Policing and criminal justice

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Introduction
Potential research projects
Potential supervisors
Further information

An image to illustrate studying policing and criminal justice with The Open University

Within the Department of History, there is a specific research group devoted to the study of criminal justice history: the International Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice (ICHCPJ). This centre aims to promote and facilitate research into criminal justice history around the world and to generate the exchange of ideas between academics, criminal justice practitioners and serving police personnel. This is achieved via seminars, conferences, publications and the provision of specialist archive facilities. We have links with police research centres in Europe and the Antipodes, an ongoing project on the globalisation of policing, our own police records archive, and links to heritage institutions in the UK. We have a record of securing major funding, and of successfully supervising students. We invite proposals on any aspect of the development of UK, European or colonial police forces, on crime and/or deviancy, and on systems of punishment from 1750 to the present.

Members of the centre are also active participants in the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR), located in the Faculty of Social Sciences. This cooperation brings together cross-faculty expertise in areas as diverse as youth justice and forensic psychology.

For more information on the research interests of members, archival holdings, and recent doctoral research projects, please visit the ICHCPJ website.

We welcome applications in areas which correspond to current staff research interests. We look for detailed and well thought-out proposals, which set out specific research questions and outline the originality of your topic or approach. If you would like to discuss your ideas informally before submitting an application, please contact the department.

Qualifications available:: PhD or MPhil
Fees:: For detailed information on current fees visit Fees and funding.
Entry requirements:: At least a 2:1 in a relevant degree plus a masters degree, or equivalent evidence of ability to write and research at a high level, or a first class degree with a dissertation element