What is studying Criminology like?

Joe's Story

Why Salford?

I chose to study at the University of Salford mainly due to its location, it is just over a 20-minute train ride from the stop near my home which makes it convenient to go back and forth if needs be. I also had a much better open day experience at this university than the other university I visited in Manchester which made me sway towards Salford. Lastly, I wanted to live in student halls first year and the new student accommodation at peel park was a bonus as the rooms were almost brand new. The open day I attended was very engaging which helped to give you an understanding of what the course was going to be like. They also had students who were already studying there so we could ask them any questions we had.

What is Criminology?

A criminology course in very simple terms, is the study of criminals and how the criminal mind works. As well as discussing criminal behaviour and what causes it, we look at society in general and understand how it may also play a part in causing people to commit crimes and the flaws within societies when dealing with criminals, for example, the criminal justice system.

What is the Criminology degree like?

The course primarily consists of three types of classes, lectures, seminars, and workshops. The lectures involve a lecturer providing a detailed overview of different criminological issues and theories – they will often also ask questions to keep it engaging. Seminars tend to be more intense in terms of challenging the way you think about certain controversial issues within society. An example would be prison sentences, what is the purpose of them and do they work? we could spend up to an hour discussing and arguing points for one question, forcing us to think deeply about the issue. Lastly is the workshop, this is almost always group work based, it tends to involve groups of 6 discussing a task and then presenting our work to the rest of the class.

The majority of people do not enjoy standing in front of a class of people however I do agree that it is necessary – presenting pieces of work to a large number of people is actually quite a difficult skill that not many people are able to do to a professional standard, learning to do this, therefore, makes you even more attractive to future employers depending on what job you pursue. We also have professionals that come in to do guest speaking slots, this is usually just before the end of each module.

To provide an example of the modules you will study, as of right now in semester 1 of third year I chose to study Connected Lives, Understanding Victims and Victimisation and Work: Practice and Reflection. Connected Lives is actually a sociological module that analyses the people around us and makes us think.