The Master of Social Sciences in Criminology [MSocSc(Crim)]is the first and long established postgraduate criminology programme in Hong Kong. It offers a professional qualification for practitioners in criminal justice and related fields, and provides a foundation for advanced research degree studies in the discipline. Offered since 1986, the programme is designed for people:

- who intend to start or already have a career in the police, the law, corrections, non-governmental organisations and related agencies;

- who want to complement their skills through the academic study of crime and criminal justice;

- who work in government, commerce, security and risk management, journalism, teaching, and other areas where acknowledge of criminology would be professionally helpful;

- who wish to increase their technical and conceptual skills through an advanced university education;

- who wish to pursue research studies in criminology.

On completion of the programme, students should:

- be able to apply a social-sciences approach to the study of crime and deviance;

- be able to understand a variety of contemporary developments in criminology and related social-policy issues;

- have possessed professional knowledge of the role of social sciences, including law and psychiatry, in understanding crime and criminal justice;

- be equipped with the theoretical and practical skills to investigate these core areas within criminology.