Working with Adult and Young People who Offend

Entry requirements

A minimum 2:2 Honours degree in a social science, or related discipline.

Applicants with established professional experience will be considered on an individual basis via the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)/Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) mechanism (University regulations will apply).

Months of entry

September

Course content

Ideal for practitioners, managers and policy makers, the MSc Working with Adult and Young People who Offend course is the first of its kind in the UK with a specialist focus on the theory and practice of offender management. With recent changes to the organisation and management of community orders in the UK, and the partial privatisation of probation, there is now a greater focus on developing practices for managing post-sentence work with people who have been convicted. This specialist Criminology Masters will provide graduates with the knowledge and theory to further influence and lead the development of practice in post-custody supervision.

Throughout your studies, you’ll delve into the philosophy, theory and practice of working with individuals who are sentenced to either serve a community order or a prison sentence and who are subject to post-custody supervision. Upon successful completion of MSc Working with Adult and Young People who Offend, you could pursue a career in the criminal justice system, such as the police, courts, prison, probation services and youth offending services.

What you will study

You’ll be encouraged to explore the criminal justice system in detail covering theories of crime, rehabilitation, retribution, deterrence, desistance and restorative justice. You’ll gain an insight into how different civil services (including prison and probation) work with offenders whilst also gaining a better understanding of the work carried out in the third and private sectors.

Teaching

Taught by a team of lecturers with long-standing expertise in the field, you will learn through a mix of lectures, seminars and tutorials.

Teaching is on a Monday between 10:00 and 4:00 and this is likely to remain the pattern in the future. Each module is taught over a 4 week period. Full-time students attend every week during term-time and part-time students attend when their modules are being taught.

As part of your studies you’ll also undertake independent study culminating in a dissertation. To help you complete this task you will be supported and supervised by a member of the teaching team.

The teaching team comprises of active researchers who specialise in offender management, youth justice and youth policy, restorative justice, drug use, crime prevention, homicide and violence, animal abuse, international informal justice and alternatives to prosecution and imprisonment.

For more information about research conducted by our Criminology staff visit the Centre for Criminology website.

Assessment

Assessment methods are varied and include essays, critiques, written examinations, multiple choice tests, and oral and poster presentations. You’ll also be required to complete a dissertation of around 18,000 words on an individual piece of research you agree with your supervisor, which may be work-related.

Careers

Upon successful completion of this Masters degree you could pursue a career in the criminal justice system, such as the police, courts, prison, probation services and youth offending services.

Information for international students

The course welcomes international applicants and requires an English level of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component or equivalent.

Fees and funding

For information on the funding options available for this course please visit our Student Money Pages.