Criminal Justice BA Welcome Pack
Welcome to BA Criminal Justice – September 2026.
As the Course Lead I offer you a warm welcome to the Criminal Justice BA.
Are you ready to enter the world of criminal justice by exploring the criminal mind, learning about triggers and motivations that can drive people to commit the most serious of offences and asking yourself how we can reduce crime to make our communities safe. This course will teach you about social, legal and political institutions designed to manage crime. You will learn about the role of police, courts, probation and prisons to consider how the principles of law, rehabilitation and punishment are applied, critically considering where practice is poor and requires improvement. You will learn about current research and evidence-based approaches to promote structural changes in policies and procedures across criminal justice to strengthen our fragile criminal justice system. You will develop specific skills that criminal justice practitioners require to communicate, support and engage offenders, victims/survivors, the pubic and criminal justice professionals. This course takes an applied approach offering you the opportunity to complete work-based learning with local criminal justice agencies allowing you to experience the real world of criminal justice. Your final year of study allows a placement with the completion of an 8000-word reflective written portfolio allowing you to implement your knowledge and skills into practice. These experiences will allow you to build networks across criminal justice placing you in a competitive position for entering future careers in this field.
During your first week we have arranged a timetable of events for you to ease you into university life with us. You will be offered lots of fun activities to engage in to help welcome you to campus. In addition, you will be invited to meetings with the teaching team who come from a broad range of criminal justice backgrounds. You will be able to ask us any questions you have about the course, university life and our previous experience in criminal justice. You will also have an opportunity to meet your Personal Academic Tutor who will support you throughout your time on the course offering you one-to-one support for both academic and wellbeing needs.
Your course leader
Ginny Field
Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice Studies
As your course leader you may contact me at any time to arrange a meeting to discuss any issues you might be facing. I am an approachable and warm person, and I welcome you making the time for us to meet so as I can learn about your future goals and aspirations. I will regularly contact you to check on your progress on this course and to gain your feedback and ideas on how any element can be improved.
Additional staff
- Abdul-Hye Miah (Course Deputy Lead)
- Professor Claire Paterson-Young
- Tina Billington-Hughes
- Steve Haycroft
- Georgia Boyd
Preparing for your course
Over the summer period an online session will be held via Teams to welcome our new students for September 2026. This will take place on Friday 11 September from 10am to 11am. This is an opportunity for you to meet the Course Lead, the academic team and other students who are on your course. If you wish to join, please contact me via email so as I can invite you to this virtual get together (ginny.field@northampton.ac.uk). I look forward to meeting you all online.
Friday 11 September
Session: Meet and Greet!
- Time: 10 – 11am (BST)
- Link: Microsoft Teams https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/321895148506618?p=EWGdVeKM2UFmnvNxAK
- Meeting ID: 321 895 148 506 618
- Passcode: E3qP3Cy9
Tuesday 22 September
Session: Meet and Greet! – Session 1: Come and meet some of the teaching team and students also studying the Criminal Justice BA. This will be an opportunity to build new friendships and ask any burning questions you may have about the course or university life.
- Time: 10 – 11am (BST)
- Location: The meeting point will be at the Learning Hub’s The Ground café (1st Floor outside room 121), Waterside campus
Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 September
The Student Union Fair in the Learning Hub, Waterside campus
Thursday 24 September
Session: FBL Welcome event
- Time: 2pm onwards (BST)
- Location: The Learning Hub Building, The Hide, Floor 4, Waterside campus
This is how we love to kick things off in the Faculty of Business Law! This fun and friendly social event brings music, unique games, party food and more to our new student and staff community. Hosted by the faculty Student Experience Assistant Team (SEAT), this is a great opportunity to connect and mix with peers and tutors from Business, Management, Analytics, Marketing, Hospitality, Law, Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, Criminology, Criminal Justice & Policing course communities. We promise you’ll have a great time…NOT TO BE MISSED!
Friday 24 September
Session: Meet and Greet! – Session 2: Rejoin your teaching team and student peers to explore a current issue in criminal justice that interests you.
- Time: 10 – 11am (BST)
- Location: The meeting point will be at the Learning Hub’s The Ground café (1st Floor outside room 121), Waterside campus
Preparation and Pre-Arrival tasks
Please contact ASSIST and the Course Lead if you have any learning difficulties that you would like to tell us about. This allows us to ensure that support and reasonable adjustments are considered for you early in your learner journey.
The University of Northampton will carry out your Disclosure and Barring Service vetting check over the summer before your arrival. This has to be done during this period to ensure the checks come back in good time for your first experience of work-based learning at the end of semester one. Please do contact the Course Lead if you have any concerns about this process.
Reading Lists
There is no expectation for you to complete reading over the summer period before you join us. However, if you wish to explore the subject of criminal justice you may find the resources below provide you with a good introduction to the subject:
- Joyce, P. and Laverick, W. (2023) Criminal Justice: An Introduction – 4th edition. (2023). Routledge.
