MPhil in Criminology
Find out first-hand what it's like to study for an MPhil in Criminology
Key Information |
Duration: 10 months full time. Study Mode: Taught. Dates & Deadlines: The application portal for study starting October 2027 is now open. If you wish to be considered for funding, you will need to apply by 8 December 2026. |
Overview
The MPhil in Criminology provides a foundational education in prominent criminological theories, research methods, quantitative analysis and areas of criminological knowledge.
The course comprises of compulsory modules on criminological theories, research methods, academic skills development and quantitative analysis; and a selection of optional seminar courses covering a wide range of criminological topics.
From October 2027, students will have the opportunity to choose optional courses which focus on one of three specialised strands or to select optional courses from across the strands. All students will receive the same degree: MPhil in Criminology.
The Institute of Criminology is a hub for criminological research across the entire world, offering the most topically, theoretically, and methodologically broad master’s programme in Criminology in the world. This is reflected in the diversity of the student body in terms of research interests, life experience, and national origin, and correspondingly the research they conduct during the programme, including prison interviews, police ethnographies, survey data analyses, laboratory experiments, legal case studies, and philosophical analyses. There is no other programme like it in the world, and students leave with theoretical and substantive knowledge of the entire field of criminology, rigorous training, and professional contacts and friends across the world.
- Dr Charles Lanfear, Director of the MPhil in Criminology programme
Course Information
The course offers an up-to-date and high-quality degree, introducing students to some of the most important theory, methods and research in criminology.
All students will attend the same core courses. From October 2027 there is the opportunity to specialise in one of three strands when selecting optional courses;
- Crime: Causes, Patterns, and Harms
- Criminal Justice, Power, Ethics and Institutions
- Crime Policy: Evidence, Innovation, and Crime Reduction
Alternatively students can select from across the thematic strands for a more general degree.
Criminology at Cambridge is currently ranked at number 1 in the UK by the Complete University Guide.
Please be aware this is an intensively taught and assessed 10-month long course, and students will be required to work on course assignments during the breaks between terms.
There are a broad range of core and optional courses taught on the MPhil course. See below to find out more.
Criminological Theories
Course convenor: Professor Kyle Treiber
Criminological Theories introduces you to key explanations of crime, seminal texts and ongoing debates. The course is taught by a range of lecturers who have worked directly with, advanced, or even developed these theories. As part of the Criminological Theories course, you will also attend Criminological Theories discussion groups. These groups provide an opportunity for you to discuss key theories and their application in further detail, helping to situate them in the wider scope of criminology.
Criminological Research Methods
Course Convenor: Dr Charles Lanfear
This course will introduce you to the basics of criminological research, from sampling and measurement of key variables to the most fundamental quantitative and qualitative methods. Like Criminological Theories, seminars are taught by lecturers who have expertise in the given method. The course aims to familiarize you with key considerations regarding criminological research and equip you to critically assess research designs.
Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
Course Convenor: Dr Charles Lanfear
This course covers the same material as the CaRM Foundations in Applied Statistics (FiAS) and Basic Quantitative Analysis (BQA). It will provide training on quantitative research methods. Students will learn how to apply the most common and flexible statistical analysis techniques and interpret their results. To facilitate analysis, students will learn modern programming approaches for preparing data for analyses using the R programming language. They will also be introduced to project management and open science principles.
Academic Skills Development Workshops
Course Convenor: Dr Charles Lanfear
This series of seminars provides guidance on writing and presenting academic work. It comprises seminars on referencing, essay writing, conducting a literature review and giving academic presentations as well as managing and mitigating risks when conducting fieldwork.
Criminological Research Methods Workshops
Course Convenor: Dr Charles Lanfear
In addition to the main seminars, you will also attend a series of workshops which provide you with an opportunity to put each key research method into practice. The aim is to familiarize you with some practical considerations which relate to each method and to give you hands-on experience conducting each method. These workshops are led by researchers with expertise in the given method and will involve practical activities, often in small groups.
During Michaelmas and Lent Terms, students are required to attend at least one of the optional courses being taught each term. We offer a variety of optional courses each year. A brief outline of the courses that may be on offer is listed below:
Global Perspectives on Violence
Course Convenor: Professor Justice Tankebe
This seminars series aims to introduce students to the increasing literature on violence, and violence prevention at a global level. Topics covered in this seminar series include, amongst others:
- the epidemiology of violence across world regions,
- the interplay of social, community, and
- individual factors in explaining interpersonal violence, violence against women in different societies, cultural attitudes to corporal punishment, organised and gang violence, vigilante and police violence.
Organised Forms of Crime
Course Convenor: Professor Paolo Campana
The course provides a comparative, multidisciplinary analysis of organised crime, examining how different forms of criminality operate across different settings. It traces the concept and history of organised crime while exploring key areas such as drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking, gangs, Mafia-type groups, and protection rackets.
People, Places and the Explanation of Crime
Course Convenor: Professor Kyle Treiber
Criminology contains many competing explanations for why crime occurs, making it difficult for policymakers to identify effective prevention strategies. This course tackles that challenge by integrating theories about how people’s character and circumstances interact to produce crime.
Policing
Course Convenor: Professor Justice Tankebe
This course explores critically the history of police and their place in contemporary society and aims to introduce students to some of the challenges and debates in the policing of developed and developing societies. Students will be encouraged to engage critically with a variety of conceptual and empirical issues in analyses of the police.
Punishment and Mercy
Course Convenor: Professor Leo Zaibert
This course is about the ways in which individuals and institutions respond to (perceived) wrongdoing. Amongst several such responses, the course focuses on two: inflicting punishment and granting mercy. Since whatever else punishment involves, it surely involves the effort to make wrongdoers suffer (in a broad sense of “suffering”) punishment and is immediately in need of a justification. For millennia, humans have attempted to offer such elusive justification, yet nothing approximating consensus has ever been achieved.
Socio-Critical Perspectives on Criminal Justice: Minority Matters
Course Convenor: Dr Caroline Lanskey
This series of seminars covers sociological and critical perspectives on the treatment and experiences of minoritised groups in criminal justice systems. Who is recognised as a minoritised group? What accounts for variations in the presence, portrayal and positioning of minoritised groups in criminal justice settings and processes? Which groups receive criminal justice policy attention and why? What are the justice issues?
Sociology of Prison Life
Course Convenors: Professor Alison Liebling & Professor Ben Crewe
Prisons in England and Wales are under intense strain due to budget cuts, longer sentences, and rising violence, prompting renewed questions about what prisons are for and how they function. This course highlights the need to understand how prisoners and staff are adapting to new pressures and governance practices. These issues are explored using recent and classic literature, and drawing substantially on our own empirical research.
Victims and Injustice
Course Convenors: Dr Adrian Grounds & Dr Maria Ttofi
This course offers an introduction to aspects of victimology. The seminars discuss theoretical frameworks for understanding and prevent victimisation of vulnerable individuals, and examine specific topics including victimisation of children, partners and the elderly. The seminars also provide perspectives on psychological trauma, and the psychological and social consequences of miscarriages of justice.
Entry requirements
For our MPhil course, we expect applicants to have an honours degree, with at least a high II.i (67 per cent) from a UK university, or equivalent from a non-UK institution.
If your degree is not from a UK institution, please check the International Qualifications section of the Postgraduate Admissions website to find the equivalent qualification standard in your country.
Your degree should preferably in a social science discipline, although applicants from other disciplines will also be considered.
Funding your studies
Further information on fees and available funding opportunities can be found using the links below.
How to Apply
Applications are submitted online through the Applicant Portal. You can find more information about the application process on the Postgraduate Study website, and you can apply online here.
Applicants will need to provide supporting documents when applying for the MPhil in Criminology:
- Two academic references
- Transcripts
- CV/resume
- Evidence of competence in English
- Statement of interest
- Sample of academic written work
Applications are considered as they are received. We aim to process all applications within 12 weeks of receiving a complete application (this must include two references). Applications with just one or no references will not be considered by the department. It is the applicant's responsibility to check that their references have been submitted. Each year the Institute can only make a fixed number of offers and the majority of decisions are made in January and February, after the main funding deadline. Applicants will be notified as soon as their application has been evaluated, if it has been accepted, rejected, or put on hold. Applications that are put on hold will be assessed as a gathered field after the final application deadline in March. This may mean that a decision on your application is not taken until after the closing date for applications to the course.
Continuation from MPhil to PhD
Continuation to the PhD degree course involves a separate application process, undertaken during the MPhil year. Prospective PhD students are encouraged to discuss their plans with their MPhil supervisor as early as possible during the MPhil year. The Institute's MPhil course provides excellent preparation for doctoral study, and many of our MPhil students choose to pursue PhD in Criminology.
Continuation from the MPhil course is subject to:
- A MPhil student achieving at least 74 overall (across all three units).
- A MPhil student deciding on a suitable research topic and proposal; and finding an available supervisor.
Career Opportunities
Studying Criminology in Cambridge provides a useful preparation for a wide variety of careers. Students acquire a wide range of transferable skills such as the ability to write clearly and analytically about complex issues, to engage effectively in argument and debate, to analyse qualitative and quantitative data and to conduct independent research. Graduates of the course are engaged in teaching and criminological research all over the world, and many have embarked on careers in the legal profession or in organisations working within the prison, police, probation, or social service sectors. Other former students of the Institute now hold positions in government and voluntary service organisation.
Watch our YouTube videos of previous students talking about why they chose Cambridge and their experiences of the course
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