Introduction to the Master of Criminology Course at Oxford University

These courses on crime and criminal justice at Oxford University have benefited the society widely. This major has created a highly intellectually stimulating and cooperative environment to promote your criminology research. Next, I will introduce the course to you in detail.

First, the course overview

The crime major of Oxford University has a dynamic research course, which mainly promotes and develops research activity clusters around six themes: security, rights and justice. Crime culture, policy and practice; Politics, legality and criminal justice; Crime and family; Victims; Criminal justice, citizenship and immigration.

Members of this major are mainly committed to:

Linking criminology with broader social science issues; Think more about crime and punishment; Combine sociology and normative methods to analyze crime and justice; Engaged in the interdisciplinary research of criminology and public policy. These methods of studying crime and criminal justice provide the foundation for the teaching and doctoral guidance of the center. They have created an environment of intellectual encouragement and cooperation for your criminology research. This is an exciting and demanding course, including group intensive learning, Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice, which will give you a deeper understanding of crime and criminal justice, including criminology theory course, criminal justice research and research design training and methodology.

Second, the interpretation of specific courses

Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice is mainly full-time (one year) and part-time (two years). The degree and expectation of the two learning methods are equally strict. Part-time students attend classes with full-time students, but it takes two years to adapt to their work and personal situation.

The Master of Science consists of three parts (full-time course time reference, part-time course details please refer to the part-time Master of Science website):

1. required course

Three compulsory courses were offered every week in the first two semesters. In the third semester, the fourth compulsory (but unchecked) course is held every week. The specific courses are as follows:

Criminology Theory: In the first semester, this course provides an understanding of a series of organizational categories and central propositions of crime and social control in modern criminology. It will make you realize the main problems, dichotomy and ideas that shape modern criminology, and understand the essence of "theory" and "explanation" in criminology. Part-time students study this course in the first semester of the first academic year.

Criminal Justice: The second compulsory course provides you with a comprehensive criminology foundation and an understanding of criminal justice/criminal institutions and procedures. Before introducing contemporary issues and debates about criminal justice and punishment, first introduce the core themes of classical research in these processes. This course introduces you to the competition theory of criminal judicial procedure, and encourages you to think about the role of state/criminal law in human behavior supervision, and the position and limitations of criminal judicial intervention in creating a safe society. This course starts from the second semester; Part-time students can choose to take this compulsory course in the second semester of the first or second academic year.

Research Design and Data Collection: This compulsory course begins in the first semester, focusing on the challenges and opportunities of different data collection methods for data validity and reliability. Methods include experiments and quasi-experiments; Questionnaires and surveys; Field investigation and collection of written documents. Scientific methods, theoretical testing and research design will also be discussed. Special emphasis is placed on moral issues. Part-time students study this course in the first semester of the first academic year.

Communication skills of criminologists: this final compulsory course begins in the third semester. Once a week, in the first six weeks, scholars, practitioners and researchers from universities and other regions will attend the course. Every week, a different group MSc queue is responsible for hosting the seminar (under the guidance of the tutor). At the end of six weeks, all MSc queues should have the opportunity to assume one of these "communication" roles.

In the last two weeks, the queue will organize a two-day meeting. Each master student will briefly introduce his thesis topic (ongoing work), and other students will be asked to ask questions and make useful comments. Speakers will also get feedback from their tutors about their communication and presentation skills.

2. Elective subjects

Full-time students will study five elective courses in the first and second semesters of a year. During the two-year study period, part-time students have five choices. Elective courses last eight weeks each semester. Recent optional modules include: race and gender, sentencing, public and private policing, research methods, prisons, comparison, criminal justice, security and human rights, crime control politics, criminal justice, immigration and citizenship, crime and family, violence and civilization, transitional justice, risk, security and criminal justice, death penalty and youth justice. Please note that not all courses are taught by teachers every day.

Third, the class schedule

As a full-time student, you will study at least 50 hours a week during the semester and do some further study during the holidays. In the first two semesters, we will suggest that you allocate the time of core courses and other courses as follows:

Prepare at least 18 hours of core courses every week.

Prepare at least 10 hours of elective courses/compulsory courses every week.

The seminar lasts 4.5 to 6 hours per week (90 minutes for each course).

It is expected that part-time students will bear the corresponding workload.

Besides the options you choose, you will also write a paper in the third semester. Part-time students will write papers in the third semester of the second year, but they will be encouraged to plan papers from the first year. The thesis will be researched and written independently, and only need the minimum guidance of your thesis tutor. This is also supported by a compulsory but unevaluated course, that is, communication skills of criminologists with full-time and part-time students.

In addition to the paper submitted at the end of Trinity, there are two exams, one is criminology theory course and the other is criminal justice course. Research methods courses are submitted through evaluation at the end of the relevant semester. These courses also have some semester time allocation, which is evaluated according to pass/fail. All other options are reviewed through the evaluation document or submitted at the end of the option operation period.

Fourth, the interpretation of graduates' employment prospects

Graduates of this course have recently entered the following fields to work or study: research, government departments and criminal justice institutions, voluntary organizations in the field of crime and justice, and international organizations such as UNODC.