Criminology and Public Prevention Policies – (LL.B.)

The objective of the new degree in Criminology and Public Prevention Policies is for students to acquire knowledge in the fields of law, political and social sciences and biology and psychology and to be able to apply them in a specific field - criminality - in order to be able to give advice on crime and security to both the public administrations and judicial system and to businesses.

In order to train future criminologists, the UPF has designed the new degree placing particular emphasis on three areas. The first is criminological research: the modern world requires that discussions and policies are based on empirical data. That is why students at the UPF receive intensive training which enables them to design and carry out criminological research. The second area is an understanding of society and the response mechanisms for dealing with crime: in order to deal with the new criminal phenomena faced by our society, it is necessary to understand the social context in which they arise, and have sound training in law and the political sciences in order to be able to provide appropriate responses to these. Finally, training in biology and psychology provides knowledge of the biological and psychological foundations behind some anti-social behaviour and enables programmes to deal with them to be designed.

As well as providing specific knowledge, those in charge of the new degree in Criminology and Public Prevention Policies assure us that students are also able to understand the processes by which certain conclusions are reached, and that they will also be able to apply the skills they have acquired. As a result, as well as master classes, there are seminars with a maximum of twenty students to put the knowledge explained in the theoretical classes into practice.

In order to attain these teaching goals, the degree in Criminology and Public Prevention Policies has a highly qualified teaching staff, as can be seen by their numerous publications on the subject.