Understanding the Criminal Justice System (L3123)

15 credits, Level 4

Spring teaching

On this module, you’ll explore the criminal justice system. You’ll focus on key debates around social control and the historic development of institutions.

You’ll assess the development of key components of the justice system, including:

• prisons
• the police
• probation
• the courts and community justice.

You’ll examine modern debates, including:

• race and crime
• gender
• power and punishment
• issues of overpolicing and criminalisation
• youth justice and crime prevention.

You’ll also understand and compare the British justice system in relation to international systems.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2025/26. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses:

• Criminology BA
• Criminology and Sociology BA
• Criminology with Psychology BA