About the Department
The Department of Law and Criminal Justice Studies
The Centre for Studies in Crime & Policing was established at Canterbury Christ Church University in 1996 to coordinate the work of individual members of staff working with police officers on a number of related programmes and projects. In 1997 the Centre launched the BSc (Hons) Policing, which was initially designed and developed in partnership with Kent County Constabulary (now Kent Police). Subsequently, the degree programme attracted officers from several other police forces throughout Britain.
At the same time the Centre offered police probationary officers in Kent the opportunity of undertaking a Certificate of Higher Education in Policing and since this time the Centre has continued to enjoy a good working relationship with Kent Police and officers from other forces. This collaboration has lead to a number of innovative programmes being developed including the Dip HE Policing programme, (BA/BSc) Forensic Investigation and Applied Criminology, a BSc (Hons) Applied Criminal Investigation, BSc (Hons) Police Studies and the MSc Policing.
The philosophy of working closely with the Police on all aspects of the programmes delivered by the Centre has remained constant and in this respect much gratitude is owed to the continued support of staff at the Kent Police College. Due to the increase in the number of students and the range of courses the Centre became a Department in its own right in October 2004.
The police programmes have developed as a result of these links with Kent Police. Academic Staff in the Department meet regularly with serving police officers, police trainers, senior officers and crime scene investigators to monitor the programme and discuss and debate matters of content and delivery.