In its broadest sense, Criminology is the study of crime; at Birmingham, our primary focus is on the social drivers of crime and so we spend a lot of time thinking about the ways in which crime relates to wider social issues such as poverty and inequality. Our degree allows you to explore the ways in which perspectives from other disciplines such as sociology and social policy may further enhance our understanding of crime.
It is important to keep up with academic and topical debate as well as current affairs to broaden your understanding. Below we have listed some useful resources that can get you started:
Podcasts
Social Science Bites
Thinking Allowed
SAGE Criminology
University of Oxford Centre for Criminology Podcast
Online resources
Discover Society is an online journal which cuts across politics, economics, sociology, criminology and social policy – a truly social science publication. It offers lots of topical debates and discussions which will be relevant to your studies.
The Conversation is a website which contains short articles on a range of subjects written by academics. These articles are written in a more journalistic fashion than ordinary academic articles and is a great resource to help keep up with current academic debates.
Books
Crime, Robert Reiner
Violence and Society, Larry Ray
Harmful Societies: Understanding Social Harm, Simon Pemberton
Crime and Society in Britain, Hazel Croall
On The Run, Alice Goffman
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighbourhood, David Simon & Edward Burns
The End of Policing, Alex S. Vitale