Criminal Psychology University of Portsmouth

Overview

Understanding the psychology of crime is essential to its investigation. On this Criminal Psychology degree course at the University of Portsmouth , 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.

Career development

Criminal psychology brings together the study of psychology, criminology and criminal justice, with the aim of studying offenders and offending behaviour to improve the effectiveness of criminal investigations.

On this Master's in Criminal Psychology, you'll gain a tailored postgraduate qualification to add to your undergraduate degree, or to back up your existing career knowledge from the field. You'll delve deep into the subjects you choose to study through research, gaining an evidence-based perspective and a greater ability to be analytical and evaluative. 

You'll graduate with the tools you need to not only understand the difference criminal psychology can make to the justice system, but also to challenge existing processes and make improvements. 

If you already work in the field of criminal justice, you'll be ready to pursue higher-level roles, or to break into a different area of the discipline. If you're still to embark on your career in criminal justice, you'll gain the knowledge and advanced research problem-solving skills you need to stand out to employers and contribute positively to justice system reform.

You could also go on to further study, or progress on to a graduate scheme such as PoliceNow or the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme.