Over the last decade the Department of Social Policy and Criminology has developed as a site of distinctive expertise and innovation in the study of criminology and social policy. It has a highly successful undergraduate teaching programme focused on real world concerns around social welfare, personal lives, crime and justice. We contribute to qualifications in the social sciences and to specialist degrees in social policy and criminology as well as in criminology and psychological studies. The Department's research work and the publications of its staff are highly rated and we currently host three significant research projects funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council.

The Department of Social Policy and Criminology is recognized nationally and internationally for its distinctive approach to teaching and research. It uses interdisciplinary methods and theories to examine those rapidly changing policies, practices and processes that affect the social, economic and cultural welfare of individuals, families, communities and nations in Britain, Europe and wider global contexts. There is a strong emphasis on the production of innovative undergraduate and postgraduate courses in social policy and criminology, and the exceptionality of our teaching has been acknowledged by the award of an 'Excellent' rating in the last Teaching Quality Assessment. A vibrant research culture is sustained through our commitment to producing scholarship and research publications of national and international significance that can act as a catalyst for and inform public dialogue on critical issues in social policy and criminology. The interdisciplinary character of the Department's research underpins the involvement of most of the members of staff 's research in the Faculty's Sociology (UoA 43) submission in the 2007 Research Assessment Exercise.

Find the Faculty of Social Sciences on Facebook