MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research

Entry standards

Applications are welcomed from those who have a first degree in criminology, social or behavioural sciences, law or a related discipline, or a professional qualification or experience relevant to the MSc degree. 

English language requirements

Non-native speakers of English without a first degree taught in English will normally be required have IELTS 7.0 or above, with a minimum of 6.0 in each component (or equivalent).

Please note that the University of Surrey offers English language programmes and is also an IELTS Test Centre.

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - structure and modules

Module Titles

Core Modules

• Crime and Offending
• Criminal Justice System
• Criminological Theory
• Data Analysis
• Field Methods
• Research: From Design to Dissemination
• Law, Society and Social Control
• Research and Evaluation in Crime and Criminal Justice
• Dissertation

Core Modules

Crime and Offending

This module focuses on the nature and extent of crime and offending, drugs and antisocial behaviour and the strategies to prevent and reduce the occurrence of crime.

Criminal Justice System

This module focuses on all the key components of the criminal justice system: policing and the police, the courts and sentencing, prisons, probation and community penalties. 

Criminological Theory

You will gain familiarity with the main theories that have been proposed to explain criminal behaviour and justify punishment and other responses to offending.

Data Analysis

The aim of this module is to provide you with a grounding in the basic principles of quantitative data analysis and statistical methods.

Field Methods

This module aims to provide students with a firm methodological basis for conducting various forms of qualitative analysis. Principal data sources are observational fieldnotes, interview transcripts and video.

Research: From Design to Dissemination

You will work in small groups to research a contemporary issue in criminology and present the findings at the departmental day conference in the spring.

Law, Society and Social Control

This module explores how law interacts with other modes of social control in relation to various aspects of the institutional and structural orders of contemporary societies.

Research and Evaluation in Crime and Criminal Justice

This module addresses some of the major methodological, technical and practical aspects of research and evaluation in criminology.

Dissertation

Students individually research a topic and prepare a dissertation of not more than 15,000 words.

Subject information

About the Programme

The MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research offers advanced knowledge about issues connected with crime, deviance and control to enable graduates and practitioners to conduct research on the criminal justice system; and for practitioners in the criminal justice system and related government and voluntary agencies to expand their knowledge of the wider issues connected to crime. The programme has Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recognition for providing an appropriate foundation to undertake a part-time or full-time PhD.

Programme Structure

For students undertaking full-time study, the programme runs for two semesters (12 months). Students on the part-time mode of study will undertake modules over four semesters (24 months, attending one day per week). 

Criminology modules

The modules on criminology examine the extent of crime, the operation of the criminal justice system, legal and social construction. Established and leading-edge perspectives and techniques that have been applied to problems of crime and its control are covered. They include:

• Measuring and auditing levels of crime
• Sexual and violent crime
• Criminal intelligence analysis
• Crime investigation techniques
• Sentencing, prisons, punishment and community controls
• Theories of law and social control
• Multi-agency frameworks
• Risk management and regulatory compliance frameworks
• Policing paradigms
• Surveillance, new technology and control
• Risk assessment and prediction
• Crime reduction and community safety
• Domestic violence

Research methods modules

The modules on research methods cover both qualitative and quantitative techniques. This includes:

• Designing and implementing evaluation measures for criminal justice programmes
• Statistical inference and modelling
• Data management with SPSS
• Interview techniques for social science research
• Field methods and observational techniques
• Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - entry standards

Entry standards

Applications are welcomed from those who have a first degree in criminology, social or behavioural sciences, law or a related discipline, or a professional qualification or experience relevant to the MSc degree. 

English language requirements

Non-native speakers of English without a first degree taught in English will normally be required have IELTS 7.0 or above, with a minimum of 6.0 in each component (or equivalent).

Please note that the University of Surrey offers English language programmes and is also an IELTS Test Centre.

Planned intake

10

Start date

September

Programme director

• Professor Roger Tarling

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - fees and funding

Fees

Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research (full time):

UK/EU - £4,910 
Overseas - £12,235

Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research (part time):

UK/EU - £2,640 
Overseas - £6,300

www.surrey.ac.uk/pgfees/2012

Funding

Funding opportunities

Funding Opportunities 

The Department of Sociology has a strong track record of attracting ESRC funding for PhD students. The Department of Sociology manages the ESRC-funded South East Doctoral Training Consortium which offers doctoral training in association with the Universities of Kent, Reading and Royal Holloway. The MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research can comprise the training component of a 1+3 PhD studentship in Sociology within the Doctoral Training Consortium. Opportunities to apply for ESRC doctoral funding via the Doctoral Training Consortium will be advertised annually on the departmental website.

University Research Studentships and Overseas Research Support Studentships will also be advertised on the departmental website as they become available, as will studentships linked to ESRC or EU-funded departmental research projects.

Bursaries for 2012/13 entry

One bursary may be available for each of the Department’s MSc courses, to be awarded on a competitive basis to self-funding students accepting an offer of a place on the MSc for the academic year 2012/13. Bursaries will be paid in the form of a partial fee remission. Bursaries and deadlines for 2012/13 will be advertised on the departmental website.

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - professional context

Professional placements

A distinctive component of the MSc is the opportunity to undertake a placement at a criminal justice agency or research institute for four weeks during the spring break. The practical experience and insights gained reinforce formal lectures.

Careers

Recent graduates from the programme have been appointed to posts in the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. Others have joined the police service as police officers, researchers or crime analysts. Several have joined commercial research companies, firms of solicitors and voluntary sector organisations involved in criminal justice issues (including domestic violence and missing persons). 

Several students are pursuing PhD research study and part-time students are continuing their careers in the police and prison service.

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - teaching

Contact hours

The total contact time for core assessed modules is 176 hours.
Students may opt to spend time undertaking additional, non-assessed modules.
We do not estimate self-study time in our module totals.

Staff perspective

Dr Paul Johnson

We encourage an engagement with diverse theoretical and methodological debates and offer innovative teaching, an annual residential student conference, and a distinctive placement scheme. At Surrey, we place great emphasis on combining study of the procedural aspects of the criminal justice system with a broader examination of the
social, cultural, legal and ethical contexts in which it takes place.

We also place a unique emphasis on research methods training and this means that you will leave the programme equipped with the skills you need to design, conduct and manage criminological research. It is these skills that will enable you, like many of our previous graduates, to go on to pursue a successful career in a wide range of contexts.
We value the contribution that students make to the intellectual and creative atmosphere of the Department and I look forward to welcoming you on to the programme.

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - learning

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - graduate profile

Graduate Profile: Lucy Holmes

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research

I was awarded my first degree, in Social Policy, from the University of Edinburgh in 2003. I stayed on at the university for several years, taking a job as Research Associate on the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime. In this role I taught undergraduate tutorials in criminology, and eventually decided that I would like to improve my own knowledge of the subject, while also developing my research methods skills. 

The MSc programme at the University of Surrey was highly recommended by my former dissertation supervisor, and after a visit to the Department, I knew the course would suit my needs perfectly. As well as providing me with a sound background in criminology and criminal justice, the research methods components allowed me to develop excellent and transferable skills in both qualitative and quantitative methods. 

I succeeded in getting my current job, as Policy and Research Officer at the charity Missing People, largely because of my well-rounded knowledge of up-to-date research methods, and because of Surrey’s strong reputation in the field. I still keep all my course notes in my desk drawer at work, and everything I learnt on the course has come in useful at some point!

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - more

Department of Sociology

The Department is a leading centre of applied social research and methodological innovation, with an international reputation for excellence in both research and teaching.

In the 2008 RAE we were ranked joint sixth out of all the sociology departments in the UK. This reflects our excellence in research and publications, and the high quality of our research environment. We also achieved second place in the most recent National Student Survey, which reflects our commitment to the highest quality teaching.

Eight members of staff comprise the Criminology and Criminal Justice Group; they all teach on the MSc programme and are active in research on criminological topics including policing, prisons, sentencing and offending.

Conferences 

A residential weekend conference, usually held in Bournemouth, is attended by all programme members, PhD students and teaching staff in November. This provides a less formal atmosphere for discussions concerning criminology, research and related themes; it includes lectures from eminent guest speakers and members of staff, seminars and small group discussions.

A day conference is held on campus which includes lecturers from guest speakers and presentations from students on the programme.

Sociology Research 

The Department of Sociology is internationally recognised as a centre of research excellence. A particular area of strength is research methodology and research training. Our research is organised into five groupings which reflect contemporary concerns: 

• Age, Generation and Everyday Life 
• Criminology and Criminal Justice 
• Culture, Identity and Communication 
• Developments in Methodology 
• Science, Environment and Technology 

In addition to the research groups, members of staff undertake a wide variety of internationally renowned individual scholarship including work on gender, employment, organisations, cross-national survey, culture, ethnicity, language and communication, sociological theory, childhood, youth and identities, sociology of sleep and the sociology of social policy.

 Three leading journals are edited in the Department: 

• Ethnic and Racial Studies 
• Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS) 
• Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture 

The Department’s commitment to developing technical competence in research methods, and encouraging the use of appropriate information and communication technologies in social research, is reflected in the fact that it houses the UK national centre for software for qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS) and hosted the Question Bank, an Internet resource for survey researchers. The Centre for Research on Simulation in the Social Sciences (CRESS) is applying computer simulation to the understanding of social phenomena. 

The Department’s Institute of Social Research runs a successful international fellowship scheme which enables international researchers to visit Surrey each year. The Department has also been awarded two ESRC grants to operate nodes of the Economic and Social Research Council’s National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). 

These strengths in research, and in innovative research methods in particular, feed into our Masters level teaching and inform the continued updating of content within modules. A further departmental research centre, CRAG (the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender) brings together social scientific expertise to conduct policy-relevant research on gender and ageing. There are also strong research links between members of the Sociology Department and the Digital World Research Centre.

MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - apply

• MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - Full-time - starting September 2012
• MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research - Part-time - starting September 2012