Hi, sorry if the following are a little basic, but I thought I should start at the beginning,

1. How would I go about finding/reading previous PhD's done for Criminology?
a. Basically, I want to try and work out how much work is needed and having never done one, it's very hard to visualise.
2. How do I know if I'm really up to it?
3. Criminology and corruption is the area of greatest interest to me, but how do you turn that in to a PhD topic?

Many thanks - Bono

If you're starting your masters in a few weeks, as you said in another thread, you'll find out all this during your course. You'll also be able to find out about how masters degrees are assessed and graded at your university (another of your questions).

During your masters, you'll be able to familiarise yourself with the relevant literature for your subject, including access to completed PhD theses and current research topics. You'll find out whether you're up to doing a PhD during the course. If you're interested in a particular topic then it would be a good idea to focus on this for your dissertation; it'll be your own project, will show you whether you can do self-directed research or not, you'll know the topic really well and will get a good background in research techniques, all necessary on a larger scale for a PhD. My PhD emerged from my masters dissertation and other students at my uni have also done this, so it seems quite usual to continue your own research from masters to a doctorate. Good luck with it!

Thanks Ruby, that makes a lot of sense. It's been a long time since I have done any real studying, so whilst I'm excited, I'm also a little apprehensive. My employer's pushing me to do a PhD, but due to being out of study practice for years, I felt I should do the MSc first!

Would I be right in thinking I should be getting a rough idea of the PhD topic a good 6 months before I apply or can this wait?

Thanks - Bono

I think that sounds really good if your employer's keen on you doing a PhD. I suppose the worst thing that can happen in doing the masters first is that you might feel you're wasting time, but if you're studying the subject you're interested in then it can't be wasted. I'd been out of fulltime education for years when I started my masters, just out of interest rather than with a definite PhD in mind. It was useful as it got me back into writing academically again, though my first essay was fairly crap in retrospect. After that, all my work was on the topic that eventually became my PhD. It was useful as so much of what I read contributed to my PhD literature review. It gave me a good grounding in the subject and started to show me what gaps in existing research existed and who the key academics in that area were that I should familiarise myself with. It was also really useful in helping me to research the subject in terms of a theoretical framework, and for practical research methods like using archives, specialist libraries and interviewing people.

I'm sure when you start the course, your own interests will direct you towards a possible PhD topic. Criminology is such a massive area that a masters will be a great basis for developing a research proposal. I don't think you can jump ahead too far without the background, in all honesty, as PhDs are definitely not quick things to do. Also, while you're doing the masters it would be useful to speak to your tutors about the possibility of developing any masters dissertation into a PhD proposal. They should have an idea of your work by then, and if you have a good relationship with them and if you like that uni, maybe they'll want to keep you on there to supervise you. There are a few variables involved there, so maybe see how it goes?