Note about optional modules (if available): The below is indicative of the typical modules offered, but is not intended to be construed or relied on as a definitive list of what might be available in any given year. The module content and availability is subject to change.
What you study
This programme will allow you to consider the subject of criminology from a sociological perspective. You will study:
- how our knowledge of crime and criminality is refracted through culture and how the media represent crime, law and social order
- how governments respond to ‘crime’, and how they might respond differently
- the growth and development of the modern state, the formation of modern society and culture
- social control, policing, surveillance and security
- crime as a global phenomenon and its policing in the context of global inequality, the movement of peoples, international trade, human rights and state violence
- research methods for the empirical investigation of sociological and criminological topics
Our intention is that you consider the problem of crime from a critical perspective in the context of modern forms of power.
Year 1 (credit level 4)
The first year of this programme will introduce you to sociological knowledge and training, but it will also offer an understanding of criminology in the context of the nation-state.
You will take the following compulsory modules:
Module title |
Credits |
Modern Knowledge, Modern Power
|
30 credits |
Methods of Worldmaking 1
|
30 credits |
Crime, Control and the State 1a
|
15 credits |
Crime, Control and the State 1b
|
15 credits |
Culture and Society
|
15 credits |
You'll also take one of the following 15-credit modules:
Module title |
Credits |
Culture and Society B
|
15 credits |
Critical Readings: the Emergence of the Sociological Imagination 1B
|
15 credits |
Imaginative Criminology
|
15 credits |
Year 2 (credit level 5)
The second year will give you the chance to explore crime and criminology in a global context, considering crime and global inequality, migration, international relations and trade, and state crimes and human rights. This learning will help to frame your third-year dissertation research.
You study the following compulsory modules, including The Goldsmiths Elective. This module is interdisciplinary, and gives you the opportunity to study another discipline from a list of relevant modules in other departments across the University.
Module title |
Credits |
Methods of Worldmaking 2
|
30 credits |
Criminal Justice in Context
|
15 credits |
Governing Everyday Life
|
15 credits |
The Goldsmiths Elective
|
15 credits |
You'll then take 45 credits of optional modules from across the Department of Sociology. The list of optional modules is produced annually, and may include the following:
Module title |
Credits |
Sociology Work Placement
|
15 credits |
Goldsmiths’ Social Change Module
|
15 credits |
Law and Contemporary Society
|
15 credits |
Religion, Crime, and Law
|
15 credits |
Crimes Against Humanity
|
15 credits |
The Making of the Modern World
|
15 credits |
Gender, ‘Race’ and Crime
|
15 credits |
Explaining Crime
|
15 credits |
Knowledge and Subjectivity
|
15 credits |
Social Change and Political Action
|
15 credits |
Leisure, Culture and Society
|
15 credits |
London
|
15 credits |
Sociology of Culture and Communication
|
15 credits |
Central Issues in Sociological Analysis
|
15 credits |
Migration in Context
|
15 credits |
Food and Taste
|
15 Credits |
Year 3 (credit level 6)
Your final year will be a mixture of compulsory and option modules as well as an in-depth dissertation (30 credits) in a subject area of your choice.
You will take the following compulsory modules:
Module title |
Credits |
Confronting climate crisis
|
15 credits |
Dissertation
|
30 credits |
You will also study option modules to the value of 75 credits. Option modules offered recently include:
Module title |
Credits |
Citizenship and Human Rights
|
15 credits |
Race, Racism and Social Theory
|
15 credits |
Law, Identity and Ethics
|
15 credits |
Globalisation, Crime and Justice
|
15 credits |
Crime, Control and the City
|
15 credits |
Crimes of the Powerful
|
15 credits |
Privacy, Surveillance and Security
|
15 credits |
Social Theory Through Film
|
15 credits |
Identity and Contemporary Social Theory
|
15 credits |
Analysing the Complexity of Contemporary Religious Life
|
15 credits |
Visual Explorations of The Social World
|
15 credits |
Childhood Matters: Society, Theory and Culture
|
15 credits |
Thinking Animals
|
15 credits |
Migration, Gender and Social Reproduction
|
15 credits |
Subjectivity, Health and Medicine
|
15 credits |
Thinking with Others, Philosophy and Cultural Difference
|
15 credits |
Experiment Earth Sciences Politics Disasters
|
15 credits |
Police, Prisons and Power
|
15 credits |
From Criminal Justice to Social Justice
|
15 credits |
Teaching style
This programme is mainly taught through scheduled learning - a mixture of lectures, seminars and workshops. You’ll also be expected to undertake a significant amount of independent study. This includes carrying out required and additional reading, preparing topics for discussion, and producing essays or project work.
The following information gives an indication of the typical proportions of learning and teaching for each year of this programme*:
- Year 1 - 13% scheduled learning, 87% independent learning
- Year 2 - 13% scheduled learning, 87% independent learning
- Year 3 - 13% scheduled learning, 84% independent learning, 3% placement learning
How you’ll be assessed
You’ll be assessed by a variety of methods, depending on your module choices. These include coursework, examinations, group work and projects.
The following information gives an indication of how you can typically expect to be assessed on each year of this programme*:
- Year 1 - 75% coursework, 25% written exam
- Year 2 - 75% coursework, 25% written exam
- Year 3 - 100% coursework
*Please note that these are averages are based on enrolments for 2022/23. Each student’s time in teaching, learning and assessment activities will differ based on individual module choices. Find out more about how this information is calculated.
Credits and levels of learning
An undergraduate honours degree is made up of 360 credits – 120 at Level 4, 120 at Level 5 and 120 at Level 6. If you are a full-time student, you will usually take Level 4 modules in the first year, Level 5 in the second, and Level 6 modules in your final year. A standard module is worth 30 credits. Some programmes also contain 15-credit half modules or can be made up of higher-value parts, such as a dissertation or a Major Project.
Download the programme specification.
Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.