Dissertation in Criminal Justice Leadership (Applied) - SPY00182M

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Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Summer Semester 2026-27

Module aims

The module will be provided as an alternative to the Academic Dissertation. The alternative offer will aim to provide students a more practical focus on an area of their choosing relating to criminal justice policy making and practice. The target is to equip students with the required analytical skills to produce a consultant report. The report will require students to (a) present the issue and explain why they chose to focus on it, (b) explain the contemporary issue facing the criminal justice organisation, (c) to define data sources and obtain data for their internal and external analysis, (d) to link practice frameworks and theory with practice, and (e) provide recommendations to the organisation. The module will require students to collect secondary (not primary) data from multiple data sources, to use existing databases when needed, and to apply critical thinking to come up with justifiable recommendations.

Module learning outcomes

Students successfully taking this module will be able to:
Academic and graduate skills
- Undertake independent research.
- Be able to identify a contemporary criminal justice issue and support their choice with sources
- Be able to identify relevant data and information to analyse the selected case.
- Understand how to draw upon existing secondary data and apply critical thinking to reach justifiable conclusions.
- Synthesise secondary information (e.g., archival data, synthesis of academic insights from literature reviews, or both) to provide a recommendation.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the limitations of the thesis and pose impetus for future research

Skills-related learning outcomes
- Analytical skills and reliability procedures.
- Engagement with multiple sources of data.
- Self-organisation to meet internal as well as external deadlines.
- Ability to write a report
- Demonstrate resilience by finishing this significant independent research piece.

Module content

The module will add to and build upon students’ learning to allow them producing a consulting report.
Students will need to:
- Self-select the organisation that faces a criminal justice issue – the one they want to focus.
- Communicate the name of the selected organisation and the issue it is facing to the module leader according to the timetable provided.
- Collect secondary data about this organisation from multiple data sources, including existing databases, if relevant, and use frameworks to analyse the issue and provide recommendations for action.
- Use the data they collected and the analyses they ran to reach a conclusion and recommendation.
- Demonstrate a reflexive understanding of their strengths and weaknesses based on experience of developing an individual research project over an extended period, as well as consider the contribution of the dissertation to scholarship, policy, and practice.

While not allocated an individual supervisor, students will be supported by 6 (2 hours) workshops, 2 (2 hours) drop-in sessions, as well as by online materials.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	90.0
Essay/coursework	10.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

None

Module feedback

Students will get formative feedback during the workshops and the drop-in sessions. For the summative assignment, written feedback will be released to students after the final exam board. In cases of a marginal fail, where minor amendments are permitted, students will be given written guidance on the required amendments and deadlines for submission in accordance with university regulations on reassessment and resubmission.

Indicative reading

TBC