Crime and Gender: Closing the Gap

Crime and Deviance: The most consistent finding in the study of crime is the relationship between crime and gender. In almost every country, over 80% of crime is committed by males. But in recent years, the gender gap has been closing: the male crime rate has been steadily falling while the female crime rate, especially […]

Strain Theory

Crime and Deviance: Robert Merton was one of the first sociologists to look at the relationship between culture and crime and this film provides a clear  and concise introduction to his seminal Strain Theory. The focus here is its application to contemporary consumer societies and its continuing influence on modern theories of crime.

Space, Place and (Broken) Windows

Crime and Deviance: Spatial criminology asks whether it’s possible to reduce crime by changing social spaces. This short film featuring Dr Steven Taylor, begins with Zimbardo’s influential abandoned cars experiment and the development of Wilson and Kelling’s broken windows theory.  It looks at the impact of broken windows policy on the reduction of crime in […]

The Cannibal on Bus 1170

Crime and Deviance: In 2008, Vincent Li murdered and then cannibalised 22 year old Tim McLean on a Greyhound Bus heading for Winnipeg. And the shock waves ran through Canadian society. But when Li was subsequently found unfit to face trail and later released, shock turned to outrage and triggered a social media moral panic. […]

Labelling Theory

Crime and Deviance: Traditionally criminology focused on criminal action and its control, but in the 1960’s Labelling Theory widened the focus to include the social reaction to crime and its consequences.  This film documents the rise and subsequent fall of Labelling Theory and illustrates how aspects of it continue to influence contemporary criminology and criminal […]

Non-Experimental Methods in Psychology

Research Methods: Non-Experimental Research Methods in Psychology combines three of our standalone films (Naturalistic Observation, Self Report Methods and Case Studies) into one complete film, designed as an introductory overview to this area of a Psychology methods course. The film includes a short introductory section and filmed links that join the three films into one […]

Experimental Methods in Psychology

Research Methods:  Experimental Methods in Psychology combines three of our standalone films (Laboratory, Field and Natural Experiments) into one complete film, designed as an introductory overview to this area of a Psychology methods course. The film includes a short introductory section and filmed links that join the three films into one continuous presentation. The film […]

Natural Experiments

Research Methods: In Natural Experiments circumstances present researchers with an opportunity to test the effect of one variable on another in ways that could not be done in a laboratory experiment. This intorductory film looks at natural experiments in psychology to illustrate: how they work their differences from other methods and their strengths and limitations.

Field Experiments

Research Methods: Three classic studies – Hofling’s study of nurse obedience, Fischer’s test of the cognitive interview and the Pilliavins’ research on Good Samaritans – are used to illustrate what field experiments offer psychologists compared to other experimental methods. The film also looks at the difficulties involved with setting up field experiments and examines their […]

Laboratory Experiments

Research Methods: This short introductory film uses some famous psychological studies to explain the experimental method and to illustrate how laboratory experiments are done. The film also covers the strengths and limitations of laboratory experiments and, often forgotten by students, how these limitations do not apply uniformly to all experimental studies.

Childhood and New Technology

Family and Social Change Series: This film explores some of the ways new communication technologies and surveillance software impact on ideas of children and childhood in contemporary societies.

The End of Childhood?

Family and Social Change Series: Is childhood disappearing in contemporary societies? This film uses Jane Pilcher’s contemporary case study on fashion and the sexualisation of girls to examine this question.

Family and Social Change

Family and Social Chanage Series: To what extent are recent changes in family life a reflection of wider social changes in late modern societies? In this short film Dr Steven Taylor examines this question by looking at major social changes in culture, consumerism and identity and how they relate to family life and development.

Family Diversity

Family and Social Change Series: In this film Dr Steven Taylor examines family diversity through a range of measures – including marriage, divorce, cohabitation and birth rates – that suggest how and why the structure, organisation and culture of family life is changing in late modernity.

Sociology and Common Sense

Introducing Sociology Series: Does Sociology go beyond commonsense and, if so, how? Dr Steven Taylor addresses this question by: introducing students to some key principles of thinking sociologically comparing the differences between sociological and commonsense thinking in relation to crime.