Professional Doctorate in Criminal Justice

Benefits of a Professional Doctorate in Criminal Justice 

Our Professional Doctorate in Criminal Justice (DCrimJ) is a structured 4-year programme. The first two years are focused on workshop-based teaching in Portsmouth, while the latter two years are focused on supervised research, leading to a thesis.

Established in 2007, this course offers a framework for criminal justice professionals to reflect on and contribute to practice in their area of work. And unlike the more traditional PhD route – which aims to develop professional researchers – the Professional Doctorate in Criminal Justice develop researching professionals.

Students are drawn from a variety of backgrounds in criminal justice – including policing, counter fraud, the private security industry, the voluntary sector, youth justice, prisons, probation, the legal profession, and forensic mental health.

The aim of the course is to develop criminal justice professionals whose work informs and is informed by original research in the field. Previous graduates have followed research projects into profession-related subjects such as:

• Reform and the Garda in the Republic of Ireland
• The National Intelligence Model and reduced risk in the public sector
• Gender within specialist police departments

Teaching and assessment

The Professional Doctorate in Criminal Justice aims to develop your research ability to an advanced level and promote evidence-based practice development. The development of the quality and value of your practice and research will be enhanced through:

• seminars and workshops on critical research and criminal justice issues specifically focused on the development needs of criminal justice professionals
• support from peers and staff to ensure your work reaches the necessary (doctoral) standard
• supervision from a team with a very wide range of development and research interests and many years of professional experience
• access to University of Portsmouth library facilities including a large number of e-books, journals and databases accessed electronically
• the use of an online learning environment enabling you to keep in easy touch with your peers and the course team
• development of wider national and international perspectives through networking with the peer group
• building ongoing productive links between criminal justice organisations
• raising the profile, credibility and influence of your profession in both academic and practice contexts

How you'll be assessed

You'll be assessed on the strength of your thesis.

Visit the Professional Doctorate in Criminal Justice page on the University of Portsmouth website for more details!