This module will develop students’ research and enquiry skills and knowledge within Human Rights and Social Justice. 

You will study a range of topics to examine contemporary themes relevant to human rights and social justice and support the development of academic skills required for a successful transition into higher education. This will include: 

• developing academic writing conventions  

• considering international, national and local relationships 

• identifying public, private and third-sector organisations/agencies 

• exploring topics relevant to criminology, psychology, and sociology within human rights/social justice 

• recognising the impact/importance of diversity, equality, and inclusion 

• having an opportunity for specific curriculum integrated employability learning  

This module will develop your knowledge, research, and academic writing skills, with emphasis on Civil and Criminal Justice, Human Rights and Social Justice.  

You will study a range of topics to examine several contemporary themes and issues relevant to the study of Law and Policing and support students’ development of the relevant academic and advocacy skills required to support their transition into higher education.

This could include:

• Developing a logical and coherent discussion and argument 

• Identifying and using appropriate sources 

• Considering relevant international, regional, and domestic legal frameworks and provisions.  

• Developing an understanding of the criminal justice system and the role of law enforcement agencies.  

• Identifying and understanding the roles of public, private, and third-sector organisations and agencies.  

• Exploring aspects of identity, culture, and values.  

• Engaging with contemporary human rights and social justice issues 

• Identification and exploration of themes and topics relevant to the study of law 

• Identification and exploration of themes and topics relevant to the study of professional policing 

This module is an opportunity to work in a relevant environment, fully engaging with the specific agency, organisation or provider to develop your skills, knowledge and values. You’ll be supported with on-campus and online teaching while spending a portion of the week with a relevant provider in a physical or virtual workplace setting – a placement we can provide or you can self-source (with agreement). 

You’ll apply learning and skills such as:  

• Application and interview for selection  

• Risk assessment and potentially DBS 

• Placement support and reflection 

• Contextualising your placement experience 

• Professionalism and career planning  

This module engages you with workplace and work-related activities determined by external clients – you’ll get to explore your personal values and reflect on your skills while enhancing your knowledge of the workplace. You’ll collaborate to develop your graduate employability skills for career readiness and research skills for onward study, with learning support in on-campus and online lectures and seminars. 

You’ll apply your learning and skills to: 

• Experiential learning activities and careers skills 

• Topics and experiences relevant to your aspirations 

• Commercial awareness 

• Career readiness and management 

• Digital and research skills 

• Graduate attributes, job applications and reflective thinking 

• An end-of-year conference event  

• Social enterprise and activism 

• Applied projects and project management 

• Social research methods and simulation

This module is for undergraduate students to study abroad in their second year, Semester 2 (only for courses that offer this option). With this module, you can spend a semester at one of the University’s approved partner institutions worldwide – from Europe to the Americas, Asia Australia or Canada.  

Study Abroad plays an important role in the University's commitment to an engaging, challenging, and thriving learning culture. It offers opportunities to experience other academic cultures and foster intellectual maturity while enhancing co-curricular skills and students' long-term employability. 

Study abroad for credit is permitted on existing university-approved courses only. Students are awarded credits and grades at the partner institution, which are converted into Sheffield Hallam credits and grades on return and included in the Sheffield Hallam degree classification. 

Please check and refer to the webpage How study abroad works. You must submit a Learning Agreement outlining the modules you will be taking at the partner institution. The Learning Agreement will be signed off by your academic tutor to ensure that the Learning broadly covers the Learning Outcomes set out in your course curriculum during your study abroad.  

Module aim:    

The aim of this module is to enhance students’ professional development through the completion of and reflection on meaningful work placement(s).  

A work placement will provide students with opportunities to experience the realities of professional employment and experience how their course can be applied within their chosen industry setting. The placement will: 

• Allow student to apply the skills, theories and behaviours relevant and in addition to their course 

• Enable students to enhance their interpersonal skills in demand by graduate employers – communication, problem solving, creativity, resilience, team work etc.  

• Grow their student network and relationship building skills. 

• Provide student with insights into the industry and sector in which their placement occurs 

• Help student make informed graduate careers choices. 

Indicative Content:  

In this module students undertake a sandwich placement (min 24 weeks / min 21 hours per week) which is integrated, assessed and aligned to their studies.  

Their personal Placement Academic Supervisor (PAS) will be their key point of contact during their placement and will encourage and support students to reflect on their experience, learning and contribution to the organisation they work for.  

To demonstrate gains in professional development, students will be required to share their progress, learning and achievements with their Placement Academic Supervisor and reflect on these for the summative piece of work. 

This module develops specialised knowledge and a critical understanding of global and human security, including our responses to 21st century threats and crimes – with a strong emphasis on the meanings and salience of race, colonialism, decolonisation and justice.  

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Ongoing colonial crimes and 21st century threats 

• Climate crime 

• Migration and displacement 

• Racial capitalism 

• Digital poverty  

• Forced digitalisation 

• The criminality of security issues 

• The coloniality of knowledge 

You’ll develop critical abilities and awareness of comparative criminal justice – looking at how criminal justice is ‘done’ in different jurisdictions, engaging with comparative research designs, and critically unpicking research from multiple jurisdictions.

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Critical research skills  

• Global awareness 

• Comparing and contrasting crime 

• Social context and responses to crime internationally  

• Theories of policy transfer 

• The impact of global politics on criminal justice 

• Ethnocentrism, relativism and colonialism

This module highlights controversial policing policies and practices which operate in ways that marginalise a range of population groups. We’ll explore social-control themes of plural policing, legitimacy, compliance and punishment through policing on an international scale. 

You’ll study topics such as:   

• Policing sub-criminal behaviour 

• Stop and search  

• Policing protest 

• Surveillance networks 

• Policing vulnerabilities 

This module explores and interrogates concepts of crime, harm and justice – critically considering how actions of states and corporations can cause harm in developed and developing countries, and how these actions are regulated and resisted.    

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Harms online  

• Migration 

• Environmental harm 

• Surveillance 

• The intersections of harm 

• Interconnections between differing spatial scales 

• Power and discourse 

• State-corporate crime  

• Green criminology 

This module examines drugs, drug use and drug abuse in wider social, cultural, economic and political contexts. The module challenges you to get familiar with topical debates and discourses in relation to drug use, policy and practice. 

You’ll study topics such as: 

• A review of key issues and debates  

• Social theories and models of drug use 

• Illegal drug markets 

• Theory and research practice 

• Treatment and testing 

• Drugs and deprivation 

• Harm reduction 

• Wider social issues and drugs  

• Structural violence and social deprivation 

• Normalisation, young people and drug use

This module explores contemporary issues in health and disability through the lens of education, using a critical range of conceptual and theoretical tools. 

You’ll study topics such as: 

• The role of education in society 

• Theoretical approaches to education, health and disability 

• Politics and educational policy making 

• Structures of advantage and disadvantage in education 

This module provides a rigorous sociological analysis of the concept of families, relationships, age and stages of the life course. By combing theoretical, policy and empirical knowledge, we’ll showcase a wide range of materials and case studies to make sure you’re well-grounded in a variety of concepts, empowering you to undertake collaborative enquiry to assess your own life, culture and society.  

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Sociological perspectives on family and kinship structures 

• The changing state of the family in the UK today 

• Global perspectives on the family 

• Youth  

• Subcultures 

• Ageing and older people 

• Relationships in history and today 

This module examines contemporary gendered injustices and critically considers how the state defines, controls and responds to harms – in both public and private – through complex social structures that serve to (re)produce and maintain them. 

You’ll study topics such as:  

• Gender and feminist epistemologies 

• Women’s experiences and treatment in the criminal justice system 

• The intersections of gender, ‘race’ and class 

• Sex work and the regulation of femininity  

• Violence and the British asylum system 

• ‘Honour’-based violence 

• Policing women and social protest 

• State and media construction of gendered and racialised ‘others’ 

This module explores theories and practices of identity, self and power in relation to sexualities and embodiment. You’ll be able to challenge widespread ideas and reductionist social perspectives through comprehensive informed discussion. 

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Power, embodiment and sexuality in historical and social context 

• Control and creativity in relation to the body and sexuality 

• Biological and social constructionist accounts  

• Performance of identity through the body and sexuality 

This module explores desistance and recovery from crime, drugs, gambling, pornography and other related harms – locally and globally.  We’ll address the stigma and exclusion of these cohorts within criminal justice, penal welfare organisations and the community. 

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Concepts and practices of desistance and recovery  

• Policies and systems of rehabilitation and treatment  

• Discrimination and pathways to desistance and recovery  

• Local, indigenous, and international contexts for policy change  

• Methodological and practice issues in undergraduate student research   

• An analysis of working in the field  

This module develops your understanding of criminal justice practice in prisons, probation and youth justice across international contexts – critically examining the impact of punishment on people in the system through the lenses of human rights, occupational culture, practice paradigms, privatisation and wider political contexts. You’ll also explore diversity and intersectionality – from gender/sex to race, ethnicity and age.  

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Sentencing, legitimacy and compliance 

• Effectiveness 

• Discretion 

• Physical and mental health 

• Drugs and alcohol 

• Role of 3rd sector  

• Lived experience 

• Place and space 

• Intervention skills 

• Media depictions

This module extends your knowledge of real-world problems to an organisation that helps you relate theoretical, research or policy frameworks to practical challenges – locally, nationally and globally. We’ll integrate reflective practice in lectures and interactive workshops, focusing on personal and professional development beyond the university.  

You’ll apply learning and skills to:  

• Identify real-world problems 

• Establish a project question in collaboration with a relevant organisation 

• Identify ethics  

• Address equality, diversity and inclusion issues 

• Evaluate responses  

• Provide solutions using academic and experiential knowledge  

This module uses your research skills and expands your graduate attributes – You’ll get to design and conduct a research project on a criminological, psychological or sociological topic. You’ll be supported to reflecting on your personal and professional development in relation to your future employment plans.  

You’ll apply learning and skills to:  

• Enhance the field of study through real-world problem solving 

• Develop a research question, strategy and design 

• Identify philosophical and ethical underpinnings 

• Explore relevant theory and policy 

• Generate and analyse appropriate data 

• Develop critical reflection 

This module develops your critical knowledge and understanding of issues, definitions and arguments concerning sex, gender and violence – debating issues underpinned by the contestable relations between sex, gender, violence, power and the body on local, national and global levels. We’ll also explore the impacts of culture and human rights with regard to policy and practice. 

You’ll study topics such as: 

• Sex, sexuality and gender definitions and debates 

• Masculinities theories of crime 

• Feminist theories 

• Intersectionality 

• Gender-based violence and domestic abuse 

• Interpersonal violence 

• State, institutional and structural violence 

• Online violence