Criminology

Criminology is the scientific and social study of crime, deviance, and the responses that individuals, communities, and institutions make to them. It asks fundamental questions about why activities come to be defined as criminal in the first place, how those definitions change across time and place, what causes people to offend or to desist from offending, how victims experience harm, and whether the various approaches taken to prevention, policing, prosecution, and punishment actually work. Drawing on sociology, psychology, law, and philosophy, criminology is an inherently interdisciplinary subject that engages with some of the most contested and consequential questions in public life.

At Queen's University Belfast this three-year full-time programme offers a particularly distinctive vantage point, situated in a society that has experienced significant political conflict and is engaged in an ongoing process of transition towards a more settled peace. This context gives the study of crime, justice, and victimisation a texture and immediacy that is unusual, and the programme takes seriously the ways in which definitions of harm, criminality, and justice are shaped by political history and social change. You will examine a broad range of perspectives on criminal behaviour, and you will study the methods used in criminological research alongside the substantive questions of the field.

The curriculum covers topics including the sociology of deviance, theories of crime, the criminal justice system, victimology, policing, punishment, and the prevention of offending. Critical thinking, research skills, and the ability to engage with competing perspectives on difficult social questions are developed throughout.

Graduates of criminology programmes move into careers in probation, youth justice, social work, policing, prison and rehabilitation services, policy, voluntary and community organisations, journalism, and academic research. Many continue to postgraduate study in criminology, social work, law, or public policy, often as a route into more specialist professional or research roles.