MSc Youth Justice at Aberystwyth University

The MSc Youth Justice offers a unique opportunity to study the youth justice system in England and Wales. The scheme adopts a focused and specifically critical standpoint in the consideration of relevant issues, from within England and Wales. The scheme content directly relates to emerging critical youth justice research and provides students with an opportunity to develop a sophisticated understanding of current policy, legislation and its historical development, legislation and research, to current and rapidly developing changes in conceptions of ‘children’ and their treatment within and beyond current systems. The scheme also offers opportunities engage in a comparative analysis of the approaches adopted in other jurisdictions, in order to provide further critique the current and developing picture, and evaluate the impact of research on practice and policy.

Students will be supported throughout to become independent researchers and writers in the realm of youth justice, through a series of lecture-seminar combined sessions, at which students will also be expected to lead discussions. Writing skills are a particular focus, with assignments structured as journal articles, and feedback given mirroring peer reviews, to prepare students for academic publication with advice and guidance from published academics.

The scheme comprises of two compulsory modules (Critical Youth Justice and International Comparative Youth Justice), and a themed youth justice dissertation. Critical Youth Justice covers a wide range of topics including paradigms (justice vs welfare, risk-based youth justice, Child First/Rights-based youth justice), contentious issues (minimum age of criminal responsibility, moral panics, custody and resettlement) and contemporary debates (current topics, for example: disproportionality, gangs/knife crime). International Comparative Youth Justice comprises detailed critical exploration of a range of different jurisdictions, for example, Scotland, USA, Australia, Canada, Nordic countries, Japan and New Zealand. 

Why study MSc Youth Justice at Aberystwyth University?

·      96.5% of the Department of Law & Criminology publications were judged to be of an internationally recognised standard or higher in the most recent research assessment – REF 2014

·      Academic staff in the Department of Law and Criminology are active in research and publication and participate in national and international debate and policy-making in legal and related fields

·      Aberystwyth is a multinational community. The Department of Law & Criminology participates actively in international and European academic networks and frequently hosts visits by academics and experts from other countries

·      Expansive research is carried out within the Department across a range of research areas and within a range of research centres (including the Centre for Age, Gender and Social Justice see: https://choice.aber.ac.uk/about/). Postgraduates integrate into our research culture through Departmental research seminars and student conferences

·      Opportunity to meet regularly with your Personal Tutor who will guide and assist students not only with their studies, but with their future career planning

·      Benefit from a mature and well-stocked library for Law and Criminology, supported by a subject specialist librarian to assist you with your studies and from generous information technology provision

·      Study nearby to the National Library of Wales, one of five UK copyright libraries

Graduates from this scheme will leave with the professional knowledge and capacity to independently practice, reflect, review and build upon disciplinary expertise and judgement. The schemes’ teaching, learning and assessment requires students to develop ethical practice, critical analytical skills, research skills and presentation skills which will enable them to share their criminological expertise in both academic and professional settings.

Graduate career opportunities include (but not restricted to):

·      government departments and criminal justice agencies

·      voluntary organisations / non-governmental organisations in the crime and justice field

·      international organisations, such as the UN

·      research and academia