About this course
Crime, security and justice are endlessly fascinating subjects, for culture, society and the media. This popular BSc Criminology degree will let you explore how the nature of crime and punishment changes around the world and over time. Specialist modules will help you steer your degree to a range of professional careers.
Criminology at the University of Southampton is ranked 10th in the UK (The Times & Sunday Times, 2022)
Criminology is one of the oldest social sciences. It explores the origins and patterns of criminality, the reasons for committing crime, and the workings of the criminal justice system.
On this course, you’ll study criminology and criminal justice, covering topics such as:
- criminal behaviour
- victimisation
- the socio-legal context of crime
- the reaction of society
- the future of social control
Our criminology courses are led by knowledgeable and passionate academics at the forefront of the field. We also underpin all our criminology modules with up-to-date research.
This course will open the door to further research, or careers in public service, criminal justice and beyond.
As part of your degree you can:
- study a minor subject, such as psychology, alongside your main degree
- learn to analyse criminal behaviour and the workings of the criminal justice system
- examine cyber and international crime
- study abroad for a semester in Brazil, Canada or China
- challenge yourself and help make a difference with our Social Impact Lab
- take specialist modules from other disciplines to unlock a range of career options
The University is also home to the Institute of Criminal Justice. You can take part in seminars, workshops and lectures, and explore the relationships between criminal justice scholarship, research, policy, and practice.
We regularly review our courses to ensure and improve quality. This course may be revised as a result of this. Any revision will be balanced against the requirement that the student should receive the educational service expected. Find out why, when, and how we might make changes.
Our courses are regulated in England by the Office for Students (OfS).
Learn more about this subject area
Course location
This course is based at Highfield.
Awarding body
This qualification is awarded by the University of Southampton.
Entry requirements
For Academic year 202425
A-levels
ABB
A-levels additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking.
A-levels with Extended Project Qualification
If you are taking an EPQ in addition to 3 A levels, you will receive the following offer in addition to the standard A level offer: BBB and grade A in the EPQ
A-levels contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all applicants with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise an applicant's potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme. The contextual offer for this programme is BBB.
International Baccalaureate Diploma
Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level
International Baccalaureate contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
International Baccalaureate Career Programme (IBCP) statement
Offers will be made on the individual Diploma Course subject(s) and the career-related study qualification. The CP core will not form part of the offer. Where there is a subject pre-requisite(s), applicants will be required to study the subject(s) at Higher Level in the Diploma course subject and/or take a specified unit in the career-related study qualification. Applicants may also be asked to achieve a specific grade in those elements. Please see the University of Southampton International Baccalaureate Career-Related Programme (IBCP) Statement for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.
BTEC
D in the BTEC National Extended Certificate plus AB from two A levels
DD in the BTEC National Diploma plus B from one A-level
DDM in the BTEC National Extended Diploma
Additional information
For BTEC Extended Diplomas, we can only consider these subjects along with specific modules:
Health and Social Care but only if you are taking these 3 modules (Psychological Perspectives/Sociological Perspectives/Policy in Health and Social Care),
Forensic and Criminal Investigation (no specific modules needed)
Uniformed Protective Services/Public Services but please check with us which modules you are taking before applying.
We strongly suggest BTEC applicants doing these subjects contact us before applying to check if you are doing the required modules.
Access to HE Diploma
60 credits with a minimum of 45 credits at Level 3, of which 30 must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit
Irish Leaving Certificate
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2017)
H1 H2 H2 H2 H3 H3
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2016)
A1, A1, A1, A1, A2, A2
Scottish Qualification
Offers will be based on exams being taken at the end of S6. Subjects taken and qualifications achieved in S5 will be reviewed. Careful consideration will be given to an individual’s academic achievement, taking in to account the context and circumstances of their pre-university education.
Please see the University of Southampton’s Curriculum for Excellence Scotland Statement (PDF) for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.
Cambridge Pre-U
D3 M2 M2 in three Principal subjects
Cambridge Pre-U additional information
Cambridge Pre-U's can be used in combination with other qualifications such as A Levels to achieve the equivalent of the typical offer
Welsh Baccalaureate
ABB from 3 A levels or AB from two A levels and B from the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate
Welsh Baccalaureate contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
T-Level
There are no T levels accepted for this programme.
Other requirements
GCSE requirements
Applicants must hold GCSE English language (or GCSE English) (minimum grade 4/C) and mathematics (minimum grade 4/C)
Find the equivalent international qualifications for our entry requirements.
English language requirements
If English isn't your first language, you'll need to complete an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to demonstrate your competence in English. You'll need all of the following scores as a minimum:
IELTS score requirements
- overall score
- 6.5
- reading
- 6.0
- writing
- 6.0
- speaking
- 6.0
- listening
- 6.0
We accept other English language tests. Find out which English language tests we accept.
You might meet our criteria in other ways if you do not have the qualifications we need. Find out more about:
- our Access to Southampton scheme for students living permanently in the UK (including residential summer school, application support and scholarship)
- skills you might have gained through work or other life experiences (otherwise known as recognition of prior learning)
Find out more about our Admissions Policy.
Got a question?
Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.
Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
Course structure
You’ll take 8 modules per year, which consist of contact time (lectures, seminars, workshops), preparation for classes, and independent study.
In years 2 and 3, you can choose optional modules from related disciplines or other faculties. You can even learn a new language. You can also choose from a range of interdisciplinary modules, including Business Skills, Life in the Cosmos or Understanding Modern China. These are a great opportunity to expand your knowledge and create an impressive CV.
Year 1 overview
You’ll take core criminology modules, which introduce you to criminal behaviour and the workings of the justice system. You’ll also take modules on how social sciences understand everyday life and an introduction to quantitative methods.
Typical optional modules in this year include:
- Transformations of the Modern World
- Social Problems and Social Policy
- Exploring Other Cultures
- Foundations in Social and Anthropological Theory
Year 2 overview
You’ll study qualitative and quantitative research methods in detail. You'll also look at perspectives and policy in criminology.
You can also take 1 optional module in the first semester and 3 in the second. These include:
- Criminological Psychology
- Crime and Criminal Justice: Historical Perspective
- Globalisation, Inequalities and Power
- Gender and Society
Year 3 overview
You’ll put your research skills into practice by writing a dissertation on a subject of your choice.
You’ll study law enforcement, social control, and controversial issues like domestic violence and policing minority groups.
The rest of the year’s content consists of optional modules, including:
- The Deserving and Undeserving: Victims and Scroungers in Criminology and Social Policy
- Violent and Sexual Offenders
- Penology
- Global Crime and Justice
Want more detail? See all the modules in the course.
Modules
The modules outlined provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. As a research-led University, we undertake a continuous review of our course to ensure quality enhancement and to manage our resources. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand. Find out why, when and how we might make changes.
Year 1 modules
You must study the following modules in year 1:
Delivering Justice: Mapping the Criminal Justice System
In this module you will develop an understanding of the England and Wales criminal justice system, with a particular focus on its philosophies, institutional practices and processes and outcomes. You will gain an understanding of how the criminal justice ...
Historical Perspectives: Deviance, Conflict, Censure and Control
This interdisciplinary module is concerned with the interrelationships between society, social change, and social censure. A central theme running the module is that we can only make sense of contemporary social change (and responses to it) today if we ha...
Inequalities in Everyday Worlds
The module offers a firmly intersectional approach to inequality offering, week-on-week, multiple frames by which to consider experiences and meanings of inequality. By the end of the module, students will have been introduced to 8 key topics for understa...
Interrogating Crime: An Introduction to Criminology
This module provides you with an introduction to the field of criminology including its origins and how subject areas such as sociology and psychology inform criminological study and our understanding of crime. The module explores the different ways in wh...
Key Thinkers and Big Ideas: Foundations in Social Theory
The module introduces you to key thinkers and their contributions to social theory, their ideas about the social world and the way it works. These ideas provide the building blocks for your degree whether you are studying sociology or criminology. Differ...
Simple Liars, Damned Liars and Experts: the use of empirical research in social science
A key skill of a social scientist is to be able to assess the quality of evidence presented based on strong methodological foundations. We need to understand what constitutes evidence, including how it can be produced, agreed, disputed, disseminated and m...
Understanding the Social World
This module lays down the foundations for conducting social research in any discipline within the social sciences, focused around criminology, economics, international relations, politics, population sciences, social policy and sociology. The module will ...
What's the problem? Debating responses to Contemporary Social Challenges
The analysis of social problems is a key area of sociological and criminological investigation. However, not all problems experienced by individuals are recognised as social problems by society and not all publicly recognised social problems are also disc...
Year 2 modules
You must study the following modules in year 2:
Criminological Psychology
This module encourages you to take an in-depth look at the way psychology has been used to explain and control crime. We will explore the way psychological principles can be applied to such issues as violence, murder, serial killing and the role of the c...
Perspectives in Criminology
This module focuses upon the contemporary development of criminology as a discipline and the range of perspectives and theories that form part of it. These include traditional and more radical sociological and criminological theories. One of the pre-re...
Qualitative Research: Foundations, Principles and Methods
This module has two goals. First to teach students the foundations, principals and methods of qualitative research. Second to support students in identifying a topic and designing a research project for their third year dissertation. One of the pre-req...
Research Methods in The Social Sciences
This module builds upon the material learnt in the first year in STAT1003. It aims to increase your knowledge of social science research strategies and methods of collecting data (both quantitative and qualitative). It does this by covering the whole rese...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 2:
Children and Society
This module is designed to introduce you to some of the key concepts and debates surrounding children and childhood. It will provide you an opportunity to develop an analytical and critical understanding of the theoretical frameworks, research, policy and...
Class Inequality and Social Mobility
This module looks at the changing nature of class inequality and social mobility in the UK and internationally.
Comparative Youth Justice
The youth of today' has long been a source of curiosity to older generations, and sociologists and criminologists are no exception to this trend. Over the past 100 years, there have been attempts both to explain society's fascination with the younger gene...
Culture, Communication and Resistance
Anthropology actively studies people in real-life settings in order to investigate the crucial roles that culture and social organisation play in their lives. Sociology actively pursues strong theoretical perspectives which further explores the relationsh...
Gender & Society
The module will introduce sociological perspectives on gender and to contemporary debates about gender and society.
Race and Ethnicity in Society
This module will explore the issues of race, racism, racial conflict, and race relations in contemporary Britain and worldwide. Although we will mainly refer to Britain, global examples from Europe, the US, the Caribbean, Africa, and South America will be...
Social Theory
This module will look at some of the key terms, issues and debates within social theory. Key terms and concepts will be introduced via selected theories, theoretical issues and the ideas of specific writers who have attempted to explain social phenomena,...
Year 3 modules
You must study the following modules in year 3:
Dissertation
You will conduct small-scale, independent study of a chosen topic, within your particular degree pathway.
Issues in Law Enforcement and Social Control
This module considers a range of issues in the area of the sociology of the policy and policing and more broadly the sociology of social control - issues, include domestic violence, public order and policing minority groups.
You must also choose from the following modules in year 3:
Children and Society
This module is designed to introduce you to some of the key concepts and debates surrounding children and childhood. It will provide you an opportunity to develop an analytical and critical understanding of the theoretical frameworks, research, policy and...
Collective Action and Social Change
In this module you will be able to examine a variety of organisations involved in social change, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, voluntary organisations, social movement organisations and charitable organisations. You will be help...
Comparative Sociology
This module is concerned with the development of modern societies and the nature of 'modernity'. It will draw on the writings of contemporary sociologists in order to consider what the most important processes of social change taking place are and how the...
Comparative Youth Justice
This module begins with the questions, what is youth, and, why have societies always positioned youth either as "troublesome" or "in trouble"? We go back to the 19th Century and the 'invention of adolescence' to explore the roots of the notion of youth as...
Crime Scene Investigation: Methods and Applications
Gender and Society
The module will introduce perspectives on gender drawn from social theory, and explore contemporary debates about gender and society.
Penology
Penology is the study of punishment in society. Students are encouraged to think critically about the multiple purposes and debatable effectiveness of our contemporary modes of punishment, and to understand why this 'end product' of justice systems has be...
Race and Ethnicity in Society
This module will explore the issues of race, racism, racial conflict, and race relations in contemporary Britain and worldwide. Although we will mainly refer to Britain, global examples from Europe, the US, the Caribbean, Africa, and South America will b...
Sexuality and Intimacy
This module explores the fascinating, interrelated areas of human sexuality and intimacy. We draw on sociological, criminological, anthropological approaches, amongst others. You'll be asked to critically draw on your own experience and knowledge as we co...
The Deserving and Undeserving: Victims and Scroungers in Criminology and Social Policy
Societal sensitivity regarding victims in the UK has grown in recent decades. In the UK new policies and legislation have emerged at all levels in the criminal justice system with the aim of putting the victim at the centre of the criminal justice process...
Violent and Sexual Offenders
Would you like to understand why people are violent, or commit rape, or sexually abuse young children? Are people who do such things mentally ill? What might have happened to them in their lives that makes them commit such serious offences? Can such peop...
Learning and assessment
The learning activities for this course include the following:
- lectures
- classes and tutorials
- coursework
- individual and group projects
- independent learning (studying on your own)
Course time
How you'll spend your course time:
Year 1
Study time
Your scheduled learning, teaching and independent study for year 1:
How we'll assess you
- dissertations
- essays
- individual and group projects
- oral presentations
- written exams
Your assessment breakdown
Year 1:
Year 2
Study time
Your scheduled learning, teaching and independent study for year 2:
How we'll assess you
- dissertations
- essays
- individual and group projects
- oral presentations
- written exams
Your assessment breakdown
Year 2:
Academic support
You’ll be supported by a personal academic tutor and have access to a senior tutor.
Course leader
Paul Bridgen is the course leader.
Careers
You’ll develop the knowledge and skills required for criminological and psychology research, including:
- methods and techniques
- ethical principles
- evaluation of results
- communication
- problem solving
This course can lead to management, planning and delivering social and public services and criminal justice. It also offers an excellent foundation for professional training or postgraduate study.
Our graduates embark on diverse career pathways including:
- academia
- community development
- criminal justice
- government
- police
- research and education
- social services and welfare
Contact us to speak to a careers advisor.
Careers services at Southampton
We are a top 20 UK university for employability (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022). Our Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise team will support you. This support includes:
- work experience schemes
- CV and interview skills and workshops
- networking events
- careers fairs attended by top employers
- a wealth of volunteering opportunities
- study abroad and summer school opportunities
We have a vibrant entrepreneurship culture and our dedicated start-up supporter, Futureworlds, is open to every student.
Work in industry
You’ll have the opportunity to take a Year in Employment, which is a paid work placement between your second and third year.
Fees, costs and funding
Tuition fees
Fees for a year's study:
- UK students pay £9,250.
- EU and international students pay £22,300.
What your fees pay for
Your tuition fees pay for the full cost of tuition and all examinations.
Find out how to:
Accommodation and living costs, such as travel and food, are not included in your tuition fees. Explore:
Bursaries, scholarships and other funding
If you're a UK or EU student and your household income is under £25,000 a year, you may be able to get a University of Southampton bursary to help with your living costs. Find out about bursaries and other funding we offer at Southampton.
If you're a care leaver or estranged from your parents, you may be able to get a specific bursary.
Get in touch for advice about student money matters.
Scholarships and grants
You may be able to get a scholarship or grant to help fund your studies.
We award scholarships and grants for travel, academic excellence, or to students from under-represented backgrounds.
Support during your course
The Student Services Centre offers support and advice on money to students. You may be able to access our Student Support fund and other sources of financial support during your course.
Funding for EU and international students
Find out about funding you could get as an international student.
How to apply
When you apply use:
- UCAS course code: L611
- UCAS institution code: S27
What happens after you apply?
We will assess your application on the strength of your:
- predicted grades
- academic achievements
- personal statement
- academic reference
We'll aim to process your application within 2 to 6 weeks, but this will depend on when it is submitted. Applications submitted in January, particularly near to the UCAS equal consideration deadline, might take substantially longer to be processed due to the high volume received at that time.
Equality and diversity
We treat and select everyone in line with our Equality and Diversity Statement.
Got a question?
Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.
Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
