MA Criminology
Overview
Director of Studies: Dr Phil Carney
Telephone: 01227 824162
Email: P.Carney@kent.ac.uk
The University of Kent is proud to offer a competitive and engaging MA in Criminology that combines a core programme of criminological theory and research methods with a series of interesting and insightful modules encompassing the topical Criminological issues of the day.
While the increasing popularity of Criminology as a subject discipline has seen an expansion of MA programmes in this area, there are many reasons to choose to study at Kent.
- Study takes place within the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR), a department with an extremely strong research culture that was rated equal fourth in the 2008 Research and Assessment exercise.
- The Masters was founded by the world-famous Criminologist, Professor Jock Young, who continues to maintain a close association with the programme, and is primarily taught by internationally recognised academics and researchers.
- The content of the programme remains at the cutting edge of current Criminological debate with a strong emphasis on the cultural context of crime.
- Kent students are offered the unique opportunity to add an international dimension to their criminological study by participating in the Common Studies Sessions in Critical Criminology.
- Ph.D. students within SSPSSR are invited to maintain a high level of engagement with research and social activities taking place within the department. There is a well established research cluster, Crime, Culture and Control, which offers a dynamic programme of research events , as well as a departmental seminar series which is followed by dinner, for which postgraduate students are subsidised, should they wish to attend.
- For those interested in continuing their postgraduate study, SSPSSR has a strong reputation for continued study towards a criminology doctorate.
Students may embark upon their studies over either a one year full time programme or a two year part time programme. At the heart of the MA Criminology are two core courses dealing with advanced Criminological theory and advanced research methods. These are complemented by the opportunity to pursue either a research or library based in-depth Criminological dissertation. Finally, students are free to choose optional modules from a range which cover current Criminological issues, for example: Terrorism and Modern Society; Gender and Crime; Crime, Media, Culture; Critical Criminology; The History of Crime and Punishment; Youth Crime and Sociological Approaches to Violence.
Prospective students may also be interested in the new Terrorism and Security MA offered by the University of Kent and directed by Dr. Keith Hayward.
Contributors
Contributors
Criminology post-graduate students not only maintain close contact with the University of Kent Criminology teaching team, but are privileged to be taught by some of the leading Criminologists and Sociologists from the wider department and from outside the University itself.
Criminology Teaching Team
Dr Phil Carney
Dr Carney is the director of studies for the MA Criminology at the University of Kent and also oversees the organisation of the Common Studies sessions (link). In addition to these duties he runs the Critical Criminology module. His wider research interests include the surveillance society, photographic depiction and identification and contemporary French social theory.
Dr Keith Hayward
A leading proponent of the cultural criminology phenomenon, Dr Hayward co-directs the MA module Terrorism and Modern Society. His wider research interests also include criminological theory, youth crime, popular culture and social theory. Dr Hayward is also offering a new MA in Terrorism and Security which prospective students may be interested in.
Dr Jonathan Ilan
Dr Ilan is a new member of staff at the University of Kent and has taken over the organisation of the MA module Crime, Media, Culture which is strongly grounded in cultural criminological theory. His research interests also include ethnography; youth crime, justice and policing and urban sociology.
Dr Kate O’Brien
Dr O’Brien leads the popular Youth and Crime MA module which reflects her strong research interests in the fields of the night-time economy, drug markets and bouncers and private policing.
Dr Caroline Chatwin
Dr Chatwin provides some lectures on the MA and is available for dissertation supervision, particularly in the following areas: European drug policy; young people and victimisation; the normalisation of drug use.
Dr Jennifer Fleetwood
Dr Fleetwood provides some lectures on the MA and is available for dissertation supervision, particularly in the following areas: feminist theory; women in the drugs trade and organised crime; ethnographic, qualitative and narrative methods.
Contributing Staff
Prof Beverly Brown
Professor Brown is running the MA module Gender and Crime, having published widely in the fields of feminist criminology and legal theory. She was Professor in the Law department at the University of East London and has been a long term member of the Edinburgh School of Law.
Prof David Downes
Professor Downes is a leading light in Criminological theory and has published seminal works such as Understanding Deviance (1982) and The Politics of Law and Order (2002). He is professor Emeritus of Social Administration at the London School of Economics and leads the core MA criminology module Theories of Crime and Deviance. He has also been editor of the British Journal of Criminology 1985-90, and is currently an editor of the Clarendon Studies in Criminology series for the Oxford University Press and a member of council for Liberty.
Prof Frank Furedi
Professor Furedi is one of today’s foremost sociologists and has published many modern day classics such as Politics of Fear, Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?, Therapy Culture, Paranoid Parenting and Culture of Fear. In terms of the Kent Criminology MA, he is co-director of the module Terrorism and modern society with Dr Keith Hayward.
Dr Anne Logan
Dr Logan teaches the MA Criminology course History of Crime and Punishment. She leads the Crime and Criminal Justice Programme at the Medway campus of the University of Kent. Her wider interests include twentieth century feminism and social work.
Prof Larry Ray
Professor Ray is an eminent sociologist from Kent who offers the module Sociological Approaches to Violence to MA Criminology students within the department. His recent publications include Social Theory and Postcommunism and Globalization and Everyday Life.
Prof Jeff Ferrell
Professor Ferrell is a founder member of the cultural criminological movement who has published widely on aspects of this phenomenon including scrounging and graffiti artists. He currently teaches in the Sociology department of the Texas Christian University and is available for dissertation supervision and occasional lectures at the University of Kent. He is also a keen participant in the Common Studies Programme.
Prof Kevin Stenson
Professor Stenson is an honorary professor at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. He was previously Professor of Criminology at Buckinghamshire New University and Middlesex University, London. He taught a wide range of courses in sociology and criminology (including sociological and criminological theory) and has long been an active member of the British Society of Criminology, serving as chair of the southern regional branch and on the national executive committee. He is a joint author of the UK, QAA national benchmarks in criminology and is on the editorial boards of Critical Criminology journal and Criminal Justice Matters. He provides occasional lectures for MA Criminology students at Kent, is available for dissertation supervision and is a key member of the Common Studies Programme.
Prof Jock Young
Professor Young is a world-famous Criminologist, currently teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. However, he also founded the Criminology MA at the University of Kent and continues to hold a strong association with the programme. His career has been long and diverse beginning with an ethnographic study of drug use, encompassing the now well established criminological theory Left-Realism, and currently focusing on the exciting new area of cultural criminology. He makes regular visits to the University of Kent and remains an active member of the department. He is also a regular participant in the Common Studies Programme.
Visiting Professors
While not specifically involved in the MA criminology programme, the department has also attracted several visiting professors with a strong attachment to Criminology. These professors give occasional departmental research papers and may be available as guest lecturers or as dissertation supervisors on the criminology MA.
Prof Pat Carlen
Professor Carlen is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on crime, gender and punishment. She is also a long-time campaigner for the abolition of women’s imprisonment and founder member of Women in Prison. is presently Professor of Sociology at Bath University and before that was Professor of Criminology at Keele University. She was a member of both the Commissioning Panel and The Steering Committee of the ESRC Crime and Social Order Programme 1992-1997.
Prof Todd Clear
Todd Clear is Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice John Jay of the City University of New York where he is Executive Officer of the Program of Doctoral Studies in the Graduate Centre.
Prof Marian Fitzgerald
Professor Fitzgerald spent a large part of her career conducting high profile research for the home office before enjoying a long-term association with the London School of Economics before becoming Visiting Professor at the University of Kent.
Entry Requirements
A good honours degree in a relevant subject. Applicants with equivalent vocational qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be considered individually. The University requires all non-native speakers of English to produce evidence of proficiency in written and spoken English. We require a minimum score in one of the following:
- 6.5 in International English Language Test (IELTS)
- 600 in paper-based or 250 computer-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
- 'B' in the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English
- 'A' in the Cambridge Advanced Certificate in English
Further Information
Graduate Admissions Office
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Cornwallis Building
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent
CT2 7NF
Email: sspssr-pg-admin@kent.ac.uk
For further information about postgraduate study at UKC you should obtain KENT Postgraduate Prospectus which is available from:
The Registry
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent,
CT2 7NZ