This course focuses on the study of crime in society and how the criminal justice system works. If you are interested in finding out what people deviate and what consequences follow from this both for the individual and for society, then criminology may well be a course that you would enjoy and be enriched by. 

This unit explores different types of crime, influences on public perceptions of crime and why some crimes are unreported. This will provide an understanding of the complexity of behaviours and the social implications of such crimes and criminality. At the end of this unit, you will have gained skills to differentiate between the myth and reality of crime and to recognise that common representations may be misleading and inaccurate. You will be able to use and assess a variety of methods used by agencies to raise awareness of crime so that it can be tackled effectively. You will have gained the skills to plan a campaign for change in relation to crime; for example, to raise awareness, change attitudes or change reporting behaviour.

How do we decide what behaviour is criminal? What is the difference between criminal behaviour and deviance? How do we explain why people commit crime? What makes someone a serial killer, or abusive to their own families? Criminologists have produced theoretical explanations of why people commit crime, but which is the most useful? What can we learn from the strengths and weaknesses of each? How can these theories be applied to real life scenarios and real-life crimes? Knowing about the different types of crime and the criminological approaches to theory will give you a sharper insight into the kind of thinking used by experts and politicians to explain crime and criminality. Public law makers are informed by theory and apply these theories to their own solutions to the problem of crime. By undertaking this unit, you will learn to support, challenge and evaluate expert opinion and be able to support your ideas with reliable and factual evidence.

What are the roles of personnel involved when a crime is detected? What investigative techniques are available to investigators to help to identify the culprit? Do techniques differ depending on the type of crime being investigated? What happens to a suspect once charged by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)? What safeguards are in place to ensure a suspect has a fair trial? The criminal trial process involves many different people and agencies. Learning about the roles of these will give you a clearer insight into what happens once a crime is detected and the process that leads to either a guilty or non-guilty verdict. There are strict rules as to how evidence is collected from a crime scene and also strict rules governing the giving of evidence in court; learning about these rules will allow you to review the trial process and assess whether the aims of the criminal justice system have been met. You may be familiar with the role of the jury in the Crown Court, but you may not be aware of the many different factors that influence jury decision-making. By doing this unit, you will be able to assess the use of lay people in determining the fate of a suspect and evaluate the criminal trial process from crime scene to courtroom.

Why do most of us tend to obey the law even when to do so is against our own interests? What social institutions have we developed to ensure that people do obey laws? What happens to those who violate our legal system? Why do we punish people? How do we punish people? What organisations do we have to control criminality? We spend a great deal of taxpayers' money on social control, so how effective are these organisations in dealing with criminality? Through this unit, you will learn about the criminal justice system in England and Wales and how it operates to achieve social control. You will have gained an understanding of the organisations which are part of our system of social control and their effectiveness in achieving their objectives. As such, you will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the process of social control in delivering policy in different contexts.