Criminology

Criminology is a discipline that opens up some of the most important and contested questions in social life: why do people break rules, how does society decide what counts as a crime, and what should be done about those who offend? It is a subject that draws on philosophy, sociology, psychology, and law to produce a genuinely interdisciplinary understanding of crime, justice, and punishment, and it challenges students to think carefully and critically rather than accepting easy answers.

At the University of Derby, this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year and a year abroad, making it both accessible and internationally oriented. You will debate major philosophical ideas about retribution, rehabilitation, and punishment, exploring why people commit crime, how laws are created and broken, how effective different sentencing approaches are, and what the experience of crime means for victims, communities, and wider society. The foundation year provides the academic grounding you need before moving into the full criminology programme, and the year abroad gives you the opportunity to study criminal justice systems and criminological approaches in a different national context, which sharpens your comparative thinking considerably.

Graduates go on to careers in the criminal justice system, including probation, youth offending services, prison, the police, and the courts. Social work, community safety, victim support, policy research, and the charitable sector are also common destinations. The analytical and research skills developed in criminology are valued in a wide range of public sector roles, and the discipline's interdisciplinary character means that graduates are adaptable.

Many graduates pursue postgraduate study in criminology, social policy, law, or sociology to develop their expertise further or to access specific professional training.