PhD in Criminology Course

Full-Time Study

The PhD course at the Institute of Criminology is a research-based degree, involving independent work under the guidance of a supervisor, whose research expertise falls closely within the aims of the planned PhD research. 

• Full-time PhD applicants must apply to start their PhD studies in October (Michaelmas Term), as we no longer accept entry at other times as our Research Training Programme begins in the Michaelmas Term.
• Full-time PhD students have University 'Terms of Residency' requirements to fulfil, which means that research students must live within ten miles of the city centre for at least 9 consecutive terms (three years). You will normally be required to live in Cambridge throughout the year, apart from short breaks taken at times agreed with your supervisor (research students).
• Every PhD student in the Institute of Criminology is supported by a supervisor. Supervisors are experts in their field of study and support students throughout the PhD. PhD candidates will also benefit from the advice and support of other academic members of staff who will be involved in progression through the various stages of the PhD, from the registration assessment exercise at the end of the first year through to the completion of the thesis.
• Completion of the doctoral course will involve among other requirements, the writing of a dissertation of between 55,000 and 80,000 words (exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words, exclusive of bibliography). Upon completion and submission of the PhD thesis, students do an oral examination (viva) with two examiners, one internal to the University of Cambridge (not the supervisor or research advisor), and one external (from any other University in the UK or the rest of the world). After a successful thesis defense, the examiners will recommend awarding the degree of PhD.

Part-Time Study

The Institute welcomes applications for part-time study from candidates wanting to further their academic abilities, but who would also like to remain in employment.

• Part-time applicants can apply to start their studies in any Term. However, it should noted the deadlines for the University's funding competitions are run on an annual basis and they only provide funding from the start of the academic year.
• It is important to note that the part-time PhD course at Cambridge is not a distance-learning course. 
• Part-time students are expected to study for a minimum of 15 terms (five years); to fully engage with the Institute; to integrate into the research culture of the University; and to attend (in person) supervisions, study & skills training, research seminars and workshops (a minimum of 45 days per year, as agreed with their supervisor). For information on the University's 'Terms of Study', visa and other requirements, please read through the Postgraduate Admissions Part-time Graduate Study Guide.

Training, Support and Development Programme 

The Institute runs a comprehensive training, support and development programme for its PhD students. Frequent seminars are designed to develop research skills, technique and thinking. While you are likely to be starting the PhD course with a background of suitable research training which you undertook before admission, e.g. through your Masters or MPhil degree, during your time at Cambridge you can broaden this as much as you wish with the number of different opportunities available. You are advised to discuss your training needs with your supervisor and record any training undertaken.

• Researcher Development Programme: The School of Arts and Humanities organises a Researcher Development Programme covering a range of topics from PhD skills training, to language training and writing and editing skills.
• Cambridge Research Methods Programme (CaRM): This programme is an interdisciplinary initiative offering high-quality research methods training to postgraduate students. The courses offered by CaRM cover skills relevant across the social sciences in a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, from basic training to advanced statistical analysis.​
• Seminars and Events: The Institute holds weekly seminars and events, and PhD students are strongly encouraged to participate in the wider research culture of the Institute. These include the 'Brown Bag' seminars (aimed at criminologists at all levels of career progression within the Institute), guest speaker seminars and MPhil teaching seminars.
• Personal and Professional Development: The University's Skills Portal provides information on the transferable skills PhD students may wish to cultivate and enhance, and lists training opportunities available across the University, together with links to useful resources outside the University.
• The Language Centre supports the teaching and learning of languages throughout the University and is an excellent resource for academic purposes, whether you need to improve your language skills to help with your research or before undertaking fieldwork.

Supervisors and PhD Research Topics

PhD applicants are required to nominate a potential supervisor on their application form.

• Before applying, please consult the list below to see which members of staff are currently available to supervise PhD students. (An individuals availability depends on several factors: including the number of students already being supervised by each member of staff, their other contractual commitments and sabbatical leave arrangements). To get an idea of the type of PhD research topics that are supervised, we would recommend that you also look at our current PhD students' profiles in the People webpages.
• When choosing who to nominate as a potential supervisor, it is important that there is some overlap with your own research interests or approach. If you don't name a potential supervisor in your application, the Admissions Committee will try to match your application with a suitable academic member of staff, based on their academic interests and area of expertise. However, there is no guarantee that this will be possible, and applications are unlikely to be successful if there is no suitable supervisor available.

Please Note:

You can contact a member of academic staff if you want to check if your research topic will be a good fit with their research interests. If you wish to do this, please only contact one member of academic staff and send them the following information: a CV, a brief research proposal (1-2 pages max), a short statement about your academic background (what you have studied so far, your degree result or grade average, any relevant experience); and why you wish to work with them in particular. (You will need to demonstrate your awareness of their research and how it aligns with your research interests). Please do not send references, transcripts or examples of written work. 

Our academic staff receive large numbers of inquiries and they are often unable to (i) give detailed feedback on your proposal or (ii) engage in extended email correspondence.

Applications are only considered by the Institute when all the application documents are received from the University Postgraduate Admissions Office (via the online application portal). The Institute's PhD Admissions Committee decides which applicants will receive an offer of a place on the course.

No preference will be given to an applicant who has made informal contact with an academic in the Institute before submitting their application (even if the applicant and academic have engaged in extension correspondence). Engagement with an academic staff member does not guarantee that you will receive an offer of a place on the course. Competition for places on the PhD course is intense, and each year many excellent applicants do not receive an offer of a place on the course.

Academic Staff Available to Supervise 

Supervisor Name                    

Research Interests

Contact Details

Professor Barak Ariel

Policing & experimental criminology.

ba285@cam.ac.uk

Professor Paolo Campana

Criminal networks; organised crime; issues related to gangs & migrant smuggling.

pc524@cam.ac.uk

Professor Ben Crewe

Penal power; the texture and experience of imprisonment; long-term and life imprisonment; the social world and culture of prisons; prison management; penal policy.

bc247@cam.ac.uk

Dr Arushi Garg

Gender, race & criminal justice; sexual violence & criminal

ag779@cam.ac.uk

Dr Charles Lanfear

Community structures and processes impact on crime, victimization & social control.

cl948@cam.ac.uk

Dr Caroline Lanskey

Youth justice, education and the arts in criminal justice & experiences of prisoners' families.

cml29@cam.ac.uk

Professor Alison Liebling

Penology; staff-prisoner relationships

al115@cam.ac.uk

Dr Jake Phillips

Prisons, probation, the police, courts and sentencing, youth justice and parole.

jrp60@cam.ac.uk 

Professor Justice Tankebe

Police and state legitimacy, corruption, police violence & vigilantism.

jt340@cam.ac.uk

Dr Kyle Treiber

Criminal behaviour & Situational Action Theory (SAT).

kht25@cam.ac.uk

Dr Maria Ttofi

[Sabbatical Leave 2025-2026]

Antisocial behaviour, crime and violence.

mt394@cam.ac.uk

Dr Sara Valdebenito

Evidence based crime prevention; school exclusion & bullying; randomised control trials.

sc331@cam.ac.uk

Professor Leo Zaibert

Penal Theory and Ethics, morality of punishment.

lz465@cam.ac.uk

Academic Requirements

New Admissions

We expect (full-time and part-time) PhD applicants from outside the University of Cambridge to have a Master's degree, with a distinction or close to distinction or equivalent, preferably in a social science discipline although applicants from other disciplines will also be considered.

The Institute welcomes applications from suitably qualified applicants of all nationalities. Proposals for doctoral research on any criminological topic will be considered.

Continuing from MPhil to PhD (current Cambridge students)

The Institute's MPhil course provides excellent preparation for doctoral study, and many of our MPhil students choose to stay at Cambridge to pursue a PhD. Continuation from the MPhil course is subject to a MPhil student achieving at least 74% overall.

How to Apply

Full-time and part-time applications for the PhD in Criminology must be made through the University's Postgraduate Admissions Office Applicant Portal. Only applicants have access to their application(s) on the application portal. The Institute is not able view an application until it is complete and submitted. Please note the following:

Full-time study

• We only accept full-time PhD applications with a Michaelmas Term (October) start date. The 2027-2028 application portal will open in early September 2026. 
• Applications received to start full-time study in the Lent and Easter terms will be automatically rejected by the department.

Part-time study

Part-time applicants can apply to start in any term.

Applications for part-time study will be assessed as to whether:

• The proposed research is feasible for part-time studies.
• The applicant is able to sustain a part-time approach to study.
• The applicant is able to fund five years (up to seven years) of study.
• The applicant lives close enough to Cambridge to be able to fulfil attendance requirements.
• There is a member of staff willing to supervise the research and the applicant meets the academic requirements.

Completing the online Application Form

Once you have signed up in the Application Portal, the completion of the online application is straightforward. However, we do provide this additional guidance for these particular sections of the application form:

Other Information: Research Experience

 Please include any previous academic research experience you think would be beneficial to your application.

(This statement should be no more than 1500 characters long, including spaces and punctuation between words).

Other Information: Career Goals

Please state how you see taking this course would help you meet your career goals.

(This statement should be no more than 1000 characters long, including spaces and punctuation between words).

Course Specific Questions: Statement of Interest

On the application form your statement of interest should:

• Capture more broadly why are you interested in Criminology as a subject. For example: What are the Criminological themes that attract you and why?
• Outline some of your reasons for studying Criminology. You should mention particular academic interests you may have in the field of criminology, and how you see these fitting in with your medium and long-term plans.

(This statement should be no more than 1500 characters long, including spaces and punctuation between words).

Research Proposal

The research proposal should be no more than four pages (~2,000 words) in length (not including the bibliography), and should include:

1. A suggested title of PhD project.
2. A literature review that shows the respects in which your proposed work builds on and will augment, clarify, or qualify existing knowledge.
3. A clear statement of research questions and/or hypotheses.
4. Methodology: A feasible research design including a discussion of the methods you will employ (qualitative research; quantitative research; mixed-methods approach, etc) and why they are appropriate; study participants / data sources you plan to utilize, including how you expect to obtain access to them; further details about how the fieldwork will be conducted, etc.
5. Timeline of Research: Indicating a general timeline about when literature review will be completed, when it is hoped that fieldwork will commence and be completed, writing up stages, etc.
6. Implications for policy and practice arising from the suggested research
7. Suggested Supervisor: Applicants are strongly encouraged to look at the profile of our academic staff members and indicate their preference about potential supervisors. Applicants should keep in mind that beyond the quality of the PhD proposal, it is important that a supervisor is in place who is able to supervise the specific topic.

This must be uploaded as a Supporting Document.  

Sample of Work

You need to submit one sample of your academic writing, for which you are the sole author. We will not accept a piece of work you have written collaboratively with others. Applicants usually submit either an essay or piece of assessed coursework from a previous degree or a chapter from a dissertation.  The sample of written work is more about showing your academic abilities and style of writing, so it doesn't need to on a Criminological subject or directly related to Criminology.  

(This piece of work should be between 1,500 – 5,000 words long. A Reference list or Bibliography is not included in the word count, however, we do include footnotes.)

This must be uploaded as a Supporting Document.

The PhD course code is: LWCR21

Apply Now

When will I receive a decision?

• Full-time and part-time PhD applications are considered on a rolling basis (as they are received) up until each Term's application deadline.
• We aim to assess and make a decision within twelve weeks of receiving a complete application form (which includes two academic references).  As part of the decision making process, you will be invited to attend an interview (usually in January) with your prospective supervisor and another member of the Admissions Committee. Interviews will either be conducted in person or via Zoom. [Part-time applications: If the department decides to make you an offer the applicant will also be interviewed by their proposed supervsior to establish a five-year research plan, which will set out your attendance requirements for training and seminars, frequency of supervisions and progress stages.]

Admission Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Postgraduate Admissions Office has a comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions relating to the applications process. Please refer to these while making your application and throughout the process of applying.

The Postgraduate Admissions website provides full details on course fees and living costs, and their finance overview tool will help you calculate your costs.

They also provide information on funding opportunities on offer at the University of Cambridge and have a funding search tool which applicants can use to identify possibly funding opportunities. The Institute also has two funds, details of which can be found on our funding page.