In your final year, you’ll study the social origins, causes, context and consequences of racism. We’ll teach you how various agencies put criminological theories into practice to address crime, exploring the impact of austerity and the financial and ideological tensions between different institutions. You’ll also conduct an independent research project on a relevant topic from inception to completion, with guidance from an appropriate member of academic staff.

You might explore how scientific knowledge and developments affect ideas and debates in sociology, as well as the future of society and the discipline of sociology itself. You might learn about sexual misconduct: its underlying theories, its consequences for offenders, victims and society, and the barriers to justice faced by victims of sex crimes. You could deepen your knowledge of the implications of increasing globalisation for criminal justice, covering the tensions between local and international notions of justice as well as issues such as terrorism, human trafficking and capital punishment.

You could find out about the role of the forensic or criminal psychologist in police investigations and the courtroom, and/or the impact of organised crime on society, the economy and policing jurisdictions. You also have the option to examine the theories and evidence underlying the neighbourhood policing model and evaluate how successful different community policing practices are for preventing crime and anti-social behaviour under austerity.

You might learn how domestic and international terrorism has demanded new responses over the past two decades and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of modern counter-terrorism measures. You might choose to learn about the youth justice system in England and Wales by exploring its tensions and contradictions, evaluating the competing theories explaining youth crime and youth culture, and finding out about the most recent developments and key innovations in the field.

You could find out how social media facilitates political activism, protest and campaigning, but can also be misused by bad actors for political ends. You’ll also have the chance to develop an understanding of the relationship between sport, processes of globalisation and the sphere of international politics, covering topics such as racism in sport and the history and politics of FIFA.

You might opt to broaden your knowledge of history and political, sociological and philosophical schools of thought. You could find out about the varieties of feminist ideas, debates, practices and activisms. You might explore scholarly ideas about the concept of ‘evil’ and ask whether this concept helps or hinders our understanding of current issues including war and terrorism. You could choose to learn how religious, biological, social and sociological understandings of sex and sexuality have been, and are still, used to prescribe and regulate people’s sexuality and sexual behaviour.

You could look into the justifications for, and critiques of, capitalism and its proposed alternatives. You might study the social origins, causes, contexts and consequences of racism, and/or the broad approaches of Welfarism, Neoliberalism and ‘modernisation’ that inform the policies that are applied to public services.

Assessment

We’ll assess you using a combination of case studies, presentations, essays, patchwork texts (short pieces of writing, or ‘patches’, built up week-by-week), portfolios, poster presentations, data analysis exercises, exams and group projects, as well as an Individual Major Project.