School of Social Sciences and Humanities

MA Comparative Criminology

MA Full-time 12 months, Part-time 2 years

This Masters course allows you to explore many of the rich and varied components of comparative criminology through the focusing in turn on aspects of contemporary justice, social harms, violence, oppression, the penal system and its reform, transnational policing, and past and current controversies in the criminal justice system. 

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This Masters course allows you to explore many of the rich and varied components of comparative criminology through the focusing in turn on aspects of contemporary justice, social harms, violence, oppression, the penal system and its reform, transnational policing, and past and current controversies in the criminal justice system. 

Award
MA
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
UCAS Code
Course specifications
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Course length
Full-time (12 months),Part-time (2 years)
Campus location
University: City Campus
School
School of Social Sciences and Humanities
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“The course is well organised and has enabled me to further my understanding of a wide of topics I haven’t previously studied. Its nature means the course content reflects emerging issues within the criminal justice system, taught by lecturers who are experts in their field. The use of key speakers provided a unique opportunity to hear about public and private sector organisations for volunteering and future employment”. 
Amy Fenn

Why choose this course?

This Masters course allows you to explore many of the rich and varied components of comparative criminology through the focusing in turn on aspects of contemporary justice, social harms, violence, oppression, the penal system and its reform, transnational policing, and past and current controversies in the criminal justice system. You will study these themes in depth under the care of tutors who have a keen interest in and expert knowledge of these fields.

As the culmination of the course, you will undertake a piece of independent research in the form of a 15,000-word dissertation on a topic based on one or more of the taught components of the course. Guidance in this undertaking will come from your appointed dissertation supervisor but also from the Research Methods core module, which will be studied prior to you commencing your research.

The MA draws on a vast range of expertise and will prepare you for future research at doctoral level, as well as further developing your interpersonal and professional skills

 Its especial strength resides in the sustained combination of criminological, historical, policing and social science approaches and expertise made available to you by the course team. The sound grounding that you will have acquired by the time of completion will provide the skills and the confidence to consider and seek opportunities in public and private sector research-based employment, as well as a wide range of jobs within academia, customs and excise, border control, policing etc. to name but a few examples. 

In preparation for future employment, an optional Work Placement module is available in which you will have the opportunity to undertake accredited work-based activities and experiences which will give you the opportunity to reflect on and apply the skills and knowledge learned on the course in a practical situation.

What's unique about this course?

  • An optional work placement module will allow students to experience work-based employment and activities.
  • The team have, over the past two years developed significant links with outside agencies such as the Parole Board, the Independent Monitoring Board.
  • Each module within the course is informed by cutting-edge research authored by University of Wolverhampton academics that have made new knowledge available to practitioners as well as significant interventions into key debates on the past, present and future of criminology and criminal justice.

What happens on the course?

The course draws on the expertise of internationally established researchers based at the University of Wolverhampton. Each module is led by scholars who have published widely in many aspects of comparative criminology.

Each module within the course is informed by books, articles and cutting-edge research authored by University of Wolverhampton academics that have made new knowledge available to practitioners as well as significant interventions into key debates on the past, present and future of criminology and criminal justice. The interdisciplinary nature of the MA gives it a unique and broader focus. A key component of the course will be the regular use of guest speakers from both public and private sector organisations. These will give students the unique opportunity to learn about and discuss a variety of future employment and volunteering opportunities.

An optional work placement module will allow students to experience work-based employment and activities. This module allows for both a practical application of many of the transferable skills gained during the course and a reflexive opportunity of seeing how the academic issues addressed on the course can be related to ‘real-life’ applications and processes.

Overall the course provides students with a pathway into various careers with the range of skills developed throughout the course ensures that graduates will be well equipped to work in a range of crime and criminal justice fields, and further afield: for example the Crown Prosecution Service, Charitable organisations, think-tanks, the National Office for Statistics, the Home Office, fraud investigators, immigration officers, and crime prevention/law enforcement areas.

Students will also be able to draw on the wider research culture of the Faculty; the team have, over the past two years developed significant links with outside agencies such as the Parole Board, the Independent Monitoring Board, representatives of the English Collective of Prostitutes, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, HMP YOI Brinsford, the Shannon Trust, the Magistrates’ Association and many other organisations and charitable bodies. These links enable the team to ensure that students are given the opportunity to receive guest lectures and seminars from representatives of these bodies that greatly enhance their learning experience. 

Course Modules

Module: 7CJ003
Credits: 60
Period: 1
Type: Core
Locations: University: City Campus

The MA Comparative Criminology Dissertation aims to provide you with the opportunity to: • Research an area of criminological/criminal justice interest in considerable depth • Further develop your critical and analytical research skills • Evaluate criminological evidence, argument and theory • Undertake Masters-level independent study within the framework of dedicated staff supervision • Further develop organisational, time-management and writing skills • Produce a substantial piece (15,000 word maximum) [with 10%+/- discretion] of original, independently researched work demonstrating considerable depth of enquiry into a criminological/criminal justice topic and competence in a range of critical, analytical, evaluative and synthesising skills in relation to criminological sources and methodological practices

Module: 7HS006
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Core
Locations: University: City Campus

This module will provide both a theoretical and as well as a more applied understanding of social and historical research methods. It will fuse sociological and historical methods, thereby providing you with the knowledge you need to adapt to new branches of enquiry that develop, and put you in a position to contribute to their development especially since many of them make considerable use of approaches developed by the field of sociology. On this module you will be asked to consider first major schools and controversies in relation to what constitutes knowledge. This will foreground consideration of specific research techniques which will be applied in the latter part of the module. Taken together, this will equip students to complete the module assignment: a 4000 word research proposal for the respective MA dissertation module that normally follows in Semester 2.

Module: 7CJ006
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Optional
Locations: University: City Campus

The module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of key issues within the discipline of victimology related to social harm or what is termed zemiology (e.g. violence, oppression and inequality). The module will explore theoretical approaches to understanding social harms and how we respond to social harms nationally and globally from both criminal and social justice perspectives.

Module: 7CJ005
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Optional
Locations: University: City Campus

This module will provide students with a critical understanding of a number of contemporary issues within criminology and criminal justice. A diverse range of issues, theory, and praxis will be covered in order to give students a relevant and up-to-date overview of the important and emerging issues in contemporary criminal justice. Both national and international issues will be covered to provide an insight into global criminal justice and criminology. Areas to be critically studied and discussed will vary from cybercrime to restorative justice to environmental crime. On completing this module students should have an advanced critical understanding of various contemporary issues in criminal justice, the theories behind these, and the problems inherent with achieving ‘real-world’ justice.

Module: 7CJ004
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Optional
Locations: University: City Campus

Every action in the administration of justice is directed by the moral of a rule or policy, or by the moral judgement of the practitioner who implements it. The module will introduce students to the fundamentals of ethical theory and rules of moral judgement which underpin the criminal justice system. Students will examine the moral grounds for some choices, such as the choice to arrest, to treat the public equitably and to impose punishment, and the tensions and controversies which surround them.

Module: 7CJ002
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Optional
Locations: University: City Campus

This module will investigate the significant changes made to the English penal system throughout the twentieth century; from the introduction of changes brought about from the findings of the influential Gladstone Departmental Committee on Prisons Report (1895), the abolition of hard labour in prisons from 1948 and the numerous problems with overcrowding experienced in the last quarter of the twentieth century. It will also focus on efforts both to reform the existing system and to instigate alternatives to imprisonment as the major form of punishment in English society.

Module: 7CJ009
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Optional
Locations: University: City Campus

This module will analyse the growth of Transnational Policing or the 'blue web'. It will do this in three main stages or themes from the Theorising surrounding Global or Transnational Policing (globalisation and the state, police sub-cultural theory, different types of transnational policing and security culture), the Structures and Architecture of Transnational Policing and Enforcement (global, regional, national and private policing networks, trust, co-operation or competition?) and a critical evaluation of its effectiveness in practice such as transnational spaces (borders, iborders/cyberspace, ports, seas, etc.) transnational problems (drugs, guns, finance) and people (criminals, terrorists and migrants).

Module: 7CJ007
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Optional
Locations: University: City Campus

This module will give students the opportunity to gain experience of the day to day working of service providers and to apply their theoretical knowledge in these settings. Students will use a work placement (existing or new, paid or volunteer position) to understand the context in which service providers operate and the challenges that they face. Students will use this module to develop their individual career plans and enhance the skills needed in their preferred area of work. The module will be delivered through workshops and individual tutorials

Potential Career Paths

You!

Crown Prosecution Service

Charity Organisations

Prison Service

Fraud investigation

Immigration Office

Crime Prevention

Additional Information

Everything you need to know about this course!

  • Demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level.
  • Demonstrate originality in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in the discipline.
  • Deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, make sound judgements in the absence of complete data, and communicate your conclusions clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
  • Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to your own research or advanced scholarship and ability to continue to advance your knowledge and understanding, and to develop new skills to a high level.

  • Demonstrate a systematic understanding of knowledge, and a critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights, much of which is at, or informed by, the forefront of your academic discipline, field of study or area of professional practice with a conceptual understanding that enables the student

    • to evaluate critically current research and advanced scholarship in the discipline
    • to evaluate methodologies and develop critiques of them and, where appropriate, to propose new hypotheses

  • Demonstrate the qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment requiring:

    • the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility
    • decision-making in complex and unpredictable situations
    • the independent learning ability required for continuing professional development.

Location Mode Fee Year
Home Full-time £7995 per year 2022-23
Home Full-time £9690 per year 2023-24
Home Full-time £10175 per year 2024-25
Home Part-time £3998 per year 2022-23
Home Part-time £4845 per year 2023-24
Home Part-time £5088 per year 2024-25
International Full-time £14450 per year 2022-23
International Full-time £15450 per year 2023-24
International Full-time £15950 per year 2024-25

These fees relate to new entrants only for the academic year indicated for entry onto the course, any subsequent years study may be subject to an annual increase, usually in line with inflation.

  • A Bachelor of Arts Honours degree (2:2 or above) in a Humanities-based subject from a UK University or overseas equivalent, or a professional qualification and/or experience considered to be equivalent; to be verified by the Course Leader.
  • You should also have a good standard of written and spoken English (IELTS 6.5 or equivalent).

Postgraduate Loan (Home Fee Status):

You may be able to get a postgraduate student loan from Student Finance England of up to £12,167 to help pay for a Master’s degree. Applications are made through Student Finance England and more information on the regulations and eligibility criteria can be found at Masters Loans gov.uk.

* Any RPL will invalidate your eligibility as you must study a minimum of 180 credits


Changes for EU students:

The UK government has confirmed that EU students starting courses from 1 August 2021 will normally be classified as Overseas (International) students for fee purposes. More information about the change is available at UKCISA:

EU citizens living in the UK with 'settled' status, and Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland, will still be classified as Home students, providing they meet the usual residency requirements, for more information about EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) click here.


Postgraduate Loyalty Discount:

You can get 20% discount on a taught on-site postgraduate course if you’re a University of Wolverhampton Graduate.

The University offers a generous 20% Loyalty Discount to students progressing from an undergraduate programme to a taught postgraduate programme, where both courses are University of Wolverhampton Awards.

There is no time limit on how long ago you completed your degree as long as this is your first Masters level qualification.

The discount applies to the first year of enrolment only. Students who receive a loyalty discount are not entitled to any further tuition discount or bursary. For full terms and conditions click here.


Self-funded:

If you are paying for the fees yourself then the fees can be paid in 3 instalments: November, January and April. More information can be found by clicking here.


Sponsored - Your employer, embassy or organisation can pay for your Tuition fees:

Your employer, embassy or organisation agrees to pay all or part of your tuition fees; the University will refer to them as your sponsor and will invoice them for the appropriate amount.

We must receive notification of sponsorship in writing as soon as possible, and before enrolment, confirming that the sponsor will pay your tuition fees.


Financial Hardship:

Students can apply to the Dennis Turner Opportunity Fund for help with course related costs however this cannot be used for fees or to cover general living costs.


Charitable Funding:

You might also want to explore the possibility of funding from charitable trusts; please see the following websites Association of Charitable Foundations, Directory of Social Change or Family Action. Most charities and trust funds offer limited bursaries targeted to specific groups of students so you will need to research whether any of them are relevant to your situation.


You can find more information on the University’s Funding, cost, fee and support pages.

Telephone

01902 32 22 22

Email

enquiries@wlv.ac.uk

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