Serious and Violent Crime MA

Course Overview

Are you passionate and committed to preventing and responding to serious and violent crime? Are you ready to take the next step in your career and become a leader in your sector? This unique MA Serious and Violent Crime will impart essential practical leadership skills for understanding, investigating, and responding to serious and violent crimes. The full flexibility of the course has been specifically designed to help you fit your career progression around your professional life.

We offer admission onto the course for anyone with a bachelor's degree (2:2) in a related field or at least three years of work experience within the Criminal Justice System. The programme provides a dedicated support pathway that runs parallel to your studies to equip you with the academic skills needed to succeed, whatever your background is.

Using case studies, you will critically analyse a wide range of criminological topics within the remit of serious and violent crime, such as terrorism, sexual offences, and the dark web. You will also gain the specialised skill set needed to cope with traumatic material in high-pressure environments and lead teams through challenging incidents and investigations. Upon graduation, you will be prepared to take confident strides within the field and make a positive contribution to your community in combatting serious and violent crime. 

The course is led by applied academics with practitioner backgrounds within the Criminal Justice System, ensuring you gain skills that set you apart in the profession. They have aligned your course material with the latest sector standards to reflect the current work of all stakeholders within the Criminal Justice System. 

If you're seeking a qualification that will help you advance your career and make a genuine impact in your professional life in the field of serious and violent crime, this postgraduate degree provides you with the unique opportunity to do just that. 

Course details and modules

The bespoke modules on this course cover serious and violent crime and its many guises. With its applied focus, you will gain the professional knowledge, skills, and attributes needed to lead in the sector. Covering areas such as reflective practice and leadership, the psychology of serious offending, and more, our niche modules will provide you with the unique opportunity to meticulously analyse serious and violent crime. Your degree culminates with an independent research project, allowing you to analyse an area of interest within a professional context.

This course primarily focuses on the current research-informed practices at use in England and Wales, helping you to critically analyse, investigate, and manage serious and violent crime. Additionally, it will explore criminal activity from an international context, such as the global impact and effects of terrorism and cybercrime.

Tailored support for your master’s studies

A-PASS: Arden - Pathway to Academic Study Success

Here at Arden, we recognise that not everyone who can benefit from this master's in Serious and Violent Crime will meet the academic requirements. Even those that do may have been out of education for some time and could use a refresh of their academic skills to enhance their chances of success. That’s why we created A-PASS.

A-PASS is a specialised support pathway for those needing additional academic support or wanting to refresh their knowledge and skills before starting their degree studies. Our academic team has curated this pathway to reflect the skills required throughout the MA. 

We offer three free sessions delivered by our dedicated Academic Skills Tutors around:

• Using our online Library Portal
• Academic writing
• Academic skills and referencing 

At the start of the course, you will have a 1-2-1 meeting with our team to discuss whether you want to pursue any of our A-PASS sessions. The pathway will complement your learning, boost your academic knowledge, skills, and confidence, and support you in successfully completing your degree.

Entry requirements

At Arden University we consider applications on a case by case basis. If you have significant work experience, have qualifications you have gained elsewhere, or a degree or qualification that isn't a clear pathway to this degree - we are more than happy to discuss your application.

What you need to study with us

Our aim is to make learning as accessible as possible by ensuring that you can study in a flexible and convenient way. That's why we keep our requirements simple. All you need is a laptop or desktop PC (we recommend one running the latest version of Windows), and a good internet connection. Through ilearn, our online university campus in the cloud, you'll be able to access your course calendar, support services, learning materials, and our online library containing thousands of ebooks, as well as tools for creating assignments, keeping notes, and collaborating with other students on your course.

What do you need to study with us?

Our aim is to make learning as accessible as possible by ensuring that you can study your degree in a flexible and convenient way. That's why we keep our requirements simple. All you need is a laptop or desktop PC (we recommend one running the latest version of Windows), and a good internet connection. Through ilearn, our online university campus in the cloud, you'll be able to access your course calendar, support services, learning materials, and our online library containing almost half a million texts, as well as creating assignments, keeping notes, and collaborating with other students on your course. 

Meet the faculty

Dr. Emma Winlow obtained her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Criminology and Crime & Justice from the University of Chester and completed her PhD at the University of Gloucestershire. A public criminologist, Emma has extensive leadership and management experience in higher education and is passionate about accessibility, inclusion, and employability in teaching and learning. She established the School of Criminal Justice with these practices in mind. Emma is also a member of the British Society of Criminology and the British Society of Criminology's Teaching and Learning Network.

Dr Emma Winlow

Head of School - Criminal Justice

Career prospects

Our MA Serious and Violent Crime will fully prepare you to become a leader in the sector by imparting advanced professional knowledge and expertise. That means you will graduate from the course ready to take on more senior-level roles with confidence.