently, largely neglected as a distinct area of criminological research in the UK and around the world, changes to political, criminal and social justice agendas have given hate crime much greater significance over the past 30 years or so. This module is therefore designed to provide students with a broad historical, theoretical, and contemporary understanding of the key issues relating to hate crime. Particular focus is placed on examining the different forms that hate crime can take and the impact it can have on victims and wider communities, whilst the motivations behind hate crime perpetration are also explored, as are the various legal and wider criminal justice and other relevant responses to it, all within an international context. Students are also encouraged to think critically about issues relating to identity politics, diversity, and the broader social construction of contemporary crime problems. The module relates to the degree programme more broadly by discussing policing, victimisation, legislation, the criminal justice system, offending, social justice, and notions of identity and diversity, within the hate crime context. As such it builds upon previous learning that students will have undertaken in prior modules throughout the first two years of their degree programme.  

The study of cybercrime and cybersecurity not only represents one of the key emerging areas of research within contemporary criminology but is also a crucial problem of national policy and crime control. Recent (2016) data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggest that cybercrime may now be the most prevalent form of criminality in the UK and repeated breaches to key infrastructures across most jurisdictions have emphasized why it is has also become one of the main threats to international peace and security.  This module will introduce students to the key themes within the study of cybercrime and cybersecurity – including, offence types and their prevalence; typical victims and perpetrators; policing and control measures; varieties of cybersecurity responses and the ‘human’ problem in making these resilient.

The criminal justice process has often been charged with an over focus upon ‘working class’ crimes such as burglary or street robbery. As a result, it has been argued that many more serious crimes effected by more powerful or collective agents like corporations have been overlooked or policed less effectively. For example, environmental damage, financial misconduct, or illicit trading. In this module the nature of criminality effected by the corporate and business worlds and the kinds of measures intended to make corporations more responsible’ will be examined in detail. We consider how agents like corporations can be constructed as criminal actors, both conceptually and legally, the typical kinds of offences they are implicated in and what kinds of responses from the criminal justice system would be most appropriate in dealing with this. A series of case studies across a representative selection of corporate sectors will be used the structure and direct the module content.

The module is concerned with understanding the source, practice, effect and response to terrorism in the modern world.  In particular, the objective is to provide students with a clearer understanding of how and why terrorism exists and how other political actors respond to it.

This module examines contemporary ways that power and (in)equality intersect with crime victimisation and the operation of the criminal justice system. The module considers how different sections of society are treated and affected by crime, victimisation and criminal justice, with a focus on socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, religion, and gender. It examines the tensions that arise within criminal justice and as affect social (dis)order and control. It aims to delineate how crime, victimisation and criminal justice processes reflect and reinforce wider patterns of discrimination and marginalization and to situate criminal justice within a wider global and local social context.

This module looks at the role of contemporary technologies within crime and the criminal justice system and critically engages with current thinking around the extent to which technology can be a ‘enabler’ or ‘facilitator’ of crime. The module seeks to develop critical understanding of the increasing role of technology within the criminal justice system – for example, forensic technologies such as fingerprinting and DNA profiles, ‘predictive’ technologies such as polygraph tests and neural scanning and enforcement/punitive technologies such as tasers. The module pays special attention to arguments that ‘technological fetishism’ may be undermining the autonomy of the justice system, with the result that ‘technological justice’ may be replacing due process and the rule of law, engaging with the increasing role of AI and automation within justice.

Within this module students will explore the relationship between drugs and wider society. Students will delve into what constitutes a ‘drug’ and will consider the boundaries between health and illness, licit and illicit drugs.  Students will be equipped to bring a critical lens to topics such as drug markets and recovery; and will develop a sociological understanding of why people take drugs and the ‘effects’ they have.  Throughout the module students will be encouraged to take a global perspective and consider how the relationship between drugs and society is historically and socio-culturally variable. Students will also increase their employability through working in groups to produce a digital deliverable.

This module focuses on social need and how societies organise to provide for those in need. We examine how poverty is defined and policies formulated in response to this, at local, national and global levels. Exploring how the political context changes overtime and diversity in cultural experiences, allows us to take a global perspective but to interrogate this by looking at particular welfare systems. We consider the relative position of social classes, generations, ethnicities, and men and women in respect to poverty, inequality and welfare. We explore the changing boundaries between the roles of the state, the market, the family and the voluntary sector in the mixed economy of welfare. Diverse topics are covered to facilitate this, such as: education, health, housing, criminal justice, arts and culture, and work and pensions ¿ which also encourages students to consider their own employability plans. As an urgent global challenge, which can significantly impact individual life chances, a sociological framework is utilised to understand poverty, incorporating both historical developments, such as workhouses and development of the NHS, and contemporary issues, such as food banks and the cost of living crisis.

A number of key global challenges are introduced in this module, focusing on the valuable contribution social research can make to addressing issues such as climate emergency and sustainable living, food insecurity, precarious work and resilience, energy crisis and health inequalities. We examine the role of research in developing, evaluating and improving policy at local, national and global levels. The process of policy making is studied at its different stages, how researchers can contribute and the types of interventions that are possible and effective. Only by understanding this process can research be designed and communicated in appropriate ways to inform policy and change behaviour, so increasing the value of the research, of the work of the researcher and the impact the research has.   The concept of research impact is explored as part of the module, in terms of making a positive contribution to improve practices, as well as in terms of academic agendas for impactful research and its relationship to funding. In particular, we employ the latest Research Evaluation Framework (REF) Impact Case Studies to explore good examples of impactful research. This also serves to reinforce an understanding of the relationship between good project design and research outcomes, and provides an opportunity to showcase the impactful work of Surrey University staff. Students will have the opportunity to study a series of specific social challenges, with access to academic experts sharing the challenges, recommendations and impacts of the research they have contributed to address these. Not only does this enable research-led teaching, but students will build up an understanding of the specific global challenges and policy areas, as well as what the research, policy making and evaluation career pathways can involve.

The relationships between crime and the media have long been the subject of intense debate. This module introduces students to the sociological analysis of crime and its representation in the media. We will explore how crime is portrayed in the media and assess the extent to which such media representations are accurate. We will also examine what effects, if any, these representations have on offending and public opinion about crime as well as on criminal justice.

This module will introduce students to the study of environmental crime.  It will examine a wide range of issues related to the damaging relationship between humans and the ecological world. It will include a detailed examination of specific topics such as climate change, corporate environmental crime, threats to biodiversity and waste crime.  Additionally, key theoretical debates surrounding the legal notions of harms against the environment and the classification of non-humans as victims of crime will be discussed. Students will be introduced to a range of approaches to policing different types of environmental crimes and the legal, financial and practical problems these present for governments and enforcement agencies.

This module examines the history, role, and function of the police service. We consider the nature of the policing task, the contemporary organisation of the service and a range of issues to do with accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness. We will also consider styles of policing, how they have changed over time and the investigation and detection of crime. We look also at some areas which have proved difficult for the service to police which include rape, domestic violence, drugs and organised crime and terrorism.

Work is important for individuals, for identity and survival, and for society, for stability and productiveness. This module focuses on the changing role of work, what impacts how it is experienced, and how theoretical approaches both inform and are informed by the study of working life. Students will explore the concept of work and its representation through different media, including film, music, fiction, art, photography, and virtual, augmented and mixed realities. The module offers a global perspective at its core, appreciating the importance of rooted historical accounts and diversity of cultural experience, but recognising the interconnectivity of issues of work and employment (as well as the lack of it) in the global economy. Students will also consider the future of work, its sustainability and connect this to employability, equipping students to evaluate their own work experience, resilience and career aspirations from a sociological perspective.

This module will focus specifically on the use of prisons as a form of punishment in society. This will include an examination of the growing prison crisis, the rise of supermax prisons and the privatisation of prisons. It will also consider how particular social groups experience prison, and the harms of imprisonment for individuals.

This module traces the social relations between youth, crime, and changing social, political and policy cultures. The ways young people have been responded to by a variety of controlling agencies, such as the police, prison system, and more social welfare orientated agencies such as social services has been a recurrent theme in criminology. This has encompassed critical questions with respect to; why young people receive more focus than adults? What kinds of young people are subject to greater levels of intervention? Whether this is just or necessary?  And in what ways have particular social control technologies affected the lives of young people? This module will place particular focus on specific digital capacities of control, how and why they have developed, and the significance these have for the practical outcomes of policy agendas such as ‘youth diversion’, ‘anti-social behaviour’ and ‘youth justice’, including whether these interventions work across international contexts from global and cultural capabilities perspectives. Overall, the module will encourage students to actively apply the linkages between historical, theoretical, and everyday policies of social control used against young people, and to demonstrate a critical knowledge of these debates and issues using a range of criminological and sociological approaches. Practice examples are offered throughout the module, to understand ways of working with young people in accordance with employability, as well as ways of utilising resources to support youth from a resourcefulness and resilience perspective.

Ideas of deviance and the impulse to regulate human behaviour accordingly have not always focused exclusively on more obvious and familiar “crimes”. A striking feature in the development of all societies has been the apparent need to police and control the bodies & associated pleasures of their citizens.  While this has always centred around predictably “deviant” activities like sexual behaviour, dance, carnival, and so on it is arguable that the will to proscribe ranges of ostensibly harmless enjoyments as deviant has expanded significantly in the aftermath of the “permissive” revolutions of the 60’s. Contemporary drug-culture, the multi-faceted sexual behaviours of the modern world, the explosion of pornography facilitated by the internet; the dance & club scene, extreme sports & bloodsports; ‘cruelty’ TV and so on all represent arenas where societal tensions between the experience of pleasure and the urge to criminalise it continue to develop. But given that the majority of pleasure-seeking behaviours are personal and non-harmful and given further that, (as Schlosser has recently argued) the drugs and sex industries now constitute bigger industries than traditional ones in advanced economies like the US, it is an obvious question to ask why the regulation of pleasure is still an issue at all? This level 6 module seeks to critically examine why the impulse to regulate bodies and their behaviour has developed in the way that it has and how this has manifested itself within modernity. It aims to challenge students across the Criminology and Sociology programmes to re-evaluate the nature of social order and to consider the relation between these social sciences in responding to this. .

This module focuses on victims of crime. Recent years have seen increasing awareness of and attention to victims’ experiences of crime and the criminal justice system. This module explores the nature and extent of victimisation, victim policy and practice, and the role of victims within the criminal justice system. The module covers theoretical perspectives on victims and victimisation, national and international policy development, the ”victims’ movement” and the nature and impact of public perceptions/attitudes towards different types of victim. The module critically examines who is and is not recognised as a victim, and how this has changed over time. The module explores new and changing approaches to responding to victimisation, including restorative justice.

This module builds upon students’ knowledge gained in year 1 of Criminal Law modules 1 and 2 (LAW1029 and 1030) to explore how the UK sentencing framework follows the principles of sentencing.   This module is interdisciplinary in nature, tracing the private and public conceptualisations of sentencing and penal policy (the latter covering prisons and community corrections) through changing legal, political, economic, and social cultures.   The Magistrates’ Court visit will aid and consolidate students’ understanding of the theory and enable development of practical and employability skills, such as networking with persons in the legal industry and securing a training contract. This Court visit also feeds directly into the Summative 1 and 2 assessments.

In the preface to the third edition of their textbook, Rogers and Pilgrim (2005) emphasize that their book is ‘A sociology of mental health and illness’ and not ‘The sociology of mental health and illness’.  They make this point because any book (or indeed course) on mental health and illness will have to be selective and will not be able to cover everything.  They also highlight how the word ‘sociology’ in the title is a little troublesome as “sociological analyses of our topic are not offered only by sociologists”.   In this module students will encounter a range of sociological perspectives on mental health and illness and will delve into critical debates surrounding definitions, concepts and the ways in which mental health has been ‘organized’ and responded to. Through focusing on topics such as inequalities, and mental health in prisons, students will be equipped to think critically about current, global, mental health care policy and practice. At points in the course, students will have the opportunity to meet professionals working in related fields and connect this to their own employability.  

Whilst the problem of hate crime has been, until relatively recently, largely neglected as a distinct area of criminological research in the UK and around the world, changes to political, criminal and social justice agendas have given hate crime much greater significance over the past 30 years or so. This module is therefore designed to provide students with a broad historical, theoretical, and contemporary understanding of the key issues relating to hate crime. Particular focus is placed on examining the different forms that hate crime can take and the impact it can have on victims and wider communities, whilst the motivations behind hate crime perpetration are also explored, as are the various legal and wider criminal justice and other relevant responses to it, all within an international context. Students are also encouraged to think critically about issues relating to identity politics, diversity, and the broader social construction of contemporary crime problems. The module relates to the degree programme more broadly by discussing policing, victimisation, legislation, the criminal justice system, offending, social justice, and notions of identity and diversity, within the hate crime context. As such it builds upon previous learning that students will have undertaken in prior modules throughout the first two years of their degree programme.  

The study of cybercrime and cybersecurity not only represents one of the key emerging areas of research within contemporary criminology but is also a crucial problem of national policy and crime control. Recent (2016) data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggest that cybercrime may now be the most prevalent form of criminality in the UK and repeated breaches to key infrastructures across most jurisdictions have emphasized why it is has also become one of the main threats to international peace and security.  This module will introduce students to the key themes within the study of cybercrime and cybersecurity – including, offence types and their prevalence; typical victims and perpetrators; policing and control measures; varieties of cybersecurity responses and the ‘human’ problem in making these resilient.

The criminal justice process has often been charged with an over focus upon ‘working class’ crimes such as burglary or street robbery. As a result, it has been argued that many more serious crimes effected by more powerful or collective agents like corporations have been overlooked or policed less effectively. For example, environmental damage, financial misconduct, or illicit trading. In this module the nature of criminality effected by the corporate and business worlds and the kinds of measures intended to make corporations more responsible’ will be examined in detail. We consider how agents like corporations can be constructed as criminal actors, both conceptually and legally, the typical kinds of offences they are implicated in and what kinds of responses from the criminal justice system would be most appropriate in dealing with this. A series of case studies across a representative selection of corporate sectors will be used the structure and direct the module content.

The module is concerned with understanding the source, practice, effect and response to terrorism in the modern world.  In particular, the objective is to provide students with a clearer understanding of how and why terrorism exists and how other political actors respond to it.