Bachelor of Social Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice

at Western Sydney University - Liverpool City Campus Australia

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

 Peace and Development Studies

The Peace and Development Studies major is concerned with methods for promoting peace, human rights and sustainability. It involves a critical analysis of inequalities of power and opportunity that lead to international and local conflict, social dislocation and environmental degradation.

Students will examine the structural causes of racist and gendered violence, environmental crises, forced migration, poverty, resource conflict, and inter-generational inequity. The inter-related network of solutions includes empowerment and self-determination, sustainable living, constructive development, peacemaking and peace building. These require understanding of the theories and method for identifying, measuring and resolving conflict and environmental degradation. The assumptions and failings of traditional development practice are critically assessed. Students will engage social theory within an interdisciplinary and applied framework, at local, national and international levels.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Anthropology

Social Anthropology is the study of humans and the cultures they create. The major in Anthropology within the Bachelor of Social Science offers students the opportunity to examine social patterns and practices across cultures, to discover similarities and differences between cultures, and to understand the processes by which humans organise and create meaning.

Areas of focus include the development of anthropology as a discipline; globalisation and culture; power and politics; gender and sexuality; identity and belonging; ethnography and ethnographic methods; indigenous peoples and nation states. Specific attention is given to cultures of Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and to cross cultural interactions, at both global and local levels.

The major seeks to equip students with multi-cultural knowledge as well as to provide a thorough grounding in research methods and ethics with utility in a variety of professional and academic contexts.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Heritage Tourism

In a highly mobile world (migration, tourism, media and communications, travel and transport) and in contemporary life where the preservation of historical and natural environments present as one of the major challenges facing all societies, heritage has become a touchstone for social and cultural identity, our understanding of modernity, peace and development, our senses of citizenship, custodianship and community. At the same time heritage places have become significant tourist destinations and so in a world of flows and networks, the heritage-tourism relationship is a critical one. In the 21st century it is impossible to disentangle the two.

This major introduces contemporary heritage issues and provides an in-depth understanding of tourism as a social phenomenon. It enables a critical examination of the relationship between heritage and tourism in number of settings within Australia (including Indigenous Australia) and internationally.

Graduates with a heritage and tourism major can contemplate careers within a diverse range of government, non-government organization and businesses that require understanding, insight and skills related to heritage and tourism.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Criminology and Criminal Justice

This criminology major offers students the opportunity to study crime and criminal justice in a critical way that particularly stresses social and cultural definitions of criminality and the reactions to it.

Areas of focus include criminal justice institutions and practices; the development of criminology as a discipline and its various strands; forms and patterns of victimisation; crime prevention strategies and debates; aspects of juvenile justice; the evolution of prisons and different forms of punishment; law enforcement and surveillance; violence, gender and crime; cultural depictions of crime and contemporary debates in criminology.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Sociology

The major in Sociology provides students with a thorough training in the methods, theories and select leading areas of contemporary sociology. As well as units in which methods and theories are taught, through the social science core, students enrolled in the Sociology major will have opportunities to study a number of particular themes from a sociological perspective, including inequalities, deviance, identities, gender, religion, medicine and health care, ethnicity and migration, and the family, among other possibilities.

A Bachelor of Social Science (BSS) with a major in Sociology will prepare students for both employment and a research higher degree.

Become a skilled social worker with the ability to nurture people’s self-reliance and problem-solving abilities. If you have always cared about others, this degree gives you an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of individuals, families, groups and communities.

Through a mix of world-class research and theory, Western's Bachelor of Social Work gives you the valuable skills and knowledge you need to help people deal with personal and social problems, either directly or by planning and carrying out programs that will benefit groups or communities. It prepares you to enter the workforce in a range of sectors, including private or government agencies, welfare support organisations, community groups or in health. 

In this degree, you will explore the worlds of criminology and crime, and gain fascinating insights into our criminal justice institutions and practices. You will graduate with a strong understanding of crime prevention strategies and debates, victimisation, juvenile justice, prisons and different forms of punishment. This degree equips students with the specialist skills and knowledge to enter the professional workforce.

Western’s Bachelor of Criminology allows you to study crime and criminal justice in a conceptual and applied way, and gain an understanding of how these things affect society. It gives you the skills and knowledge you need to take on a career in the police force, corrective services, and the criminal and community justice systems.

You will learn about law enforcement and surveillance, violence, gender and crime, restorative and international criminal justice, cultural depictions of crime, and contemporary debates in criminology. Examples of minors include Child and Community Studies, Psychological Studies or Sociology.Ultimately, you will emerge with the specialist skills and knowledge to make a difference in the world and be a force for good.

This dual degree combines a critical perspective on theories and practices from social work as well as criminology. 

This is an applied degree pathway which links theory to practice, and contains two field education placements. There will be a strong focus on practice for students who wish to pursue a career in social work, community corrections, or other sectors of the criminal justice system, including private providers as well as the not-for-profit sector.

The two professionally-supervised field placements you will undertake total to 1008 hours.

Please note that students participating in placement programs must meet the government requirements, e.g. Working with Children Check, National Criminal Record check. Any students participating in placement with programs in NSW Health facilities will need to comply with its Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination against Specified Infectious Diseases policy prior to placement

Become a skilled social worker with the ability to nurture people’s self-reliance and problem-solving abilities. If you have always cared about others, this degree gives you an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of individuals, families, groups and communities.

Through a mix of world-class research and theory, Western's Bachelor of Social Work gives you the valuable skills and knowledge you need to help people deal with personal and social problems, either directly or by planning and carrying out programs that will benefit groups or communities. It prepares you to enter the workforce in a range of sectors, including private or government agencies, welfare support organisations, community groups or in health.

In addition to social research and theory, this program emphasises practical skills to make you job-ready by undertaking more than 1,000 hours of supervised field work. As a result, you will graduate with confidence in your abilities, and highly sought-after workplace skills as a professional social worker.

As the only Policing degree in metropolitan Sydney, we prepare you for an unlimited future in the Force.

This degree will give you the skills you need to enter into careers in policing, criminal and community justice organisations, corrective services, border protection, intelligence, security and fraud management, forensics, computer forensics, and more.

When you choose the Bachelor of Policing at Western, you gain access to a state-of-the-art research facility, as well as the opportunity to practice realistic crime scene investigation and collect evidence in the real world.

Our Policing degree gives you an advanced knowledge of modern policing theory and practice, including a broad understanding of the role of police in society. You also develop an appreciation of the diverse nature of Australian culture, enhance your analytical and problem-solving skills, and develop a client-focused approach to serving the community.

Designed in collaboration with NSW Police Force, this program partially fulfils the academic requirements to join their ranks. This means you gain a genuine competitive advantage if you decide you want to join the Force.