Law with Criminology

Law with criminology is a degree that takes legal study beyond rules and procedure and asks the deeper questions: why do people break the law, how does society respond, and what do those responses reveal about power, justice and inequality? Law provides the technical grounding in legal doctrine, reasoning and the structures of the legal system. Criminology brings the sociological, psychological and philosophical perspectives that explain crime as a social phenomenon and that allow you to interrogate whether legal responses to crime actually work and whether they are fair.

At the University of Hull, the criminology strand of this three-year degree focuses on why people commit crimes, how society deals with criminal behaviour and where the law fits into that equation. Alongside your core legal study, which covers areas such as contract, tort, criminal law, public law and property law, you will engage with criminological theories of crime causation, victimology, the sociology of punishment, policing and criminal justice policy. The combination produces a graduate who understands both the detailed operation of the legal system and the broader social context in which crime and punishment take place.

The skills the degree develops are directly relevant to a range of professional contexts: analytical reasoning, the ability to interpret complex evidence, written and oral communication at a professional level, and an understanding of how institutions function and sometimes fail are all valuable across law, policy, public service and beyond.

Graduates go on to careers in law (those who want to qualify as solicitors or barristers will need to complete the relevant additional professional training), the probation service, police, Crown Prosecution Service, the prison service, victim support, social work, policy analysis, research and journalism. The combination of legal and criminological knowledge makes graduates particularly well suited to roles across the criminal justice system. Further postgraduate study in law, criminology or criminal justice is also a common route.