Overview
Brand new for Sept 2026 entry onwards our Criminology and Law BSc programme offers a cutting-edge approach to criminology and Law, combining innovative content, critical pedagogies and creative assessments to equip you with the skills needed to understand and challenge the world around you.
Rooted in the principles of critical criminology and social justice, the degree examines historical and contemporary issues at both global and local levels. You will be encouraged to interrogate inequalities, question dominant narratives and critically explore social hierarchies shaping crime, operation of the law and justice. Complete with brand new modules and more of a focus on work-based learning.
How is climate change linked to crimes of the powerful? Are prisons the appropriate response to criminal acts? Are we all treated equally before the law?
These are some of the debates that you will explore in this course, by looking at the complex interactions between the state, the offender, the victim and society. You will think critically about how laws are made and how social structures shape both crime and crime control. In addition to engaging with criminological theories and topical crime and justice issues, this course provides you with a solid base of knowledge in Psychology and understanding of human behaviour, feelings and interactions.
As a criminology student at LSBU, you will be able to engage in a series of employability events. Criminology courses open pathways to careers in a variety of settings, including probation, policing, the prison service, NGOs, local authorities, the voluntary sector, youth offending teams, teaching, social work and administration.
The course is also linked to the LSBU Crime and Justice Research Group that organizes a series of research seminars and public events throughout the year. You will be encouraged to attend and participate in these events to enhance your learning experience and meet with researchers, practitioners and campaigners.
You'll be taught by research-active academics whose work is nationally and internationally recognised and informs the course curriculum.
Our courses prepare you for a range of careers, including probation, policing, the prison service, NGOs, local authorities, the voluntary sector, youth offending teams, teaching, social work and administration.
Be part of an academic community dedicated to social justice and global responsibility - with inspiring schedule of guest speakers, events, volunteering opportunities and exchange of ideas.
Enhance your employability by taking part in our employability events and choosing a work placement module in Year 2.
Why Criminology with Psychology at LSBU?
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- On this course, 87.1% of students think that teaching staff are good at explaining things (National Student Survey 2025).
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- We have an employability guarantee. We offer opportunities for all undergraduate students in Year 1 to build employability skills which leads to Year 2 opportunities to apply for placements in our ‘Working In’ Module.
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- We have strong professional links. Our Criminology courses open pathways to careers in a variety of settings including probation, policing, the prison service, NGOs, local authorities, the voluntary sector, youth offending teams, teaching, social work and administration.
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- Experienced research informed teaching by experts - You'll learn from expert professionals who know what it takes to succeed in the field. Our research-active academics whose work is nationally and internationally recognised, and informs your learning. Our critical approaches are rooted in the community, lived experiences and underpinned by a commitment to social justice.
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- Examples of expertise include Crime Location Place and Space; Contemporary Criminology; Gender and Youth Justice; Policing; Prisons; and Crimes of the powerful.
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- You’ll have access to our Oxford University Press Trove online library of high quality textbooks. We also have an award-winning library for group and quiet study space.
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- Link with the LSBU Justice, Conflict, Activism and Communities Research Group, which organises a series of research seminars and public events throughout the year where you can meet with researchers, practitioners and campaigners.
| ModeFull-time | Duration3 years | Start dateSeptember | Application codeM9C8 | Application method UCAS |
Watch our video to see how you can make yourself at home studying at LSBU.
Location
London South Bank University student union is located at 103 Borough Rd, London SE1 0AA.
If you are visiting our Southwark Campus, you may wish to use our downloadable campus map (PNG File 466 KB). For information on accessibility, see our DisabledGo access guides. See our location page for more details.
Entry Level Requirements
Need further information? Call us on 0800 923 8888 to discuss entry requirements.
112 UCAS points
Or equivalent level 3 qualifications.
If you do not meet the entry criteria above we also review any previous skills, knowledge or experience you have gained outside of your education and are happy to talk through any extenuating circumstances you feel relevant.
Visit UCAS for guidance on the tariff.
Choose your country
Select country here:
Missing English and Maths qualifications?
If you do not have the required English and Maths qualifications needed to satisfy the entry requirements for this programme, we have courses available at our partner College that you can take to upskill in these areas. Find out more at South Bank College.
Advanced entry
If you have already completed some studies at another university, we may be able to consider you for advanced entry. Please see our advanced entry page for more information.
United Kingdom
£9790
Tuition fees for home students
International
£17400
Tuition fees for international students
Tuition fees are subject to annual inflationary increases. Find out more about tuition fees for Undergraduate or Postgraduate courses.
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Full-time
full-time
BSc (Hons) Criminology With Psychology (FT) - Year 1
UK fee: £9790 International fee: £17400 AOS/LSBU code: 3540 Session code: 1FS00 Total course fee: * The full amount is subject to fee increases, the total shown below is based on current fees.
UK: £29370 International: £52200 BSc (Hons) Criminology With Psychology (FT) - Year 2
UK fee: £9790 International fee: £17400 AOS/LSBU code: 3540 Session code: 2FS00 Total course fee: * The full amount is subject to fee increases, the total shown below is based on current fees.
UK: £29370 International: £52200 BSc (Hons) Criminology With Psychology (FT) - Year 3
UK fee: £9790 International fee: £17400 AOS/LSBU code: 3540 Session code: 3FS00 Total course fee: * The full amount is subject to fee increases, the total shown below is based on current fees.
UK: £29370 International: £52200
For more information, including how and when to pay, see our fees and funding section for undergraduate students.
Please check your fee status and whether you are considered a Home, EU or International student for fee-paying purposes and for our regulatory returns, by reading the UKCISA regulations.
See our Tuition Fees Regulations (PDF File 630 KB) and Refund Policy (PDF File 775 KB).
Possible fee changes
The University reserves the right to increase its fees in line with changes to legislation, regulation and any government guidance or decisions.
The fees for international students are reviewed annually and the University reserves the right to increase the tuition fees to reflect increased costs of delivery and to maintain an a high-quality student experience. This increase would be no more than Consumer Prices Index (CPI) increases plus 5%.
Scholarships
We offer several types of fee reduction through our scholarships and bursaries. Find the full list and other useful information on our scholarships page.
Are you an international student looking to kickstart your global career at LSBU? If so, our new LSBU Future Global Graduate Awards could help you benefit from the high-quality, career focused education that LSBU offers. Find out more about our Global Graduate Awards.
International students
The course is not currently open to international students.
International applicants can apply directly to LSBU and should consult our international how to apply guide for further information on the application process and key dates.
Course delivery modes and application methods
| Mode Full-time | Duration 3 years | Start date September | Application code M9C8 | Application method UCAS |
Accommodation
Once we have made you an offer, you can apply for accommodation. You can rent from LSBU and you’ll deal directly with the university, not third party providers. That means we can guarantee you options to suit all budgets, with clear tenancy agreements and all-inclusive rents that include insurance for your personal belongings, internet access in each bedroom and on-site laundry facilities.
Or, if you’d rather rent privately, we can give you a list of landlords – just ask our Accommodation Service.
Read more about applying for accommodation at LSBU.
Finance
You don't need to wait for a confirmed place on a course to start applying for student finance. Read how to pay your fees as an undergraduate student.
Prepare to start
Applicant events
After you’ve received your offer we’ll send you emails about events we run to help you prepare for your course.
Welcome Week
Before you start your course we’ll send you information on what you’ll need to do before you arrive and during your first few days on campus. You can read about the process on our Welcome Week pages.
Getting started
Students can prepare themselves for the course by following the news - quality newspapers, good TV news bulletins, Radio 4 news etc - particularly news about crime (politics of crime as well as actual crime stories).
Suggested reading
It is valuable to do some preparatory reading before starting the course, we suggest:
- Hayward, K., Maruna, S., and Mooney, J. (2009) Fifty Key Thinkers in Criminology, London: Routledge
- Lippens, R. (2009) A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Criminology. London: Sage.
- Newburn, T. (2017) Criminology, third edition, London: Sage
- Treadwell, J. (2013) Criminology: The Essentials, 2nd edition, London: Sage
This course provides you with valuable knowledge and the ability to think critically about a range of topics within criminology. You will also gain transferable skills, which will provide you with a solid background to starting your career in different fields. Topics you will study include criminal justice, prisons, policing, punishment, youth crime, as well as some core psychology areas of research.
Level 4
Semester September=>January
Level 4 – Becoming a Criminologist
This module will introduce you to key criminological concepts, questions, and debates while supporting their development as independent learners. It explores what crime is and how criminologists study it. Alongside subject content, you will build essential academic skills such as referencing, academic integrity, and locating academic sources. The module encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and engagement with contemporary social issues, laying a strong foundation for further criminological study.
Level 4 – Crime, Harm and Justice
This module explores key questions about crime, harm, and justice, encouraging you to think critically about what counts as crime and who is labelled a criminal. You will examine how crime is constructed, represented, measured, and addressed in society, and consider topics such as moral panics, surveillance, urban inequalities and lived experiences of the crime and social control. The module also moves beyond traditional criminology to look at wider forms of social harm, including environmental damage and structural inequalities. By the end, you will understand how power and social structures shape definitions of crime, whose harms matter, and how societies choose to respond.
Level 4 – Legal Fundamentals
This module introduces students to aspects of the English Legal System, and practical, transferable and legal skills and legal theory essential to effective engagement with their legal studies. You will be introduced to the theories of what law is and what are its sources, the court system, and the personnel involved in the administration of the law. You will encounter and develop a range of skills, including study skills, research skills, deriving law from primary sources and explaining, discussing and applying it, and researching, using secondary sources, written, communication and IT skills and reflective learning.
Semester January=>May
Level 4 – Justice, Society and Technology
This module explores the intersection of law, justice, society and modern technology, focusing on how digital advancements shape crime, crime control, legal frameworks, and societal responses. You will examine legal, societal and ethical issues, study contemporary case examples, and understand how technology impacts crime prevention, investigation, and the administration of justice. The module aims to equip you with critical insights into the evolving relationship between law, society and technology.
Level 4 – Understanding Criminological Perspectives
This module will introduce you to key criminological concepts, questions, and debates while supporting their development as independent learners. It explores what crime is and how criminologists study it. Alongside subject content, you will build essential academic skills such as referencing, academic integrity, and locating academic sources. The module encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and engagement with contemporary social issues, laying a strong foundation for further criminological study.
Level 4 – European Law and Human Rights
This module examines the European Law and evolving landscape of Human Rights protection within both the European Union and the United Kingdom. You will first analyse these protections through the lens of international conventions, followed by an exploration of the status of retained EU law in a post-Brexit context. Finally, the focus shifts to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the domestic application of the Human Rights Act 1998, and the specific fundamental rights guaranteed under the Convention.
Level 5
Semester September=>January
Level 5 – Punishment and Social Control
This module explores the juridical justifications and the sociological explanations for punishment and examines the role of social structures and ideologies in shaping the uses and practices of punishment. It provides you with an understanding of inequalities and biases in the penal system and how they link to social control. The module will introduce you to historical patterns in the use of punishment, as well as to global and current trends, such as securitisation, surveillance and repression of dissent.
Level 5 - Researching Crime and Justice
This module introduces students to key concepts, methods and techniques used in Criminological and Social research and relevant ethical considerations. You’ll learn how to evaluate the methodological choices of Criminological researchers and to conduct their own research. You’ll also be introduced to both qualitative methods and quantitative methods and ethical discussions pertaining to conducting research. The module focuses on evaluative criteria (e.g. ethics and measurement validity) for social research, data collection and data analysis methods and consideration for contemporary / non-traditional research methods.
Level 5 – Criminal Law
The Criminal Law module supports students learning about Criminal Law in a practical context. The module covers the core principles of Criminal law; the core criminal offences and relevant defences. At the end of the module, you will have had an opportunity to build their confidence covering knowledge, their ability to communicate answer to problem questions. Students will also develop an awareness of the evaluation themes within criminal law such that they can propose law reform and complete a Capstone Dissertation or work experience.
Semester January=>May
Level 5 – Work in Practice
This module provides an opportunity for you to work in settings related to your studies and, more generally, gain meaningful workplace experience (60 hours) to apply learning as part of the degree. It will also reinforce your studies through the application and integration of relevant workplace experience into the academic context.
Voluntary and community sector organisations, charities and most political organisations are particularly suitable for work experience although much can also be learned from internal and external work experience opportunities available for students. The latter will provide you with sector specific experience or an opportunity to apply transferable skills in practice.
Level 5 – Policing, Power and Public Order
This module interrogates the power and politics of policing through a critical lens, exposing historical, social, and contemporary struggles shaping law enforcement today. While rooted in the UK, you will draw on global comparisons to uncover how systems of control operate. You will learn to challenge orthodox narratives of the Metropolitan Police from the 1829 Act through colonial entanglements to modern controversies, and examine racialised policing, community surveillance, and securitisation of minority groups, exploring whether reform or abolitionism is required. Dissecting police culture, legitimacy, and procedural justice to understand the global crisis of policing, along the way.
Level 5 – Consumer Rights and the Law
This module provides a thorough grounding in the general principles of UK consumer rights and protection. The module encourages students to engage in contemporary debate relating to UK consumer rights law, its development and reform, and to comprehend the integration in practice of previously studied law “subjects”, in particular contract and tort. The module also encourages students to analyse and evaluate the UK framework for the protection of consumers’ interests and encourages an appreciation of the significance of the social, political and economic contexts within which the law operates.
Level 6
All Year 40 Credit Module runs over both Semesters
Level 6 – Criminology Project
Over two semesters, this module consists of the research for and completion of a final project in Criminology. You will choose a subject or policy area in which you wish to specialise. This module allows you to consolidate and apply the skills and knowledge developed throughout their studies to undertake and complete the final project. The module provides structured in-class teaching to prepare students to undertake their project independently, under the supervision of a member of staff. Additionally, each student has the support of a supervisor who guides them from choice of topic to final submission during supervision sessions.
Semester September=>January
Level 6 – Gender, Crime and Justice
This module explores contemporary, historical and critical theoretical discussions about gendered experiences of crime and the criminal justice system. It equips students with key concepts and theories pertaining to gender norms, including the understanding of ‘femininities and masculinities’ in the study of criminology and how they shape societal approaches to gender-based violence and harms. The module also engages with academic debates that move beyond binary discussions of gendered experiences.
Level 6 – International Law
This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the foundations of international law, covering sources such as custom and treaties and the relationship between international and municipal systems. Students will evaluate the mechanisms of the UN Charter and treaty organs, alongside regional and bilateral protection strategies. The curriculum further examines the protection of civil, political, and socio-economic rights, addressing complex themes such as state sovereignty, impunity, and transitional justice. Finally, the module looks at some key international law conflicts to disclose their complex nature.
Careers
Employability Service
At LSBU, we want to set you up for a successful career. During your studies – and for two years after you graduate – you’ll have access to our Employability Service, which includes:
- An online board where you can see a wide range of placements: part-time, full-time or voluntary. You can also drop in to see our Job Shop advisers, who are always available to help you take the next step in your search.
- Our Careers Gym offering group workshops on CVs, interview techniques and finding work experience, as well as regular presentations from employers across a range of sectors.
Our Student Enterprise team can also help you start your own business and develop valuable entrepreneurial skills.
Career opportunities
Our students volunteer and find jobs in a range of setting, including the police service, the prison service, legal advice, victim support, domestic violence and child abuse agencies and charities, youth offending and youth mentoring schemes.
A social science degree also has the real advantage of opening up careers in a number of professions such as teaching, social work, administration and higher level education. Other graduates have forged exciting careers in research, public relations, advertising, retail, management and media-related work.
Career roles
One popular role is as a probation officer working with offenders before, during and after they are sentenced. Possessing a great deal of patience, strong oral communication skills and a non-judgemental attitude, working in probation can be very rewarding work. A qualified probation officer can earn between £28,000-£35,000. (National Careers Service)
The police service also offers a wide variety of long-term opportunities providing a two-year probationary period is completed. Salaries after 5 years can be up to £30,000. (BBC News)
There are a number of career opportunities within the criminal justice system or agencies and charities working with victims of crime, ex-offenders, and witnesses.
Optional Work Placement
Students will complete a work-based learning module as part of their second year where they will complete an optional work placement or take part in other forms of work-based learning. In the past, our students have volunteered with charities and criminal justice agencies, with local authorities, on programmes ranging from rehabilitation of offenders to victim support and campaigner groups. Through these, students contribute to real world situations linked to their subject of interest. In many cases, students maintain a relationship with the organisation they volunteer for. Placements ground a student's experience, provide confidence and bolster a CV immeasurably.
Our students have taken up work placements at:
- Chance UK – a unique early intervention mentoring organisation who provide adult volunteer mentors to work with children aged 5-11 years at risk of developing anti-social behaviour in later life.
- Kairos in Soho – a pan-London LGBT Community Development Organisation.
- The Naz project London – a sexual health organisation that works to mobilise Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in relation to HIV and other sexual health concerns.
- Richmond Advice and Information on Disability (RAID)
- Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS)
Teaching and Assessment
Study hours
Year 1 class contact time is typically 9 hours per week plus individual tutorial and independent study.
Brief assessment outline
All modules are assessed by a combination of coursework, essays, exams, presentations, reports, case-studies, reviews and final year dissertation.
Research active academics
You will be taught by research-active academics whose work is internationally recognised and informs the course curriculum. You'll be encouraged to attend and participate in the research seminars and events organized by the Crime and Justice Research Group, that will strengthen your learning experience as well as your network.
Criminology conference and events at LSBU
At LSBU,Criminology staff are actively engaged in research and organize research events, conferences and seminars at LSBU and other universities throughout the year. The Crime and Justice Research Group organizes a monthly research seminar and at least two larger events open to the public. Over the past two years we have welcomed Prof. Alex Vitale from New York as a visiting professor, held a public event with Prof. Alex Vitale and Gary Younge, as well as two round table events focusing on Youth and (In)justice and more recently on Policing dissent.
Register your interest
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