Language is central to the way all aspects of society are conducted, including crime and the criminal justice system. This course enables you to investigate language using some of the techniques and frameworks of modern linguistics and develop a thorough understanding of the major criminological concepts, theories and perspectives.

Why Linguistics and Criminology?

• State-of-the-art facilities including a forensic linguistics lab, a research and resource centre and conference labs.
• Opportunity to take a five-week placement as part of the ‘Language in the Workplace’ module.
• Get involved in the writing, editing and production of the popular department linguistics magazine, Babel.
• Our team of English academic staff are ranked in the top 5 in the UK for the quality of their research publications (REF 2014).
• You’ll have the chance to hear from guest speakers such as police officers, drug outreach workers or criminal justice staff.
• You’ll take part in debates about the latest issues, such as why people commit crime as well as the opportunity to investigate some fascinating topics such as sexual offending, cyber and environmental crime.

The course aims to equip you for the real world by educating you to understand, analyse and critique the communication going on around you with particular relevance to the criminal justice system. The kinds of careers that relate most closely to this course lie in the police and criminal justice system as well as in forensic linguistics and speech analysis.

Placements

As part of the compulsory second year ‘Language in the Workplace' module you will have the chance to gain valuable experience spending 5 weeks in a work placement or work related activity. The module shows you how the language skills you aim to develop through your course can be applied to communication in the workplace.

If you’re studying full-time, this course also offers an optional one-year (48 weeks) work placement after the second year, in the UK or abroad. This will give you the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience, insight into your chosen career and open up your graduate employment prospects. Our Placement Unit and academic staff have excellent industry links and can support you in applying for and finding your placement(s), as well as during your placement year.

Some of our students have gained real-world experience in various teaching environments, in publishing houses, youth offending teams, prisons, police stations, courts and in marketing roles. Previous placement providers have included Maiden Voyage.Com, Kirklees Library Services, M-Four Translations, Quest Media and a range of primary and secondary schools.

Your Career

Our graduates have gone on to a variety of careers within publishing, broadcasting, teaching, writing, management, social services, healthcare, legal, research and consulting and local government. A selection of companies that have employed Huddersfield graduates in recent years include BBC, Emerald Group Publishing, Securitas UK, West Yorkshire Police, the National Probation Service, Lloyds Banking Group, Careers Leeds, Prison Advice and Care Trust, the NHS, and the UK Ministry of Defence.** Others have opted for PGCE study and have become teachers, or continued their studies at postgraduate level.

*Percentage of graduates from this subject who are in work and/or further study fifteen months after graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes 17/18, UK domiciled graduates).