Criminology with Psychology BA (Hons)

Modules

• Year 1 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn teaching

  • Critical Reading and Writing for Criminologists
  • Psychology of Child Development
  • Themes and Perspectives in Sociology I
  • Thinking Like a Criminologist

  Spring teaching

  • Criminological Classics
  • Criminology in Theory and Perspective
  • Social Psychology and Individual Differences
  • Understanding the Criminal Justice System

  Your degree

  In your first year, you’ll develop the key skills you’ll need to think like a criminologist. You’ll:

  • build an understanding in the theory and practice of criminology as a discipline
  • develop the knowledge and intellectual tools needed to undertake a more detailed analysis of crime and deviance across the world today – its manifestations, social causes and consequences
  • deepen your understanding of the topics, issues and debates within criminology
  • learn about key theoretical perspectives and concepts – the analytical frameworks vital to understanding theories of crime, and to evaluating competing criminological explanations in national and international contexts
  • apply criminological thinking as tools to understand and analyse crime, criminality and punishment by situating them within broader social, cultural, political and historical contexts.

  In psychology, you’ll:

  • explore the field of developmental psychology, which focuses on the scientific study of how children develop
  • evaluate key theories and empirical evidence across key areas of child development such as language, attachment, emotion and cognitive development
  • find out about the field of social psychology, the scientific study of individuals and groups
  • study key approaches and methodologies, and evaluate different perspectives on studying individual differences.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include lectures and seminars.

  

  50%: Lecture
  50%: Seminar

  Assessment

  Assessment methods typically include essays, professional logs, a report and a portfolio.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 170 hours of contact time and about 1,030 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course.

• Year 2 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn teaching

  • Biological Psychology
  • Designing Social Research

  Spring teaching

  • Psychology of Cognitive Processes

  Options

  Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.

  While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

  Autumn teaching

  • A Sociology of Generations and Social Change? From Passive to Active Generations
  • Citizenship, Activism and Resistance
  • Crime and the Media (Aut)
  • Drugs, Crime and Deviant Leisure
  • Gender, Crime and Justice
  • Identity, Violence and Transgression
  • Lions Den: An Exploration (A)
  • Police and Policing
  • Sociology of Emotions and Mental Health
  • The Climate Crisis, Criminology & the Justice System
  • The Politics of Criminalisation (Autumn)

  Spring teaching

  • Doing Social Research: working with qualitative data
  • Drugs, Crime and Deviant Leisure
  • Gender, Crime and Justice
  • Precarity and the Politics of Work (Spr)
  • Punishment and Penology (Spr)
  • Social Research Methods: Analysing Quantitative Data
  • Sociology of Emotions and Mental Health
  • The Alchemy of Race and Racism (Spring)
  • The Sociology of Human Rights
  • Victimology and Emotion

  Your degree

  In criminology, you’ll:

  • study the foundational principles and practices of social research – from project design to empirical practice
  • explore a range of different methods and methodologies that will strengthen your applied social research skills. These foundational research skills will improve the quality and rigour of your academic work across all facets of your degree
  • have the opportunity to tailor your degree to your interests by choosing from specialised options. Our options build on the knowledge developed in the first year and explore key topics and debates in contemporary criminological thought – for example the politics of policing and criminalisation, mass incarceration and punishment, crime and the media, or green and environmental crime – in greater detail. 

  In psychology, you’ll explore biological psychology. This is the scientific study of the brain and how it shapes behaviour. You’ll:

  • examine the basic structure and function of the brain and its cells
  • learn the methodological approaches used in the field
  • inspect a variety of behaviours such as sleep, motivation, reproductive behaviour and psychological disorders
  • explore the field of cognitive psychology (the scientific study of how the mind works), its research approaches and understanding its relevance to everyday functioning.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include lectures and seminars.

  

  50%: Lecture
  50%: Seminar

  Assessment

  Assessment methods typically include longer essays, portfolios, a professional log and a computer-based examination.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 170 hours of contact time and about 1,030 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course.

• Experience Year

  Study abroad (optional)

  Apply to study abroad – you’ll develop an international perspective and gain an edge when it comes to your career.

  If your application to study abroad is successful, you’ll have to meet the academic requirements at Sussex and also at the partner university. Find out more about studying abroad as a Sussex student

  Placement (optional)

  To help you gain experience and increase your employability, you can apply for an optional placement as part of your course. You’ll be responsible for applying for and securing your placement. Our dedicated careers team can provide you with information and advice. If you’re successful in obtaining a placement, this will form part of your course.

  Find out more about placements and internships

  Please note that if you’re receiving – or applying for – USA federal Direct Loan funds, you can’t transfer to the version of your course with an optional study abroad period in any country or optional placement in the USA if the number of credits for the placement/internship exceeds 25% of the total credits for your course. Find out more about American Student Loans and Federal Student Aid

• Year 3 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn and spring teaching

  • Criminology Project

  Autumn teaching

  • Understanding Clinical Psychology

  Spring teaching

  • Advanced Topics in Psychology

  Options

  Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.

  While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

  Autumn teaching

  • (Im)mobilities and the Criminal Justice System
  • Carceral Technologies
  • Class, Power and the State (Aut)
  • Crimes against Humanity (Aut)
  • Critical Perspectives on Terrorism
  • Digital Activism and Citizenship in Datafied Societies
  • Technology and the Human
  • The Death Penalty

  Spring teaching

  • Criminology of Violence and Death
  • Neurocriminology
  • Riots, Strikes, Revolts
  • Temporalities - Histories - Hauntologies (Spr)
  • The Death Penalty
  • Understanding Gangs (Spr)
  • Visual Criminology (Spr)

  Your degree

  In your final year, you become a researcher – you’ll undertake an independent empirical research project that runs across the whole year. You’ll build on the social science research methods knowledge gained in Year 2 and apply it to a research topic of your choice.

  In criminology, you’ll choose specialised options to match your interests. Your lecturers are experts in their field and inform their modules with the material they actively research. This ensures that your course is always current and up to date. You’ll take a deeper look at some of the key criminological topics, issues and debates around the use of carceral technologies, the death penalty, hauntologies, gangs and crimes against humanity.

  In psychology, you’ll:

  • explore how mental health issues and psychopathology impact people throughout their lives
  • learn how psychologists make diagnoses and use theory to guide treatment
  • discuss current topics across a range of psychology disciplines including animal behaviour, sensory and perceptual systems, and health and clinical psychology
  • cover methods and theoretical approaches to gain a critical insight into how psychology is informing our understanding of our world and society today.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include lectures and practical workshops.

  

  25%: Lecture
  75%: Practical

  Assessment

  Assessment methods typically include longer-form essays and portfolios. For your criminology project, you’ll submit a dissertation based on a year-long independent empirical research project. Other assessed components of the criminology project include a research proposal and an oral presentation of your project.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 110 hours of contact time and about 1,090 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course.

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 2026/27. 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.

We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.