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Study masters degree online with Macquarie University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The Master of Criminology (OUA) at Macquarie University is a future-focused, interdisciplinary programme designed to meet the growing demand for ethical, evidence-based, and innovative responses to crime and justice. Positioned at the intersection of theory, practice, and policy, the programme empowers students and professionals to lead transformative change in an increasingly complex criminological landscape. The programme combines experiential learning, applied research, and professional skill development to equip students for leadership in practice, innovation and reform. Students and professionals engage with contemporary challenges through policy design, ethical leadership training, and diverse case studies that reflect real-world justice challenges.The Master of Criminology (OUA) explores the causes, consequences, and prevention of crime through a curriculum grounded in solutions building and justice innovation. Key areas include criminological theory, justice reform, and policy development, alongside the examination of contemporary challenges facing criminal justice systems, such as technological innovations and questions of social justice. Whether advancing in current roles or pursuing new opportunities, graduates will be equipped with the skills and knowledge to design and implement ethical, evidence-based solutions that lead transformative change across diverse justice contexts.

Build advanced criminology expertise. You’ll delve into practical, ethical solutions to current justice challenges. Explore policy, technology, and global crime trends. Hone professional skills to analyse and transform modern justice systems.

Master of Criminology

Australia and Cyber Intelligence

Cyber Crime and Cyber Policing

Policing Investigations and Intelligence

Understanding Victims and Offenders

Applied Cyber Security

Homicide

Fraud and Cybercrime

Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice

Fundamentals in Forensic Science

Risk Assessment and Management in Forensic Mental Health

This unit covers the social, moral and political relationships that underpin &#39;justice&#39; and &#39;punishment&#39;. Students will explore the purpose, aims and operation of criminal justice in New South Wales. The &#39;cycle of justice&#39; is unpacked, including: concepts of justice; the politics of justice; what happens in court; how people are punished and what we expect to happen afterwards. Students re-examine the socially constructed nature of both justice and punishment, questioning the purpose of law, the rule of law and the social contract. Students will analyse the role of these concepts in maintaining, or disrupting, established notions of justice. Students will observe justice in action and report back on their findings.

Introduction to Justice and Punishment

The spread of transnational crime is one of the most significant challenges facing governments around the world today. For all its benefits, globalisation has opened new avenues for criminal enterprise to expand across traditional domestic borders, creating new challenges for global security, risk governance and crime control. Traditionally crime has tended to be - and largely still is - viewed as a security concern within nation states. By contrast, this unit examines how crime has evolved through the globalising process, creating global and regional instability. Moreover, many state responses to crime, such as illicit drugs, wholly fail to address to systemic, global networks that underpin the trade. Across this unit, students will evaluate a variety of transnational criminal issues, from drug trafficking to people smuggling, money laundering to counterfeiting, and will examine the regional implications of for national and transnational security. In many instances, as students will discover, underpinning civil conflict and terrorist organisations are crime networks. Engaging with these debates will enable students to think beyond traditional, state-based crime, and better understand the global challenges and preventative strategies required to combat transnational crime.

Transnational Crime

What is the role of the police and policing in the 21st Century? Who gives the police legitimacy for their use of force and detention? How do the police respond to societal and political challenges of our time? Drawing on these questions, this unit offers an analytical look at policing, from police behaviour and organisation to its operations and historical perspectives. Focusing on the relationship between the police, society and the community, the unit examines how policing has changed over time, drawing on important theoretical foundations, examine the changing function of the police and policing. Through this unit, students will be introduced to the societal position of policing, which prioritises the careful scrutiny of the role and function police practice. In doing so, the unit examines the police as an institution as well as police practice, focusing on police legitimacy, the use of force, police culture, corruption, policing strategies and challenges to the police in the contemporary world. In undertaking this unit, students will be guided through the criminological study of policing, understanding how the police are a key institution across social democracies as well as their systemic failings and challenges. Taken together, students will be better able to understand and critically analyse the wider challenges, impact and development of the police in Australia.

Policing and Crime

This unit introduces students to the challenges of intelligence policy. It covers intelligence policy in the Western world--with a focus on the Five Eyes intelligence services and other Western/non-Western allies; as well as adversarial intelligence communities. Upon successful completion of the course students will understand some of the dynamics that affect intelligence policy at the national, regional, and international levels. They will also understand the different mechanisms through which intelligence policy is shaped, formulated and implemented. Moreover, students will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of coordination, prioritization and evaluation of the intelligence community, and of the dilemmas of and different approaches to integrating intelligence into policy and decision-making at the national and international levels. Finally, students will understand the broad social, economic, and political ramifications of different intelligence-policy choices.

Intelligence Management and Policy

This subject was previously known as PICX842 Australia&#39;s Approach to Law Enforcement.This unit examines key relationships between the way crime, along with societal understandings of ‘the offender’, are commonly shaped by disadvantage, inequality and, ultimately, injustice. For example, criminologists have long assumed that socio-economic conditions and social inequality play an important role both in why particular individuals become involved in criminal activity and in determining levels of crime within particular societies. Moreover, the criminal justice system has increasingly become the favoured ‘solution’ to conditions of social, economic and cultural exclusion. Bringing together aspects of criminology, sociology and social policy, this unit examines how cleavages of gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality adversely impact people’s experiences of the criminal justice system, calling close attention to the all too close connection between local control, democratic governance and inequalities of punishment. In doing so, the unit seeks to shine a critical lens on the role of the criminal justice system in amplifying and reproducing social inequality, whilst analysing what punishment systems – thinking of how we punish and who we punish – says about us as a society.

Look at the for-profit private security industry by examining methods, decision makers and stakeholders. You’ll analyse the working partnerships with the public, police and the wider law enforcement industry.  

Crime, Inequality and Social Justice

The subject was formerly known as PICX862 The Crimes of the PowerfulThis subject examines crimes committed by powerful individuals and institutions: white collar crimes, corporate crimes and state crimes. From the Nazi death camps of WWII, to the Bhopal and BHP Gulf oil spill environmental disasters of more recent decades, the most harmful crimes are not those committed by offenders on the &#39;street&#39;, but rather by individuals and organisations occupying the most influential and privileged positions in our societies. This unit reorients the criminological gaze upwards, away from traditional street offenders and towards the most powerful criminals who occupy corporate boardrooms, parliaments and military organisations. Students will explore contemporary examples of each of these types of offence, examine the characteristics of powerful offenders, and address why crimes of this magnitude often go unaddressed by both contemporary criminologists and our systems of criminal justice.

Gaze back at some of the most powerful and criminal individuals and institutions. Categorise types of crime, such as white collar and state crime. Study notorious offenders and criminal acts, including the BHP oil spill and Nazi death camps.

The Crimes of the Powerful

This subject is previously known as PICX849 Cyber Policing and Intelligence in AustraliaCyberspace has become a major site for different forms of warfare and coercion, ranging from cyber disruption, through information compromise, all the way to covert information operations on a national level. In this unit students learn how robust cyber intelligence can be used to enhance the often-reactive posture of cyber security. This includes understanding the role of cyber intelligence and counterintelligence within the broad, integrated configuration of cyber-security. Students will learn fundamental intelligence collection and analysis principles and apply them to a cyber-security context.

Examine cyber policing from an intelligence-led policing perspective by looking at cybercrime, jurisdictions and extradition, information sharing, collaboration and cyber policing challenges

This subject is previously known as PICX848 Applied Cyber Security.In today’s world, organisations must be able to protect and defend against threats in cyberspace. This subject provides a solid understanding of the theory and practice used to manage information security on computer systems and networks. Students will be exposed to multiple cyber security technologies, processes and procedures, learn how to analyse threats, vulnerabilities and risks present in these environments, and develop appropriate strategies to mitigate potential cyber security problems. Topics include: an overview of computer and communications security, risk assessment, human factors, identification and authentication, access controls, malicious software, software security and legal and ethical issues. Students will have the opportunity to use tools and software commonly used to attack/protect networks in order to develop workplace skills.

Gain an overview of communications security, risk assessment, human factors, authentication, malicious software, software security and legal and ethical issues for a comprehensive understanding of cyber security threats.

This subject is previously known as PICX845 Intelligence Theory and Practice.This unit exposes students to the diverse theories and/or theorems of intelligence as well as the different areas of intelligence and to intelligence process methodologies in a variety of contexts.and practice. It discusses the essential characteristics of intelligence systems and examines how the intelligence function fits within a dynamic national or international security context, situating the intelligence function within the Law Enforcement, Foreign, National Security and Military domains. The unit examines the Australian and selected international and other Western intelligence communities.as well as premier non-Western intelligence communities such as China, Russia, and other regions.

Recognise how the intelligence function sits within the dynamic contexts of national security, law enforcement, military and foreign domains. Compare Australian and selected international intelligence communities. 

Intelligence: From Theory to Application

This subject was previously known as PICX844 Intelligence AnalysisThis unit provides students with a deeper appreciation of the complexities of intelligence analysis and exposure to the analytical tools and methodologies that will help them better understand and potentially contribute as intelligence professionals. Students will consider some of the common challenges involved in intelligence analysis and assess the strategies used to mitigate bias and error. Students will apply what they have learned to conceptualise, design, and build intelligence analytical products, providing real-world focus and experience.

An advanced exploration of the analytical tools and methodologies used by intelligence professionals. Design and build intelligence analytical products to give a real-world focus to your study, including foresight and scenario planning.

Intelligence Analysis

Macquarie University Masters Degree Criminal justice Courses & Degrees | Open Universities Australia

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