Criminology and Sociology (MA)
Introduction
This new interdisciplinary programme combines dedicated Criminology modules with modules from Sociology, Psychology and Law, to provide a broadly based and comprehensive Criminology and Sociology joint honours undergraduate degree.
Study Information
At a Glance
- Learning Mode
- On Campus Learning
- Degree Qualification
- MA
- Duration
- 48 months
- Study Mode
- Full Time
- Start Month
- September
- Location of Study
- Aberdeen
- UCAS Code
- MLC5
Criminology is the study of crime, law, and criminal justice. On this programme, you will investigate questions including:
- How crime and criminality are defined and understood.
- How crime and punishment relate to a broad range of social and psychological factors.
- How key aspects of the legal system develop and are applied.
- How technological advances are affecting crime and its detection.
- How social arrangements contribute to social order and disorder.
- How key aspects of social relations and organisation have developed over time.
This exciting new programme addresses a diverse range of topics such as: social interaction, the construction of self, social inequalities, surveillance, face recognition, social control, biological and forensic psychology, policing, criminal justice, social harm and social justice.
This programme is delivered by staff with expertise in criminology, law, psychology and sociology to provide you with a critically informed understanding of crime, including the causes of crime, the impact of crime, and the effectiveness of crime prevention measures, including law, policing and prisons.
Our multidisciplinary approach provides you with a broad knowledge base and range of skills to inform your understanding of individuals, social relations and organisation, as well as the psychosocial conditions that contribute to disorder, instability and crime. You will also gain insight into the evolution and operation of the criminal justice system, including policing, prisons, probation and policy.
Finally, this programme also explores public, media and legal perspectives on crime and society, addressing the way in which these relate to different groups based on social class, age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, mental health and citizenship status.
What You'll Study
Courses
- Year 1
-
Year 1: Compulsory Courses
Foundations of Common Law Thinking (LS1533)
- Academic Writing for Social Sciences (AW1006)
-
This compulsory evaluation is designed to find out if your academic writing is of a sufficient standard to enable you to succeed at university and, if you need it, to provide support to improve. It is completed on-line via MyAberdeen with clear instructions to guide you through it. If you pass the evaluation at the first assessment it will not take much of your time. If you do not, you will be provided with resources to help you improve. This evaluation does not carry credits but if you do not complete it this will be recorded on your degree transcript.
- Getting Started at the University of Aberdeen (PD1002)
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This course, which is prescribed for level 1 undergraduate students and articulating students who are in their first year at the University, is studied entirely online, is studied entirely online, takes approximately 2-3 hours to complete and can be taken in one sitting, or spread across the first 4 weeks of term.
Topics include University orientation overview, equality & diversity, MySkills, health, safety and cyber security, and academic integrity.Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Transcript as ‘Achieved’.
- Introduction to Sociology I: Self, Identity & Society (SO1007)
-
15 Credit Points
Sociology is the study of human social groups. It particularly focuses on modern societies, analysing how they work and how the major social institutions in them (such as religion, the media, government and the economy) operate. The course provides students with a general introduction to the unique manner in which sociologists seek to understand contemporary societies. Students are presented with current and classical approaches to understanding the social processes that underlie self-construction, group formation and social interaction, within urbanizing and globalizing social contexts.
- Criminal Law (LS1020)
-
15 Credit Points
This course is a compulsory course on the LLB degree introducing students to Scottish Criminal Law including its sources and current law. It examines various aspects of substantive law including crimes against the person, crimes of dishonesty, crimes against property and criminal defences enabling students to understand and apply the law in these areas. The course also develops student’s written, verbal and analytical skills utilising written course work and problem solving exercises in tutorial groups.
- Introductory Psychology I: Concepts and Theory (PS1009)
-
15 Credit Points
PS1009 introduces you to major concepts and theories in psychology to provide you with a strong understanding of the human mind and behaviour. You will attend lectures on biological, social and cognitive psychology and participate in tutorials where you will work with peers to discuss topics related to the lecture materials. Studying psychology is beneficial to a wide range of careers including management, education, and counselling, to name a few.
- Introduction to Sociology II: Systems of Power (SO1509)
-
15 Credit Points
This course is an introduction to macro-sociology, which analyses the ways that people’s lives are shaped by large-scale forces, structures, and institutions. Students are introduced to the particular ways in which classical and contemporary sociologists understand social forces in the modern domestic and global environment and learn to think critically about those social forces that impact their everyday lives using the sociological imagination. Substantive topics likely to be covered in this course include the media, politics, religion, surveillance, education, class stratification, international inequalities, and the relationship between humans and other animals.
Year 1: Optional Courses
Plus 30 credit points from courses of choice.
- Year 2
-
Year 2: Compulsory Courses
FOR DIRECT ENTRANTS
PLUS:
Criminal Law (LS1020)
- Sociology of Everyday Life i: the Embodied Self (SO2006)
-
30 Credit Points
This follows on from level-one sociology. It is designed to highlight the ways that sociological theory informs the research endeavour, not only the questions sociologists raise, but also the particular modes through which we go about investigating them. The module examines these points in relation to a range of micro-level topics – the body, food and feeding, health and illness, the emotions, group behaviour, sex and gender, the life course and death and dying – all of which emphasise the nature of human interaction and sociological efforts to understand it.
- Introduction to Criminology (SO2007)
-
15 Credit Points
This course serves as the initial introduction to criminology and provides a sociologically based understanding of the key themes in this field, such as crime, deviance, surveillance, punishment, recidivism, reintroduction, social cohesion, and social order. Across the course students are introduced to a variety of case studies which illustrate the centrality of different actors and institutions to both the theory and practice of criminology and criminal justice, including the police, courts, and prisons, as well as additional actors in the criminal justice system.
- Advanced Psychology A - Concepts and Theory (PS2017)
-
15 Credit Points
This course builds on the material covered in the 1st-year courses, expanding on psychology’s concepts and theories. The course covers three core areas of psychology: language and cognition, perception, and individual differences.
- Sociology of Everyday Life II: Global Issues in the 21st Century (SO2509)
-
30 Credit Points
This macro-sociology course extends students’ understanding of large-scale social, as well as political and economic, processes and institutions. Particular focus is on the sociological analysis of global issues and socio-political controversies, many of which are subject to topical and, at times, contentious debate at the beginning of the 21st century. The substantive topics include areas of social and political concern such as globalisation; the changing nature of economy, work and leisure; risk and insecurity; multiculturalism; food production and security; social movements; nationalism and identities.
- Crime Theories and Concepts (Law) (LS2541)
-
15 Credit Points
This course will introduce students to key criminological theories and perspectives to understand e.g. why some people are more likely to commit or be victims of crime than others and examine the learning and insight to be taken from those theories.
- Advanced Psychology B - Concepts and Theory (PS2517)
-
15 Credit Points
This course builds on the material covered in the 1st-year courses, expanding on psychology’s concepts and theories. The course covers four core areas of psychology: social psychology, behavioural neuroscience and developmental psychology.
- Criminal Law (LS1020)
-
15 Credit Points
This course is a compulsory course on the LLB degree introducing students to Scottish Criminal Law including its sources and current law. It examines various aspects of substantive law including crimes against the person, crimes of dishonesty, crimes against property and criminal defences enabling students to understand and apply the law in these areas. The course also develops student’s written, verbal and analytical skills utilising written course work and problem solving exercises in tutorial groups.
- Year 3
-
Year 3: Compulsory Courses
- Thinking Sociologically (SO3066)
-
30 Credit Points
Thinking Sociologically is the department's core sociological theory module. The course offers our students an introduction to a range of key sociological thinkers and bodies of thought, both classical and contemporary, that inform sociological analysis of social life and social institutions. As such, this course is intended to provide our honours students with a conceptual 'toolkit', that can be applied to facilitate understanding, insight and informed critique with respect to a broad range of historical and contemporary social, political and economic phenomena.
- Biological Psychology (PS3014)
-
15 Credit Points
This course aims to provide students with a good understanding of the biological basis of behaviour and cognition. The course is split into two sections, each featuring 5 lectures. Section 1 focuses on psychopharmacology, which is the investigation of the effect of medication on normal and abnormal brain function. Section 2 focuses on neuropsychology, examining what can be learnt about psychological processes from studying patients with brain damage.
Specific topics that will be covered include: neurotransmitters; drug effects; psychedelic drugs; impaired object and face recognition; amnesia; and disorders of motor control.
- Social Research Methods (SO3524)
-
30 Credit Points
Sociologists use a range of methods and techniques to explore and test sociological theory. This module introduces many of these methods and techniques. It aims to ground students’ theoretical understanding of society through the practical analysis of a variety of data. It starts by introducing the varying philosophical starting points of research and goes on to provide foundation level critical analysis skills in the key quantitative and qualitative methods that sociologists have deployed to understand and ‘capture’ the social world.
- Social Psychology (PS3520)
-
15 Credit Points
Social Psychologists explore the psychological factors that influence individual behaviours within social situations. As such, the aim of this course is to provide students with an introduction to the range of topics within experimental social psychology, with a defined focus on social cognition.
Topics covered within this lecture based course include: Stereotypes; social perception and action; self-control; consciousness and mimicry.
This course provides a scientific explanation for social phenomena, making it ideal for students with an interest in individual and group behaviour.
- Crime and Social Justice (SO3025)
-
15 Credit Points
This course introduces students to the contemporary study of issues of crime and social justice and considers how they relate to individuals, communities, and sections of society. We adopt a critical criminological perspective in order to consider wider social harms, while analysing and reflecting on the criminal justice system and social justice interventions.
- Policing & Society (Law) (LS3533)
-
15 Credit Points
The course is designed to introduce students to understanding and knowledge and to develop critical awareness across areas of criminology and policing, and specifically the complex interface between policing and contemporary society.
- Year 4
-
Year 4: Compulsory Courses
Criminology (LX403R)
Face Recognition (PS4546)
Forensic Psychology (PS4536)
EITHER
Research Project Part 1 (SO4068)
Research Project Part 2 (SO4568)
OR
60 credit points from level 4 Sociology courses of choice
- Research Project Part 1 (SO4068)
-
30 Credit Points
This course is the first of two courses that comprise the Dissertation in Sociology. This first course affords students an opportunity to apply their sociological knowledge and research skills to an individual piece of research, focusing on a topic selected by the student and ethically approved by their Supervisor. Over the course of SO4068, with guidance from a member of staff, the project student will formulate an appropriate research question(s), conduct a critical literature review of relevant material, select appropriate research methods and prepare appropriate data collection tool(s) in order to commence their (online) research by the end of this course. Students will also get the opportunity to reflect on their presentation skills and prepare a 5-minute Panopto video on their project design for peer review. Particular emphasis will be given to helping students develop time management skills, a key transferable skill.
- Research Project Part 2 (SO4568)
-
30 Credit Points
In this course, project students, guided by regular staff supervision, build on the foundations developed in SO4068 to conduct their original research and deliver their conclusions in two formats. All students will present their developing work to peers in a multi-day student conference early in the semester and submit a final report of their work (i.e. project dissertation) at the end of the course.
- Face Recognition (PS4546)
-
15 Credit Points
Face processing underpins human social interaction, allowing us to recognise friends and avoid enemies, identify social groups, decode emotional messages and find romantic partners. Despite the advice not to ‘judge a book by its cover’, people also form judgements of a stranger’s attractiveness and character within seconds of seeing their face. This course will examine how these aspects of face processing relate to contemporary real-world topics, including the rise of facial AI.
- Criminology (LX403R)
-
30 Credit Points
This course examines theories that attempt to explain why people act in a deviant or criminal manner. We will consider theories that explain deviance (in whole or in part) as the product of (1) biological features of the deviant; (2) economic forces; (3) environmental conditions; and (4) the 'labels' social groups assign to certain types of conduct. We will also look at the means by which criminal statistics are gathered, and the extent to which they are accurate. The course is taught through six seminars.
We will endeavour to make all course options available. However, these may be subject to change - see our Student Terms and Conditions page. In exceptional circumstances there may be additional fees associated with specialist courses, for example field trips.
How You'll Study
Learning Methods
- Individual Projects
- Lectures
- Seminars
- Tutorials
Assessment Methods
Students are assessed by various assessment methods which typically include:
- Coursework such as essays, reports and quizzes completed throughout the course;
- Practical assessments of the skills and competencies they learn on the course such as presentations; and
- Written examinations at the end of each course.
The exact mix of these methods differs between subject areas, years of study and individual courses. Honours projects are typically assessed on the basis of an optional written dissertation.
Why Study Criminology and Sociology?
- This multidisciplinary degree programme is delivered by the School of Social Sciences in partnership with the School of Psychology and the School of Law to offer a comprehensive understanding of the social, psychological and legal aspects of crime and crime prevention.
- You will study the theory and methods of criminology, and apply your theoretical understanding of crime to investigate real-world problems such as gang violence, domestic violence, public disorder, drug-related, environmental, white-collar crime and cybercrime.
- You will also explore how technological advances are affecting crime and crime detection, including surveillance, facial recognition technologies and forensic psychology.
- Over 93.8% of our Law graduates were in employment or further study 15 months after graduation (Graduate Outcomes Survey 2025)
- The programme also addresses the development of self and society, power relations and inequalities, social order and conflict, with a view to contextualising the study of contemporary criminality.
- Students also gain a range of sound theoretical, methodological and analytical skills, which can be applied in an optional independent research project in the final year.
Interested in this programme?
Entry Requirements
Qualifications
The information below is provided as a guide only and does not guarantee entry to the University of Aberdeen.
General Entry Requirements
- 2026 Entry
-
SQA Highers
Standard: BBBB
Applicants that present with BBBB will usually receive an unconditional offer.
Where we have more applicants than places we may need to ask for more than the minimum so continued engagement in school is recommended.
Widening Access: BBC
Applicants who meet one or more of our widening access metrics and present with BBC, are guaranteed an unconditional offer.
Foundation Apprenticeship: One FA is equivalent to a Higher at A. It cannot replace any required subjects.
Note: We do not double count a Higher and Advanced Higher in the same subject, but we do consider that a B grade at Advanced Higher is equivalent to an A grade at Higher.
National 5 English (or equivalent) is required at Grade C or above.
A LEVELS
Standard: BBC
Widening Access: CCC
GCSE English (or equivalent) is required at Grade C/4 or above.
BTEC LEVEL 3 EXTENDED DIPLOMA
DMM in related subjects.
Note: BTEC Level 3 Extended Certificate (Subsidiary Diploma) achieved at Distinction level, is normally acceptable in lieu of one A Level at grade B.)
GCSE English (or equivalent) is required at Grade C/4 or above. GCSE Mathematics at Grade C/4 is also required for Accountancy, Economics and Finance programmes.
IRISH LEAVING CERTIFICATE
Five subjects at Higher at H3.
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE
32 points including 5, 5, 5 at HL.
SL in English is also required.
- 2027 Entry
-
SQA Highers
Standard: BBBB
Applicants that present with BBBB will usually receive an unconditional offer.
Where we have more applicants than places we may need to ask for more than the minimum so continued engagement in school is recommended.
Widening Access: BBC
Applicants who meet one or more of our widening access metrics and present with BBC, are guaranteed an unconditional offer.
Foundation Apprenticeship: One FA is equivalent to a Higher at A. It cannot replace any required subjects.
Note: We do not double count a Higher and Advanced Higher in the same subject, but we do consider that a B grade at Advanced Higher is equivalent to an A grade at Higher.
National 5 English (or equivalent) is required at Grade C or above.
A LEVELS
Standard: BBC
Widening Access: CCC
GCSE English (or equivalent) is required at Grade C/4 or above.
BTEC LEVEL 3 EXTENDED DIPLOMA
DMM in related subjects.
Note: BTEC Level 3 Extended Certificate (Subsidiary Diploma) achieved at Distinction level, is normally acceptable in lieu of one A Level at grade B.)
GCSE English (or equivalent) is required at Grade C/4 or above. GCSE Mathematics at Grade C/4 is also required for Accountancy, Economics and Finance programmes.
IRISH LEAVING CERTIFICATE
Five subjects at Higher at H3.
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE
32 points including 5, 5, 5 at HL.
SL in English is also required.
Additional Information
Entry from College (Articulation)
Year 2 entry: Satisfactory completion of HNC Social Sciences (120 SCQF credit points). B in all Graded Units. Students should take units A and B of the discipline/s they wish to study at university e.g. Psychology A (FK8D 34) & B (J030 34). Students must take LS1020: Criminal Law as an extra course alongside the compulsory Level 2 courses.
The information displayed in this section shows a shortened summary of our entry requirements. For more information, or for full entry requirements for Arts and Social Sciences degrees, see our detailed entry requirements section.
English Language Requirements
To study for an Undergraduate degree at the University of Aberdeen it is essential that you can speak, understand, read, and write English fluently. The minimum requirements for this degree are as follows:
IELTS Academic:
OVERALL - 6.0 with: Listening - 5.5; Reading - 5.5; Speaking - 5.5; Writing - 6.0
TOEFL iBT:
OVERALL - 78 with: Listening - 17; Reading - 18; Speaking - 20; Writing - 21
PTE Academic:
OVERALL - 59 with: Listening - 59; Reading - 59; Speaking - 59; Writing - 59
Cambridge English B2 First, C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency:
OVERALL - 169 with: Listening - 162; Reading - 162; Speaking - 162; Writing - 169
Read more about specific English Language requirements here.
Fees and Funding
You will be classified as one of the fee categories below.
- EU / International students
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £20,800
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year (Self-funded Students *)
- £14,800
-
The above fee includes the £6,000 Aberdeen Global Scholarship provided to self-funded international students. Full terms and conditions apply.
- Home Students
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £1,820
- England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £9,790
-
The UK Government has confirmed that the RUK fee cap will continue to increase each year to reflect inflation. Tuition fees will increase in line with the Government fee cap each year, and this should be taken into account when budgeting.
Scholarships and Funding
UK Scholarship
Students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who pay tuition fees may be eligible for specific scholarships allowing them to receive additional funding. These are designed to provide assistance to help students support themselves during their time at Aberdeen.
Aberdeen Global Scholarship
The University of Aberdeen is delighted to offer eligible self-funded international on-campus undergraduate students a £6,000 scholarship for every year of their programme. More about this funding opportunity.Funding Database
View all funding options in our Funding Database.
Careers
As governments around the world face increasing constraints on public spending, understanding crime and other social problems is a key concern for policy makers and stakeholders. This degree will develop the key critical thinking, analytical and research skills for a career in social and public policy fields in all sectors (public, voluntary, and private), as well as more specifically within criminal justice organisations. Criminology is also a pathway to careers including:
- Civil Servant
- Community Development Officer
- Paralegal
- Police Officer
- Policy Advisor / Researcher
- Prison Officer
- Probation Officer
- Social Worker / Youth Worker
Our Experts
This programme is delivered by a range of teaching staff in Sociology, Criminology, Law and Psychology.
Information About Staff Changes
You will be taught by a range of experts including professors, lecturers, teaching fellows and postgraduate tutors. However, these may be subject to change - see our Student Terms and Conditions page.
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Get in Touch
Contact Details
- Address
-
Student Recruitment & Admissions
University of Aberdeen
University Office
Regent Walk
Aberdeen
AB24 3FX