Cybercrime and Digital Investigations MSc

This module will provide you with an in-depth introduction to the complex and evolving field of cybercrime, examining its history, nature, and patterns. Through an exploration of criminological theories, you will gain insight into how cybercrime challenges traditional frameworks and learn to analyse its societal impacts critically. The module will explore various types of cybercrime, including hacking, online fraud, cyberstalking, and exploitation. It focuses into the offending behaviours and methods behind these offences and considers how the unique features of cyberspace, such as anonymity, accessibility, and global reach, pose significant challenges for detection, law enforcement, and prosecution.

This module will equip you with a solid foundation in research design, ethical principles, and theoretical approaches. You will develop skills for conducting quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, analysing findings using descriptive and inferential statistics and thematic analysis, and critically deconstructing conventional methods and secondary data from a decolonial perspective. You will gain the knowledge and skills needed for dissertations, organizational research, and advanced methods and analysis. The module also emphasizes the impact of historical power relations on criminological research methods. 

The module will give you a broad understanding financial crime risks from emerging technologies for the regulated financial sector (e.g., fraud, electronic crime, money laundering, sanctions and terrorist financing).  It provides practical knowledge of carrying out risk assessments for emerging technology in financial products and services.  You will gain an understanding of the nature, purpose and legal requirement of adhering to regulation in the area of financial services and how compliance is managed in practice. 

This module offers students a dynamic and immersive exploration of key concepts and practices within the realm of cyber safety and security. The module engages directly with prominent researchers and leading practitioners in the field, where you will gain unique insights into real-world strategies for addressing cyber risks and creating safe digital environments. The module emphasises practical learning, providing opportunities to interact with experts, understand current challenges, and explore innovative solutions within the rapidly evolving landscape of digital trust and safety.

This module will equip you with a comprehensive understanding of the intersection between digital investigations and digital technologies. It provides in-depth knowledge of evidence management, emphasising the critical impact of proper handling and the risks associated with mismanagement in investigative processes. Through hands-on exploration of digital media you will use both open-source and commercial forensic tools to conduct detailed investigations of digital media and crypto artefacts. The module covers strategic planning, technology management, and the importance of evidential continuity, placing equal emphasis on rigorous documentation, procedural integrity, and technical proficiency in identifying and recovering critical digital evidence.

This module explores the social dimensions of digital technologies, offering insights into challenges and opportunities in studying society through digital tools. You will learn foundational text mining and analysis methods, engage with empirical research on digital technologies, and develop practical skills for applied techniques like topic modelling and opinion mining. It covers research design, ethics, and methodologies, preparing students for text-based social science research, dissertations, or digital roles in organizations.

This module addresses contemporary transformations of violent extremism and terrorism, together with policy and practice directions emerging in response.  The learning pathway is built around case studies and theoretical frameworks, with a focus on the UK and Europe, and is structured around the tension between transformations in violent extremism and theoretical, policy and practice frameworks attempting to understand and respond to these developments. This module will include mapping counter-extremism and prevention actors and stakeholders at local, national and European levels, and the role of social science graduates in this field. 

This module aims to develop your understanding of how psychology can assist law enforcement investigations. You will examine the application of cognitive and social psychology to the practice of investigative interviewing, as well as how offenders’ decision-making can be analysed in order to help make investigations more effective and efficient in areas such as behavioural offender profiling, geographic profiling, and policing, for example. You will examine and analyse interpersonal behaviour of both interviewers and suspects in investigative interviewing situations, e.g. in suspect interviews. 

This 12-week module offers an in-depth exploration of the intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and society, examining how AI and digital media are reshaping personal, social, and political landscapes. You’ll explore ethical issues such as privacy, surveillance, data governance, and algorithmic fairness, while assessing AI's effects on power dynamics, social inequality, and identity. Using theoretical frameworks, case studies, and real-world applications, the course will equip you to critically engage with AI’s evolving role in contemporary society. It will also provide you with essential skills to assess and navigate the ethical, social, and governance challenges of AI, preparing you for careers in digital policy, management, technology ethics, data governance, research, and social and political impact analysis across various industries and the public sector. 

This module aims to develop advanced skills in the application of theoretical concepts and frameworks in relation to drugs, drug use and drugs control and in critically analysing the relationship between drugs and crime.  You will critically evaluate initiatives within the criminal justice system to address the drugs ‘problem’.  The module also aims to foster a critical interest in the reform of drugs policy and institutions at both national and international levels. 

This module aims to enhance the value of both university and work by providing opportunities to link theory with practice. Through the negotiation and obtainment of a specific work activity or research project, you will be able to apply academic learning in a work setting. You will organise your learning to align with the work-based situation, its constraints, and the goals to be achieved, incorporating critical reflection and reflexivity. The module seeks to advance your personal and professional development and allows for a work-based learning experience supportive of individual and organisational objectives.

This module aims to synthesise learning from the criminology programmes of study, providing an opportunity for you to study independently and investigate a topic in depth. It fosters academic curiosity, an inquiry-based approach, and the employment and application of research skills, thus facilitating the development of a higher level of theorising. You will define your own topic area, conduct a comprehensive review of existing knowledge on the subject, formulate a methodology for conducting your own enquiries and write an in-depth report of the findings of their research in the form of a dissertation. Alternatively, you may choose to conduct a theoretically oriented piece of work involving the systematic analysis of an issue or area of criminological theory, policy or practice.

This module is the culmination of your study and provides the opportunity to synthesise professional and academic learning. You will undertake a substantial work-based project that is designed to develop your professional practice and address reflectively your role in practice or a service issue. The module aims to link academic study with the 'real world’ of work by facilitating a process of reflective practice and applied learning and is designed to advance personal and professional development. It supports your autonomy and independence by incorporating a flexible curriculum and allows for the negotiation of a work-based learning experience supportive of individual and organisational objectives. 

We are regularly reviewing and updating our programmes to ensure you have the best learning experience. We are taking what we have learnt during the pandemic and enhancing our teaching methods with new and innovative ways of learning.

We aim to model a wide range of teaching strategies and approaches on the course which you can adapt to your own setting.

Teaching and assessment on the different modules incorporates a range of styles and methods and on occasion, guest lectures are delivered by experts working in the fields of cyber terrorism, online abuse, bullying and cyber investigation. There is a strong focus on the development of the digital investigation skills necessary to understand and respond to emerging forms of cybercrime.

Criminology conferences

Our Department of Criminology and Sociology is part of the Common Studies Session in Critical Criminology (CSSCC) which involves postgraduate Criminology Departments across different EU universities including Jay College of New York. The conferences are held twice a year across Europe.

You will be encouraged to participate and deliver your own paper at the conference and have an opportunity to present your ideas in an international academic student environment. A certificate of attendance is awarded to those who participate in the CSSCC.

You will be studying at our leafy north London campus in Hendon.

Your timetable will be built around on campus sessions using our professional facilities, with online sessions for some activities where we know being virtual will add value. We’ll use technology to enhance all of your learning and give you access to online resources to use in your own time.

The table below gives you an idea of what learning looks like across a typical week. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on campus sessions.

Typical weekly breakdown

Approximate number of hours on placement

• Full-time students: 48

Definitions of terms

FT: Full-time

PT: Part-time

Live in-person on campus learning – This will focus on active and experiential sessions that are both:

• Led by your tutors including seminars, lab sessions and demonstrations We'll schedule all of this for you
• Student-led by you and other students, like small group work and presentations.

Tutor set learning activities – This covers activities which will be set for you by your tutor, but which you will undertake in your own time. Examples of this include watching online materials, participating in an online discussion forum, completing a virtual laboratory or reading specific texts. You may be doing this by yourself of with your course mates depending on your course and assignments. Outside of these hours, you’ll also be expected to do further independent study where you’ll be expected to learn, prepare, revise and reflect in your own time.

Your knowledge and understanding will be assessed by a variety of assessment methods including essays, reports, oral presentations (online or face to face), producing .csv datasets, reviews, a research proposal and a research project or placement in a cybercrime-related area. A range of coursework submissions allows you to demonstrate your understanding of theory and practice, as well as your ability to sustain a coherent argument.