Criminal Psychology

If you're looking to start your career in criminal psychology, or you're already working in the field and want to progress, our MSc Criminal Psychology degree course will give you the knowledge and skills you need.

Understanding the psychology of crime is essential to its investigation. On this course, you'll explore and analyse the role of psychology within complex criminal investigative techniques, such as police interviewing and deception detection, and gain insight into courtroom psychology and jury decision making.

You'll delve into key issues such as offender profiling and the links between offending behaviour and mental health. You'll customise your degree by choosing specialist subjects, such as missing persons investigations or offender rehabilitation.

When you graduate, you'll be ready to work with offenders or victims within any area of the criminal justice system, including policing, law enforcement, probation and intelligence analysis.

This course is not accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

Course highlights

• • Understand the psychology of offending behaviour within the contexts of causation, intervention, rehabilitation and mental health, while also weighing up the efficacy of current legislation
  • Learn from an experienced team of criminal psychology specialists in our School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and hear from industry expert guest speakers from around the world
  • Have the opportunity to use our lab equipment to carry out your own research, such as our eye-tracking and VR technology, and crime scene and operational simulation spaces
  • Enrich your learning through events and field trips – examples include Bethlem Museum of the Mind on the grounds of the infamous 'Bedlam' Hospital and facilitated tours of Portsmouth Crown Court
  • Be part of our community of researchers by getting involved with our criminology research groups, such as the Collaboration of Forensic Interviewing and the Probation, Prison and Penology research group
  • Interact and explore criminal psychology with fellow professionals from the world of criminal justice
  • Complete a major project based on your chosen area of research, with the support of qualified and enthusiastic experts in the field

Career planning

During your course you'll have expert career support from your tutors and from our Careers and Employability Centre, which you can access for 5 years after you graduate.

Career support

You'll benefit from:

• Networking events
• 1-to-1 appointments
• CV and cover letter advice
• Interview preparation and practice
• Workshops to enhance your employability skills
• Recruitment events including the Student and Graduate Opportunities Fair
• Support starting your own business