Career Profiles

Career Profiles

Criminology

How do you study Criminology?
In New Zealand, Criminology can only be studied as a major subject for a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) at the Institute of Criminology, Victoria University, in Wellington. Postgraduate qualifications in Criminology; a BA Honours degree, Master of Arts and PhD, are also available.

Criminology specialisation begins at the 200-level. This is because Criminology requires knowledge from other, related disciplines, which is developed and synthesised during the first year of university study. Criminology complements other humanities and social Crime is a hugely complex social phenomenon. This has given rise to an equally complex collection of popular opinion, specialised knowledge and factual information as to its causes, effects and prevention.

In this context, Criminology has evolved as a multi-disciplinary field of study that examines how crime is defined, why people commit crimes, and how society responds. It probes the culture of crime and the workings of the criminal justice system including the police, courts, prisons and rehabilitation services. It researches how criminal behaviour relates to, for example, drug use, educational attainment, ethnicity, family relationships and mental health. It studies the characteristics of offenders and their victims. It seeks to understand how criminal behaviour gratifies the needs of its perpetrators. It asks who goes to prison and what happens to them there. It questions the nature of punishment - is it to provide justice, to deter or prevent crime, or to reform criminals? It questions the relationship between crime and the media. Does the way crime is reported and represented influence criminal behaviour?

Crime is also an international concern that changes with the times. Organised criminal enterprises can command a workforce and financial turnover that rivals multinational corporations. Digital technology supports our
global financial services industry but also opens up opportunities for fraud and misappropriation that, only a few years ago, would have been incomprehensible. The proportion of Internet traffic that relates to criminal activity can only be conservatively estimated, but even that gives law-abiding citizens the jitters. Criminology also
investigates the shifting patterns that emerge when the focus is pulled back to show the big picture.

Download a complete copy of Career View on Criminology below.