Criminology

Criminology studies crimes and their causes, effects, and social impact. Learn how to ‘think like a criminologist’ and apply Criminology to the context of modern life, social diversity and inequalities in society. Criminologists are interested in how activities are defined as criminal, explanations for crime and social reactions to crime.

The University of Stirling is ranked 1st in Scotland and top 10 the UK for Criminology (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022). Our Criminology courses explore fascinating questions surrounding the criminal justice system, the social contexts of crime, and the relationship between behaviour and punishment:

Why and how do people break the law?
How can the criminal justice system define this
How do we police, prosecute and punish people?

Criminology courses

Courses labelled  are available for online study only.

Undergraduate courses
Course	Start date
BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy	January 2023, September 2023, January 2024
BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology	January 2023, September 2023, January 2024

Postgraduate courses
Course	Start date
MSc Criminological Research	September 2022, September 2023
MSc Criminology	September 2022, September 2023

You may also be interested in

Law

Scholarships

We offer a variety of scholarship and funding options to help you finance your studies at the University of Stirling.

Undergraduate scholarships

See more undergraduate scholarships

Postgraduate scholarships

See more postgraduate scholarships

1st in Scotland

for Criminology

Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

Graduate careers in Criminology

Our Criminology graduates are in demand for a wide range of roles throughout the private, public and voluntary sectors. The skills you’ll learn in critical thinking, analysis, and problem solving are highly valued by employers and will give you the edge in the job market.

Criminology can give you a career in areas such as:

the police
social work
prison service
the civil service
human rights agencies
regulatory fields
criminal justice
marketing or lobby groups
central and local government
court services
security services
non-profit-making organisations, including the NHS, educational institutions and charities that work with young offenders or victims of crime

Criminology research

Criminology research is carried out in the Faculty of Social Science. Underlining the expertise of our staff, we scored highly in the recent Research Excellence Framework 2021 – a UK-wide assessment of universities’ research output. In the Social Work and Social Policy unit of assessment, we ranked 3rd in Scotland and top 25 in the UK – with 100% of our research environment and 88% of our research deemed world leading or internationally excellent.

The Crime and Justice Research Group

Research activities are focused thematically around four key areas:

contested concepts and identities
criminal justice - systems and processes
critical social and criminological theory
organised crime

Our research findings have been shared widely, making significant contributions to knowledge and informing policy and practice development within Scotland and internationally.

We work with policymakers, practitioners, communities and the public to collaboratively build just societies.

Our research group and the Faculty of Social Sciences co-host the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR), a partnership between the Universities of Glasgow, Stirling, Edinburgh, and Strathclyde.

We also host the Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research (SACASR) and are a member of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) consortium.