We are proud to offer a course that builds on over 25 years of expertise in police education, including being the first university to offer a dedicated detective education program to English detectives. This degree will provide you with a strong foundation in criminal investigations, while also equipping you with a broad range of skills and knowledge that can be applied to various careers, or further study, in criminal investigation and related fields.

Policing at Christ Church is part of the School of Business, Law, and Policing, where we emphasise an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Throughout your studies, you'll have the opportunity to learn from experienced academics across a variety of disciplines, including Forensic Investigation and Criminology, who will share their experience and expertise to ensure you gain a well-rounded, diverse perspective on criminal justice and investigation. You will gain in-depth insights into crime, investigation, and criminal justice, equipping you with essential methods, techniques, and transferable skills into a range of graduate roles, including within the Criminal Justice system.

We look forward to meeting you in the Welcome and Induction week w.c Monday 15th September 2025.

Community

On the social side, the Student Union (CCSU) has a huge range of clubs and societies – all of which have unique social calendars of their own and offer endless opportunities to make lifelong friends and discover new hobbies. And you can always create your own society and cultivate your own community!

CCSU will be hosting their Welcome Fayre on Wednesday 17th September 2025. Make sure you keep checking the CCSU website for further details and how to get involved.

We understand that you may be nervous about your first few weeks on campus but rest assured - you'll be joining a nurturing and supportive environment where diversity, equality and individuality are part of everything we do.

You can find out more about our welcoming community and making friends

If you are an International Student joining us then please see our International Student Support pages for further information and guidance.

Can mention what the first few weeks at CCCU will look like for the student, what modules they will study in their first year, and any other details you think they would like to know about the start of their university journey. Please make sure to check that the year one modules on the course essentials page is correct, and let us know if any need changing.

In the first year of the course, you will be introduced to a range of different topics, all related to Policing. There are four core modules that all help to contextualise criminal investigations for you before you move on in years two and three to more specialist aspects of investigations. In addition, you will completed three bite-size ‘Success’ modules, which aim to settle you into university and explore areas such as critical thinking and sustainable futures.

Each academic year is divided into two main semesters, allowing you to concentrate on three modules each semester. Semester One (Advent) lasts from September until January. Semester Two (Easter) lasts from the end of January until May.

The modules you will study in your first year are:

• Succeeding in Your Criminal Justice Specialism (15 Credits)
• The Criminal Justice System (30 Credits)
• Introduction to Crime Scene Investigations (30 Credits)
• Investigative Interviewing (30 Credits)
• Success Modules (3 x 5 Credits)

Task

In the last few years there has been some controversy around the way the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) dealt with a series of deaths in Barking, East London between 2014 and 2015. Some of the victims (all young males) were found dead in or near the same cemetery. Despite suspicious circumstances, each case was initially treated as a non-suspicious death. The family of the fourth victim undertook their own investigations, and eventually a male called Stephen Port was convicted of four homicides and a number of sexual crimes.

I have deliberately given only a few details of this famous case. Your task (this is for interest and discussion and is not compulsory) is to find out as much as you can about this case for the first week of your studies. Try to use as many sources as you can, such as Google, Google Scholar etc, to see what you can find. Why do you think the case may have initially failed to identify the cases as suspicious? Can you find any similarities between this case and other, older cases also led by the MPS.

We have sought to develop the course even more since it began, and we have exciting facilities such as a Hydra Suite, Interview rooms, mock crime scenes which will form part of your immersive learning experiences. In the third year, we have a module which links to Inside Justice, a charity that investigates potential miscarriages of justice. You will have opportunity to do this module and investigate real cases and present findings to Inside Justice as part of your learning and assessment.

If you wish to undertake some reading before the course begins, some useful texts are highlighted below. The first is a nationally recognised book on policing, written specifically for students:

• Dickens, T. et al. (Eds.) (2021) Blackstone’s Handbook for Policing Students, 2022. Oxford University Press.
• This new volume has been available from December 2021 onward (previous editions are available, but they will not be current).

A classic text on policing, recently revised, is:

• Bowling, B., Reiner, R, & Sheptycki, J. (2019) The Politics of the Police. Oxford University Press.

A useful Criminal Investigation text (core for the Criminal Investigation module, etc.) is:

• O.Neill, M. (2018) Key challenges in criminal Investigation. Bristol: Policy press.