Crime and Investigation BSc(Hons)

In this module you’ll explore these questions and study qualitative and quantitative research approaches. You’ll explore philosophical underpinnings of social research, key considerations concerning research ethics and researcher reflexivity, a range of data collection methods and techniques for data analysis, and how social research can be evaluated.

In this module you’ll consider the ways in which good policing practice and investigation is informed by research. You’ll explore the concepts of evidence-based policing and crime science before applying these to, firstly, key approaches in policing and investigation, such as securing eye witness testimony and interviewing techniques, officer deployment and offender targeting, crime reduction and self-selection policing. You’ll then learn about and have the opportunity to apply key techniques of crime analysis, such as offence series identification, offender network charts and crime mapping.

You’ll have the opportunity to plan and complete a practical work based experience related to your course. This will give you the chance to apply your theoretical subject knowledge to a professional setting, helping to develop your employability skills in preparation for your future career.

This module explores the strategies of crime reduction and prevention. You’ll explore a range of different reduction responses and investigate the evidence regarding their effectiveness in different situations. You’ll also consider explanations for the different ways that society responds to crime, setting these in a social, political and theoretical context.

You'll explore the nature, variety and extent of violent crime and its prevention (for example terrorism, homicide, work-placed bullying, and stalking). You'll demonstrate your knowledge of theoretical explanations for violent crime and violence prevention methods.

This module offers you the opportunity to explore key contemporary challenges to the nature and practice of policing and security. You will be enabled to consider the impact of social change on policing in a variety of ways including, for example: policing of new and emerging crimes; the impact of technological developments on the commission and investigation of crime; policing within the context of globalisation, marketisation, managerialism, risk and multi-culturalism; and threats to national and public security.

You'll research a topic of your choice in depth, giving you the opportunity to develop your own research interests. Drawing on the area you have chosen to study, you'll engage with issues of project design and research methods. You'll discuss your project proposal in a presentation and produce a dissertation about your research topic. Throughout you will be supported by one-to-one supervision.

You’ll explore modern police investigation practice in relation to serious crime, including the contribution of forensic science, offender profiling, surveillance data and new technologies. You’ll consider how current research into serious crime, such as homicide, terrorism and sexual offences, informs practice and police decision making, as well as how investigations and major enquiry management have become increasingly professionalised.

In this module you’ll consider contemporary British society in relation to issues of race, ethnicity and difference. You’ll explore the extent to which race and ethnicity continue to shape contemporary society, in relation to education, health, employment, government policies and popular culture such as films and music.

This module aims for you to gain a key understanding of how the roles of collective mobilisation and social movements have moved to centre stage in explaining continuity and change in contemporary society. Different expressions of collective identity and social movements, from revolutionary to non-violent, peace movements, to women’s movements that have challenged gender discriminations, to those movements that seek to radicalise, alongside those based in class or ethnic identities, or climate and environmental issues, all seek to influence and shape the ways in which societies and the state behave. Social movements have been and continue to present major social forces in influencing and determining human history.