Forensic Psychology Sheffield Hallam University

Award	Attendance	Study	Duration	Start	Domestic fees	International fees
MSc	On-Campus	Full-time	find out	find out	find out	find out
MSc	On-Campus	Part-time	find out	find out	find out	find out

Course overview

This course builds on your knowledge of psychology at undergraduate level. You learn how to apply it to legal and criminal issues. In civil and criminal cases, forensic psychologists may contribute in various ways, such as providing expert testimony in courts or advising the police on effective interview strategies. During this course you study the theories of criminal behaviours and develop an understanding of why some individuals become criminals. By studying forensic psychology in a legal context, you learn to understand how other disciplines and social factors influence its theory, research and development. This illustrates the strengths and limitations of psychology in a forensic context. You study how psychological research can inform approaches to effectively detecting crimes and how criminals are convicted. And you learn to evaluate and use forensic psychological research approaches. With the support and guidance of a tutor, you complete a self-designed research project using methods studied during the course. This allows you to bring the legal and psychological aspects of the course together. We have chosen not to seek British Psychological Society (BPS) accreditation for our course as this allows us to teach a greater variety of topics and to explore legal contexts in more depth. In comparison to most accredited courses, it contains much more training in forensic psychology research, the application of psychology to criminal investigations, and criminal law and its applications. If you already work within a criminal justice setting for example, youth offending teams, the Police Force, Probation Service or courts, the course equips you with valuable skills to inform professional activities. If you have studied psychology at undergraduate level and you want to expand your forensic psychology skills, this course gives you a good grounding.