This module introduces you to the sociological and criminological imagination, the ability to connect individual experiences and local situations to wider social, historical, and global processes. You will explore how social norms, deviance, and systems of justice are socially constructed and contested, shaping everyday life. By engaging with key theories and debates in both sociology and criminology, you will develop an understanding of how questions of power, inequality, and social order underpin both disciplines and inform the study of social behaviour, crime and identity in contemporary societies.

This module gives you a solid foundation in criminology using a topic-based approach. You will examine how we can make sense of crime and criminality and explore key areas of debate and controversy within the discipline of criminology. Crime dominates much discussion on the political and social stage and this module enables you to take part and contribute to these public discussions in an informed and knowledgeable way. You will be able to discuss the cause and nature of crime and criminality. Important practical data skills of mapping crime data are a key part in this module.  

This module explores key sociological issues of migration, ethnicity, and population change in a global and unequal world. It examines how migration patterns shape identity, citizenship, family life, and work, alongside major demographic trends such as ageing populations and changing households. You will engage with both historical and contemporary issues, including colonial migration, global displacement, and debates on multiculturalism. The module emphasises real-world application, critical thinking, and the use of data and narratives to understand social change, with a focus on both UK (including Suffolk and Ipswich) and global perspectives.

Understanding and applying research methods is a foundational skill in social sciences. This module is designed to introduce students to the core principles, practices, and ethical considerations of social science research, laying the foundation for academic success and informed engagement with real-world issues. You will explore both qualitative and quantitative approaches, gain the confidence to evaluate research and begin to design your own studies, preparing you for more advanced work in your degree and for evidence-based practice in a range of professional settings. You will develop critical thinking skills, data literacy, and ethical awareness, while fostering transferable skills such as problem-solving and independent learning.

This module critically examines the complex relationship between crime, criminal justice, and the media in contemporary society. It explores how media representations influence public perceptions of crime, shape criminal justice policy, and contribute to broader societal understandings of deviance, law, and order. The module interrogates how various forms of media construct narratives around crime, victims, offenders, and justice processes. This module fosters interdisciplinary analysis and media literacy, encouraging you to move beyond surface-level interpretations and develop a critical understanding of the relationship between media and crime. You will develop analytical and research skills, preparing you to question dominant narratives and evaluate the real-world consequences of media influence on crime policy, public fear, and social control.

Social theory allows you to dig deep into the big questions in our social world about how power works, what is the glue that keeps society together most of the time and how and why do societies change. You will harness the power of thinking theoretically to be creative, tackle contemporary issues and open new insights into your social world. We will do this through the ideas of important theorists from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a few will be familiar like Weber, Du Bois or Durkheim but many new such as Archer, Latour, Chodorow or Luhmann. You will engage with the insightful, often challenging and sometimes counter-intuitive perspectives that come from a range of contemporary social theorists.

This module explores key debates in social justice alongside the processes of racialisation and inequality. The module investigates how racial inequalities are produced, maintained, and challenged, drawing on perspectives such as postcolonial theory and institutional racism. It applies these ideas to real-world policy areas including housing, education, health, and legal rights. You will examine influential theories of justice and consider how they shape public policy, welfare systems, and global power structures. With a strong focus on critical thinking and real-world application, you will develop the skills to analyse policy, evaluate evidence, and engage with issues of inequality at both UK and global levels.

This module critically explores the theory, policy, and practice of punishment and rehabilitation within the criminal justice system. It examines the historical and contemporary justifications for punishment, considering both custodial and non-custodial strategies, and the political ideologies that have shaped penal policy over time. The emergence and evolution of the modern prison are analysed in depth, with attention to key issues facing prisons, staff-prisoner relationships, power and internal cultures that define carceral life. The module investigates the development and transformation of rehabilitative approaches, exploring how rehabilitation functions as an aim of sentencing and how it is operationalised by key agencies, including the Probation Service. Emphasis is placed on the competing models of rehabilitation, including how this is enacted in both prison and community contexts. It has a particular focus on interventions, with young people, women, ethnic minorities, foreign nationals, life-sentenced prisoners, and individuals with mental health disorders.

This module equips you with the knowledge and skills to design, conduct, and communicate research in the social sciences. This will involve engaging in applied, practical research tasks reflecting real-world data practices. You will develop an integrated understanding of qualitative and quantitative methods, ethical considerations, data analysis and visualisation strategies. You will gain confidence in both designing ethically sound research projects and applying data analysis and visualisation techniques using contemporary software tools. The module contributes to Sociology and Criminology programmes by building foundational research competencies essential for independent research, empirical dissertation work, and professional roles requiring data literacy.

This is an optional module at level 5 or level 6 (rotational offering).

This module explores the processes, practices and institutions constituting the UK criminal justice system (CJS). A chronological approach is taken to the whole CJS lifecycle, from initial attendance and intervention by CJS agencies, through to prosecution, the courts process, traditional and alternative justice arrangements including out of court disposals. The process of ‘aftercare’ and risk management arrangements, used by the CJS in the pursuit of justice, is also examined as well as the pathways to rehabilitation and desistance. The module adopts a holistic approach, recognising that no individual CJS actor is ‘primus inter pares’, and that multistakeholder partnership working is essential for the CJS’ effectiveness and efficiency. By holistically foregrounding processes, practices and institutions, the module critically analyses the social, economic and political factors underpinning the British democratic and partnership-oriented approach to criminal justice.

This is an optional module at level 5 or level 6 (rotational offering).

This module offers you the opportunity to explore the complex and contested place of drug use within contemporary society. It enables you to critically examine how drug-related issues are constructed, debated, and governed through political, legal, and public health frameworks. The module supports you in developing a critical understanding of how social problems are defined and how policy is shaped by broader philosophical, ideological, and institutional influences. In doing so, it contributes directly to your ability to analyse contemporary social control practices and policy interventions — a key feature of criminological study.

This is an optional module at level 5 or level 6 (rotational offering).

Getting meaningful work is probably one of your main aims when you graduate. Work and employment are also one of the central areas of interest across the social sciences. You will explore your current and future career aspirations, develop a CV and be able to undertake a work placement or work shadowing. You will also complete the Future me programme at the university of Suffolk as part of the module.

In this module you will produce a final year project that allows you to exercise your independent judgement and skills in the development and execution of a project or dissertation relevant to your field of study. Under the supervision of an assigned tutor, the module provides you with the opportunity to independently apply the core subject knowledge and skills developed over the course of your degree. Over the course of the year, you will undertake independent analysis and research, and communicate and present it to high professional standards.

Gender and sexuality remain central to social sciences and contemporary public debate. These categories shape lived experience and social institutions, and often intersect with class, ethnicity, age, disability, and other axes of inequality. The module provides a critical and intersectional exploration of how gender and sexuality are constructed, contested, and governed within local and global contexts. This module provides a deeper and broader engagement with theory, empirical research, policy and activism.

Medical sociology questions and challenges dominant discourses according to which the topics of health and illness are to be largely treated as biological phenomena and understood through specialist medical knowledge rather than a social or public health perspective. The module investigates topics related to the social meaning of health and illness, the sociology of the body, the important role of story-telling and the patients’ narratives in the healing process, digital medicine, the unequal physician-patient relationship, phenomena such as the increasing tendency to pathologize and, subsequently, medicalize human expression and behaviour, alternative medicine, psychosomatic theories of illness, sociological perspectives around health policy and practice, health inequalities, mental illness, alternative medicine, and others.

In this module you will addresses a critical gap in traditional criminological study by centring the experiences, rights, and needs of victims. It equips you with the theoretical and analytical tools to explore how victimhood is socially, legally, and politically constructed, and how these constructions influence policy, justice processes, and public perception. As victimisation extends beyond individual acts to include structural, institutional, and global harms, this module encourages you to think critically about power, inequality, and justice in contemporary society. It focuses in particularly on violence against women and girls, crimes of the powerful and against particular groups (hate crimes).

This module introduces you to the sociological and criminological imagination, the ability to connect individual experiences and local situations to wider social, historical, and global processes. You will explore how social norms, deviance, and systems of justice are socially constructed and contested, shaping everyday life. By engaging with key theories and debates in both sociology and criminology, you will develop an understanding of how questions of power, inequality, and social order underpin both disciplines and inform the study of social behaviour, crime and identity in contemporary societies.

This module gives you a solid foundation in criminology using a topic-based approach. You will examine how we can make sense of crime and criminality and explore key areas of debate and controversy within the discipline of criminology. Crime dominates much discussion on the political and social stage and this module enables you to take part and contribute to these public discussions in an informed and knowledgeable way. You will be able to discuss the cause and nature of crime and criminality. Important practical data skills of mapping crime data are a key part in this module.

This module explores key sociological issues of migration, ethnicity, and population change in a global and unequal world. It examines how migration patterns shape identity, citizenship, family life, and work, alongside major demographic trends such as ageing populations and changing households. You will engage with both historical and contemporary issues, including colonial migration, global displacement, and debates on multiculturalism. The module emphasises real-world application, critical thinking, and the use of data and narratives to understand social change, with a focus on both UK (including Suffolk and Ipswich) and global perspectives.

Understanding and applying research methods is a foundational skill in social sciences. This module is designed to introduce students to the core principles, practices, and ethical considerations of social science research, laying the foundation for academic success and informed engagement with real-world issues. You will explore both qualitative and quantitative approaches, gain the confidence to evaluate research and begin to design your own studies, preparing you for more advanced work in your degree and for evidence-based practice in a range of professional settings. You will develop critical thinking skills, data literacy, and ethical awareness, while fostering transferable skills such as problem-solving and independent learning.

This module critically examines the complex relationship between crime, criminal justice, and the media in contemporary society. It explores how media representations influence public perceptions of crime, shape criminal justice policy, and contribute to broader societal understandings of deviance, law, and order. The module interrogates how various forms of media construct narratives around crime, victims, offenders, and justice processes. This module fosters interdisciplinary analysis and media literacy, encouraging you to move beyond surface-level interpretations and develop a critical understanding of the relationship between media and crime. You will develop analytical and research skills, preparing you to question dominant narratives and evaluate the real-world consequences of media influence on crime policy, public fear, and social control.

Social theory allows you to dig deep into the big questions in our social world about how power works, what is the glue that keeps society together most of the time and how and why do societies change. You will harness the power of thinking theoretically to be creative, tackle contemporary issues and open new insights into your social world. We will do this through the ideas of important theorists from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a few will be familiar like Weber, Du Bois or Durkheim but many new such as Archer, Latour, Chodorow or Luhmann. You will engage with the insightful, often challenging and sometimes counter-intuitive perspectives that come from a range of contemporary social theorists.

This module explores key debates in social justice alongside the processes of racialisation and inequality. The module investigates how racial inequalities are produced, maintained, and challenged, drawing on perspectives such as postcolonial theory and institutional racism. It applies these ideas to real-world policy areas including housing, education, health, and legal rights. You will examine influential theories of justice and consider how they shape public policy, welfare systems, and global power structures. With a strong focus on critical thinking and real-world application, you will develop the skills to analyse policy, evaluate evidence, and engage with issues of inequality at both UK and global levels.

This module critically explores the theory, policy, and practice of punishment and rehabilitation within the criminal justice system. It examines the historical and contemporary justifications for punishment, considering both custodial and non-custodial strategies, and the political ideologies that have shaped penal policy over time. The emergence and evolution of the modern prison are analysed in depth, with attention to key issues facing prisons, staff-prisoner relationships, power and internal cultures that define carceral life. The module investigates the development and transformation of rehabilitative approaches, exploring how rehabilitation functions as an aim of sentencing and how it is operationalised by key agencies, including the Probation Service. Emphasis is placed on the competing models of rehabilitation, including how this is enacted in both prison and community contexts. It has a particular focus on interventions, with young people, women, ethnic minorities, foreign nationals, life-sentenced prisoners, and individuals with mental health disorders.

This module equips you with the knowledge and skills to design, conduct, and communicate research in the social sciences. This will involve engaging in applied, practical research tasks reflecting real-world data practices. You will develop an integrated understanding of qualitative and quantitative methods, ethical considerations, data analysis and visualisation strategies. You will gain confidence in both designing ethically sound research projects and applying data analysis and visualisation techniques using contemporary software tools. The module contributes to Sociology and Criminology programmes by building foundational research competencies essential for independent research, empirical dissertation work, and professional roles requiring data literacy.

This is an optional module at level 5 or level 6 (rotational offering).

This module explores the processes, practices and institutions constituting the UK criminal justice system (CJS). A chronological approach is taken to the whole CJS lifecycle, from initial attendance and intervention by CJS agencies, through to prosecution, the courts process, traditional and alternative justice arrangements including out of court disposals. The process of ‘aftercare’ and risk management arrangements, used by the CJS in the pursuit of justice, is also examined as well as the pathways to rehabilitation and desistance. The module adopts a holistic approach, recognising that no individual CJS actor is ‘primus inter pares’, and that multistakeholder partnership working is essential for the CJS’ effectiveness and efficiency. By holistically foregrounding processes, practices and institutions, the module critically analyses the social, economic and political factors underpinning the British democratic and partnership-oriented approach to criminal justice.

This is an optional module at level 5 or level 6 (rotational offering).

This module offers you the opportunity to explore the complex and contested place of drug use within contemporary society. It enables you to critically examine how drug-related issues are constructed, debated, and governed through political, legal, and public health frameworks. The module supports you in developing a critical understanding of how social problems are defined and how policy is shaped by broader philosophical, ideological, and institutional influences. In doing so, it contributes directly to your ability to analyse contemporary social control practices and policy interventions — a key feature of criminological study.

This is an optional module at level 5 or level 6 (rotational offering).

Getting meaningful work is probably one of your main aims when you graduate. Work and employment are also one of the central areas of interest across the social sciences. You will explore your current and future career aspirations, develop a CV and be able to undertake a work placement or work shadowing. You will also complete the Future me programme at the university of Suffolk as part of the module.

In this module you will produce a final year project that allows you to exercise your independent judgement and skills in the development and execution of a project or dissertation relevant to your field of study. Under the supervision of an assigned tutor, the module provides you with the opportunity to independently apply the core subject knowledge and skills developed over the course of your degree. Over the course of the year, you will undertake independent analysis and research, and communicate and present it to high professional standards.

Gender and sexuality remain central to social sciences and contemporary public debate. These categories shape lived experience and social institutions, and often intersect with class, ethnicity, age, disability, and other axes of inequality. The module provides a critical and intersectional exploration of how gender and sexuality are constructed, contested, and governed within local and global contexts. This module provides a deeper and broader engagement with theory, empirical research, policy and activism.  

Medical sociology questions and challenges dominant discourses according to which the topics of health and illness are to be largely treated as biological phenomena and understood through specialist medical knowledge rather than a social or public health perspective. The module investigates topics related to the social meaning of health and illness, the sociology of the body, the important role of story-telling and the patients’ narratives in the healing process, digital medicine, the unequal physician-patient relationship, phenomena such as the increasing tendency to pathologize and, subsequently, medicalize human expression and behaviour, alternative medicine, psychosomatic theories of illness, sociological perspectives around health policy and practice, health inequalities, mental illness, alternative medicine, and others.

In this module you will addresses a critical gap in traditional criminological study by centring the experiences, rights, and needs of victims. It equips you with the theoretical and analytical tools to explore how victimhood is socially, legally, and politically constructed, and how these constructions influence policy, justice processes, and public perception. As victimisation extends beyond individual acts to include structural, institutional, and global harms, this module encourages you to think critically about power, inequality, and justice in contemporary society. It focuses in particularly on violence against women and girls, crimes of the powerful and against particular groups (hate crimes).