Criminology
Bachelor of ArtsMajorYear: 2025
Criminology
Contact information
Coordinator
Dr Shih Joo Tan
Email: sj.tan@unimelb.edu.au
Currently enrolled students:
Future students:
Overview
Criminology draws knowledge and perspectives from a range of disciplines such as law, sociology, psychology, psychiatry and history. Initially, criminology had a strong practical focus: its role was to advise governments on issues such as policing, the management of prisons, sentencing and offender treatment. Concern with policy and practice remains, but criminologists now work in a much wider range of fields including crime prevention, corporate and white-collar crime, business regulation, drug policy and consumer and environmental protection. Criminology doesn’t take crime and criminal law for granted. As an academic discipline it continually questions why different societies define and respond to crime in different ways, and why approaches to punishment and other forms of social control have varied so much from era to era. Increasingly criminologists also study the ways cultures depict crime: whether in newspapers, television and other mass media or in films, novels and art.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this major, students should be able to:
- Understand the socio-economic, political, cultural and historical conditions influencing crime, justice and deviance, the criminal justice system, and crime control mechanisms from an Australian and international perspective
- Critically discuss criminological and socio-legal theories and concepts
- Understand the relationship between the institutions and practices of criminal justice and wider social control
- Evaluate social, cultural, historical and legal responses to criminalisation, criminality and crime control from an interdisciplinary perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of research processes in the social sciences including design, methodology and methods, analysis, interpretation, and the diversity of approaches to research
- Recognise the importance of ethical standards of conduct in the research and analysis of social and political phenomena
- Work productively in groups
- Communicate effectively in oral and written formats.
Last updated: 19 March 2025
Structure
100 credit points
This major requires the completion of:
- 25 credit points of Level 1 electives and Arts Discovery subjects including:
- A minimum of 12.5 credit points of Level 1 electives
- 12.5 credit points of Level 2 core subjects
- 25 credit points of Level 2 electives
- 12.5 credit points of Level 3 Capstone subjects
- 25 credit points of Level 3 electives
The subjects MULT20003 is compulsory in the Criminology, Politics and International Studies, and Sociology majors. Students who are completing two majors in any two of these disciplines can only count MULT20003 towards one major. One additional Level 2 subject and one additional Level 3 subject must be completed for the other major.
*Notes:
Please note: Students must undertake an Arts Discovery subject as part of the course requirements and the Arts Discovery subject can be counted in one major only. For this major, you will need to complete two Level 1 subjects.
If you are completing a double major the correct enrolment for this major at level 1 is: An Arts Discovery subject and one Level 1 Elective subject for the first major and two Level 1 Elective subjects for the second major.
Level 1 electives
| Code | Name | Study period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRIM10001 | Crime, Criminology, and Critique | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM10002 | Law in Society | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Level 2 core subject
| Code | Name | Study period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| MULT20003 | Critical Analytical Skills | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Level 2 electives
| Code | Name | Study period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRIM20002 | Criminal Law and Political Justice | Not available in 2025 | 12.5 |
| CRIM20003 | Policing | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM20004 | Order, Disorder, Crime, and Deviance | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM20006 | Punishment and Social Control | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM20007 | Cybercrime and Digital Criminology | Not available in 2025 | 12.5 |
| CRIM20009 | Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Justice | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM20010 | Law, Justice and Social Change | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| GEND20003 | Screening Genders, Bodies, Sexualities | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| MULT20008 | Australian Indigenous Politics | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| SOCI20017 | Sex in Society | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM20012 | Young People, Crime and Justice | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Level 3 Capstone subject
| Code | Name | Study period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRIM30014 | Contemporary Critical Criminology | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Level 3 electives
| Code | Name | Study period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRIM30001 | Crime and Public Policy | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM30002 | Global Criminology | Not available in 2025 | 12.5 |
| CRIM30005 | Corporate Power and White Collar Crime | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM30006 | Crime and Culture | Not available in 2025 | 12.5 |
| CRIM30010 | Managing Justice: Agencies and the State | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM30012 | Law in Social Theory | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| MULT30017 | Australian Indigenous Public Policy | Not available in 2025 | 12.5 |
| SOCI30013 | Survey Design and Analysis | Not available in 2025 | 12.5 |
| SOCI30014 | Race and Racism in Australia | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM30013 | Gender and Crime | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| CRIM30015 | Terrorism: Shifting Paradigms | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Links
http://ssps.unimelb.edu.au/study-areas/criminology
Last updated: 19 March 2025