Criminology and Law

Criminology and law together provide a searching examination of crime, justice and social order from both theoretical and legal perspectives. Law gives you a precise understanding of the rules and institutions through which society defines and responds to wrongdoing, from criminal law and evidence through to constitutional frameworks and human rights. Criminology provides the social scientific tools to interrogate those rules and institutions, asking how crime is socially constructed, how policing and punishment operate in practice, and what the relationship is between social inequality and the distribution of harm.

At the University of Stirling you will study across four years of full-time study, including a year abroad that brings an international dimension to your understanding of how different legal and social systems approach crime and justice. Taught by specialists in social research and law, the course draws on the latest developments in both fields, encouraging you to assess how different cultures understand crime and social problems and what lessons can be drawn from social policies across different countries. You will develop strong analytical and research skills, learning to work with legal materials, social data and theoretical frameworks with equal facility.

Graduates from criminology and law programmes are well placed for careers in the legal professions, with many pursuing the additional training required for solicitor or advocate qualifications. Criminal justice organisations, probation, youth justice, policy research, social work and the voluntary sector are all common destinations. The academic grounding in both disciplines also prepares you well for postgraduate study in law, criminology, social policy or applied social research.

The combination of legal knowledge and social scientific perspective is increasingly valued in organisations that need to understand not just what the law says but how it operates in social reality and whether it achieves its stated goals.