Course overview
This short online Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE) in Criminal Psychology course is the perfect introduction to the fascinating and challenging worlds of criminology and psychology.
Throughout the programme, you’ll develop your own knowledge of the scientific and theoretical underpinnings of psychology, including its historical origins, progression and limitations. You’ll also develop an awareness of the variability and diversity of functioning and its significance in criminal psychology, specifically in relation to offender profiling. And finally, you’ll also recognise a range of influences on psychological functioning and how these are conceptualised across the two core discipline areas of social psychology and cognitive psychology.
In addition to gaining the subject-specific knowledge, you will also develop a wide range of transferable, career-related skills including the ability to evaluate evidence, identify patterns of behaviour and how to confidently communicate and discuss issues in a professional environment.
Job outcomes
Careers in:
- Criminal Justice
- Security
- Marketing
- Research
- Academia
- Business
Study method
- Online
- Blended
- In-class
Awards
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Duration study load
- 16 months – Part-time
Entry requirements
We believe that education should be accessible for everyone, so we offer an Open Entry Route that means you do not need any previous academic qualifications to start our CertHE Criminal Psychology course.
You will be allowed to start the CertHE Criminal Psychology course and make an assessment of whether it is right for you during the first three weeks. You must pass your first assignment set during this time in order to continue with your studies.
If English is not your first language, your English ability should be equivalent to an IELTS (academic) score of 6.0. If you do not hold an IELTS or equivalent qualification, we require students to pass a free online English test.
Pathways
- BSc (Hons) Criminal Psychology
Course features
You are supported throughout your course by a dedicated student adviser and have the opportunity to regularly interact with fellow students and your tutor. To ensure you receive the support you need from your tutor, we cap our class sizes at 20 students.
Assessment
We adopt an assignment-based approach to assessment instead of exams, Criminal Psychology assignments are based on real-life work experience and assessed by tutors on an ongoing basis.
You are always aware of your current provisional grade right from the start of the programme, allowing you to evaluate the success of your current study methods and clearly identify areas to improve.
We believe that this transparency gives you the information you need to make the most of your course. We achieve this by:
- Showing your marks clearly in your grade book, which can be viewed whenever you log onto the learning platform
- The rapid turnaround of work assessed to ensure that your grade book is always up to date
- Assessing your work throughout the module rather than waiting for the end of year exams
- Ensuring you have regular contact with your student adviser
- The simplicity and transparency in the design of our assessment criteria
We also have a policy of ensuring that the work submitted by students is authentic. As well as the fact that all work is frequently assessed, we use a well-established electronic monitoring system to check for plagiarism.
Delivery
As we are a 100% online university, we utilise a virtual learning environment instead of a traditional campus. The system tracks and manages the learning process in real-time and provides you with immediate access to your learning materials.
This learning platform allows both students and tutors to actively take part in real-time conversations and you can listen to, and view, live lectures and seminars over the internet. All courses are delivered in English only.
Subjects
The CertHE Criminal Psychology is made up of the following modules and, upon completion, is equal to a total of 120 credits.
- Student online learning orientation
- Technical & personal requirements/preparation
- Learning platform organisation and navigation
- Communication in eLearning – Synchronous and Asynchronous
- Using the online library
- Online assessments
- Collaborative learning tools – ‘Module resources’
- Intrapersonal development
- Self-awareness, lifelong learning and capability
- Learning styles and personal values
- Managing stress, uncertainty, transition and time
- Project planning, problem solving and creativity
- Awareness of the world of work and society
- Understanding of citizenship
- Interpersonal development
- Verbal communication, including effective presentations
- Written communication, including effective report-writing
- Study skills
- Apply basic critical reading, writing, and reasoning skills
- Use a variety of personal management tools and strategies to enhance learning
- Use problem-solving skills to increase academic and professional proficiency
- An introduction to the science of Social Psychology
- Social cognition and social knowledge [forming impressions, schemas and categories, stereotypes]
- Self and identity
- Causal Attribution
- Heuristics and judgements
- Attitudes and behaviours
- Ethics in Social Psychology
- An introduction to the history and science of Cognitive Psychology
- Critical thinking
- The acquisition, retention and retrieval of knowledge
- The relationship between thought and language
- An introduction to decision making, problem-solving and creative thinking
- Applications of Cognitive Psychology
- Ethics in Cognitive Psychology
- The origins of offender profiling
- What is offender profiling?
- The origins of offender profiling
- Offender profiling and its applications
- FBI profiling
- The origins of FBI profiling
- FBI classifications in offender profiling
- How useful/applicable is FBI profiling in modern policing
- Geographical profiling
- What is geographical profiling?
- Theoretical principles of geographical profiling
- Geographical profiling applications
- Investigative psychology
- The creation of IP
- Offender Narrative Action System
- Criminal psychogeography
- Investigative psychology and policing
- Investigative interviewing
- Caveats in offender profiling
- The implications for inaccurate offender profiling?
- Paul Britton
- ‘The CSI effect’
- Researching offending behaviour
- Examining the different research methods in offender profiling
- Archival research methods
- Research ethics in offender profiling
- What is research
- Approaches: qualitative and quantitative
- Interpretative phenomenological analysis
- Ethics in research
- The qualitative approach
- Methods, variables, research questions and hypotheses testing
- Data, sampling and power
- Ways of interpreting
- Parametric and non-parametric
- Basic statistical analysis, e.g. t-tests
- What is crime?
- Look at some of the definitions of crime
- Explore the social and political constructions of crime
- Understanding the historical context of crime in Britain
- Look at a brief overview of the history of crime
- Consider how ideas have changed over time
- Examine the development of the area of youth crime
- Crime and statistics
- Look at how crime statistics are selected
- Consider the purpose of collecting crime statistics
- Explore how information regarding the crime rate is used
- Crimes of ‘everyday life’
- Look at what types of crime are the most prevalent
- Examine property crime
- Consider the conditions that promote volume crime
- Crime and substance misuse
- Consider the nature and extent of drug and alcohol use
- Assess the link between drug and alcohol use and crime
- Explore ways of reducing drug and alcohol-related crime
- Violence – causes and responses
- Consider who is most likely to be a victim of a violent crime
- Investigate the different forms of violence recorded
- Explore the reasons for this type of crime
- Sexual offences and social responses
- Consider the question of consent
- Explore the different types of sexual offence
- Investigate the criminal processes involved in sexual offences
- Examine the issues surrounding, and effectiveness of, civil measures taken to reduce re-offending by known sex offenders
- The ‘invisible’ crime – corporate crime
- Look at the size of the problem of corporate crime
- Explore the definitions of corporate crime
- Consider some of the ways this type of crime is investigated and punished
- The impact of the economy on crime
- Consider the types of economic conditions that could affect crime rates
- Explore the evidence for a link between the economy and crime
- Investigate the link between poverty and crime
About University of Essex Online
Online learning is a cost-effective, convenient and flexible way to enhance your career. Our quality-assured distance learning courses allow you to work towards your qualification in a unique virtual learning environment and still have access to all the support and facilities you would expect to receive on campus.
University of Essex Online courses are delivered by Kaplan Open Learning, an experienced online learning provider, part of Kaplan International Pathways. The University and Kaplan have developed their partnership since 2007 in order to offer high-quality online courses.
