Criminology with Counselling Skills

Criminology with counselling skills is a combination designed for those who want to understand crime, harm, and the social systems that respond to them while also developing the practical relational skills to support individuals who have experienced or perpetrated criminal behaviour. Criminology provides the social scientific framework for analysing what crime is, who commits it, who is victimised, and how criminal justice systems work, or fail to work, in theory and practice. Counselling skills add a person-centred dimension, developing the empathy, reflective capacity, and communication abilities needed to work therapeutically with people in distress or difficulty.

At the University of Chester, this three-year programme offers a genuinely distinctive educational journey designed for those with a passion for understanding the complexities of crime and harm alongside a commitment to supporting individuals through counselling and advocacy. You will engage with criminological theory and research, exploring crime causation, victimology, the criminal justice system, and the social contexts of criminal behaviour, while developing the interpersonal and therapeutic skills that counselling practice requires. A year abroad is built into the programme, broadening your perspective on how different societies and justice systems approach these questions.

Graduates are well placed for careers in victim support, the probation service, youth justice, social work, prison programmes, community rehabilitation, restorative justice, the voluntary sector, and advocacy organisations. The combination of criminological understanding and counselling skills is particularly valuable in roles where working directly with people affected by crime is central to the work. Many graduates pursue further professional training in counselling, social work, or forensic psychology, or postgraduate study in criminology, social policy, or criminal justice.