Criminology and Criminal Justice Degree??

Hi,
I am so so unsure about pursuing a career in criminology considering I was completely interested in doing medicine but couldn’t get a place in clearing. Ive been looking into criminology which i have been interested in but havent seen a career in. Ive done the research and know the job prospects but it doesnt put me at ease about the future.
Has anyone done a criminology degree and is now using it?
Is it better to do law but i know its a very hard degree which requires a lot of essay writing which im not fond of?
My head is scrambled!! Im not sure which course is for me or what job i want anymore, going through clearing threw me off!
Thank you!!

Do the law degree, it's more respected than criminology. There will be a lot of help at uni on essay writing techniques so don't worry if you are a bit rusty. See example from Imperial.

what's a lot of essay writing to you? at my school you have to write one essay per module and third year you customise your schedule. i know someone who only wrote 1 essay in her third year, but you have to look at your uni's website to see how things are assessed cuz not all law degrees are the same.

my brother has a political science/criminology degree and worked as a probation office and is now their supervisor. your degree is what you make of it.

if you haven't studied criminology before i would find a resource online and read a chapter before committing yourself as it's very different to medicine and very different to law. it's more like sociology and the study of the criminal justice system (police procedure, etc).

It seems a bit of a leap from medicine to criminology - maybe it be general to do a more general degree like Sociology or Psychology if you’re not too sure that criminology is for you, then you would still study criminal behaviour/ motivations etc but study lots of other areas too. Plus those degrees are available at a wider range of Unis than Criminology.
Hope I haven’t confused you further 🥴

Thank youu!! Its just that Ive had interest in criminology I just never saw it as a career, Im not sure really, psych and sociology is something Ive never wanted to pursue before therefore havent even entertained the possibility.

Hi,
I am so so unsure about pursuing a career in criminology considering I was completely interested in doing medicine but couldn’t get a place in clearing. Ive been looking into criminology which i have been interested in but havent seen a career in. Ive done the research and know the job prospects but it doesnt put me at ease about the future.
Has anyone done a criminology degree and is now using it?
Is it better to do law but i know its a very hard degree which requires a lot of essay writing which im not fond of?
My head is scrambled!! Im not sure which course is for me or what job i want anymore, going through clearing threw me off!
Thank you!!

@sophspark I can understand the difficulty of searching a variety of courses. I will say that I did not do Criminology, I chose the BA Drama at Newman University, but I was looking into Law after doing better in that than drama in A-Level.

But, with criminology it seems you have an interest in it. I feel job prospects are a tough one to know right now. Drama has throughout my degree and during my masters, I have just done at Newman as well, been diminished. So, I would say if you believe in a subject enough you will find a career or job in it. Or you may do a degree and choose a different path and it was your degree that helped you realise that

Have you looked at any courses in particular for Criminology? And are you looking to study this September or next year?
It will ultimately be about you trusting your choice. And the fact you have come on here to voice your feelings tells me you have good awareness of your feelings.

Anything else you need to know, just ask.

Wes - Newman University Ambassador

Ok well you could study it just because you have an interest in it. It won’t be directly relevant for many careers but lots of jobs don’t require particular degrees anyway. Law would still be an option as well as all those other careers where they don’t mind what degree their graduates have

From what Ive seen and researched final grades are heavily based on essays, ive spoken to law professors and checkrd the websites they say its a mix where like 76% of coursework go into the final grade. Im worried I wont enjoy orr even keep up with the workload
Thats very true but I dont want to limit myself because im someone who would get bored working the same job.
Criminology I would find very interesting as Ive watched so many documentaries and read books, Its just something I never considered pursuing.
Thank you guyd for replying!

Often a general social science degree like Sociology will include Criminology units - this has the advantaged of doing a more 'general' degree rather than specialising in Crim. You might be able to do other units like Psychology, Politics etc etc within such a degree. One example - look for the course structure tab halfway down on the right and then 'modules' - https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/ug-sociology/

It might be worth looking at some joint subject degrees like Criminology and Law, Criminology and Psychology, Sociology with Criminology, etc etc.

i wish! if it was an essay based degree i would have all first class marks . you must be looking at different unis tho as the essays at my school is only worth 33% and 67% is the exam (in first and second year). like i said final year at my uni you can choose to do all exam-based like my friend, but bearing in mind there are 100+ law degrees in the UK - they aren't all the same.

it is a LOT of work tho. tbh as much as i love studying law, had i chosen another degree there would be a lot less stress in my life.

i realised i mis-typed in my first reply. should say 'parole officer' where it says 'probation offer'. i often mix that up

i would still recommend reading criminology textbooks (if you haven't yet) as watching a documentaries or reading autobiographies can be quite entertaining, but reading theory can be boring af (i chose to do a criminology class at one point and disliked it tremendously. we're all different tho.) good luck in your decision.

Hi,
I am so so unsure about pursuing a career in criminology considering I was completely interested in doing medicine but couldn’t get a place in clearing. Ive been looking into criminology which i have been interested in but havent seen a career in. Ive done the research and know the job prospects but it doesnt put me at ease about the future.
Has anyone done a criminology degree and is now using it?
Is it better to do law but i know its a very hard degree which requires a lot of essay writing which im not fond of?
My head is scrambled!! Im not sure which course is for me or what job i want anymore, going through clearing threw me off!
Thank you!!

I did criminology at uni and while it was interesting, it has poor career prospects and for that reason, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you plan on continuing your studies e.g masters/PhD, but you’d have to be very invested to go down that route.

Do you have an idea of what career you’d like in the future?

Oh no, really, Ive always heard there are so many opportunities, if you dont mind me asking do you work in a completely different field? I do plan on doing a masters Im not sure yet but I know after my degree i want to work as soon as. With criminology, working in criminal behaviour analytics seems interesting but again as im not sure, law will open more doors as such but It is a very saturated market.

There are opportunities, but they usually require further study e.g social work/probation officer/lecturer/teacher

Aside from those, a lot of jobs relating to criminology don’t really require a degree e.g working with the police

I work in a somewhat related field. I’m an emergency call handler for the police. It is related but I definitely didn’t need a degree to get the job. I am thinking of going back to uni next year to do a healthcare masters as I want to specialise in something

That sounds like an interesting job, do you mind me asking what qualifications they did ask for?
See i dont wanna pursue criminology for 3 years to realise i dont really need the degree or to see it as a waste as most police work doesn’t require a degree. What did you do as an undergrad?
Thank you for replying x