Law with Criminology

Law with Criminology brings together the formal study of legal systems and the social scientific analysis of crime, deviance, punishment, and criminal justice. Law equips you with an understanding of how legal rules are made, interpreted, and applied, and develops the analytical and argumentative skills that are central to legal reasoning. Criminology situates crime and justice within the broader contexts of society, politics, and power, asking why some acts are criminalised and others are not, how criminal justice systems operate in practice, and what the evidence says about the effectiveness of punishment and rehabilitation.

The two disciplines complement each other particularly well because the law on paper and the justice system as it actually functions are often strikingly different things.

At the University of Surrey, this three-year, full-time degree covers the foundations of English law alongside criminological theory, research methods in the social sciences, and the policy debates that shape criminal justice today. You will study contract, tort, public law, criminal law, and evidence, and you will engage with questions about policing, sentencing, prisons, youth justice, and the treatment of victims. Surrey has made a point of integrating digital skills and an awareness of AI into the curriculum, preparing you for the realities of legal and criminal justice practice in environments that are increasingly shaped by technology.

This is a forward-looking approach that reflects how rapidly the professional landscape is changing.

You will develop skills in statutory interpretation, case analysis, social research, and clear written argument that are valued across the legal profession and far beyond it. The combination of legal rigour and social science perspective is particularly useful for roles that sit at the intersection of law and policy.

Graduates pursue careers in solicitor practices, the Bar, the Crown Prosecution Service, probation, policing, the prison service, government, social research, and the voluntary sector. Some go on to graduate diplomas in law, the Solicitors Qualifying Examination pathway, or postgraduate study in criminology, criminal justice, or social policy.