Law and Criminology

Law and criminology are disciplines that illuminate each other. Law establishes the rules through which societies define and respond to crime, while criminology asks deeper questions about why crime happens, who is most affected by it, and whether the systems we use to control it are just or effective. Together, they provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the relationship between rule-making, rule-breaking, and the social conditions that produce both.

At Buckingham this two-year full-time degree offers an accelerated route through both disciplines, delivering a complete law degree alongside a substantial criminology component within a compressed but intensive programme. You will study the core areas of English law required for legal qualification, including contract, tort, criminal law, and constitutional law, alongside a wide-ranging criminology curriculum covering the origins, causes, and consequences of crime and criminality. The criminology component incorporates legal and criminological research methods, primary and secondary sources of law, and the interdisciplinary perspectives, legal, social, psychological, and cultural, that the field draws on.

The two-year structure means you complete your degree faster than on a conventional three-year programme, entering professional life or postgraduate study a year earlier.

Graduates from this combined degree are well placed to pursue qualification as solicitors or barristers, following the Legal Practice Course or Bar Practice Course. Others move into careers in the criminal justice system, the probation service, social research, policy, or the voluntary sector. The combination of legal training and criminological understanding is valuable in roles that require both knowledge of the law and critical insight into how it operates in social practice.

Postgraduate study in law, criminology, or criminal justice is a natural path for those wishing to develop their expertise further.