What Works to Reduce Crime?: A Summary of the Evidence

It’s probably safe to say that a key driver of crime policy in countries like Britain and America over the past 50 or so years has been the notion of situational crime control. The idea, in a nutshell, that there can be no “solution to the problem of crime”, as such. The best we can […]
Explaining Hate Crime

The concept of “hate crime” in English law is currently (2021) defined as: “Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability […]
New GCSE Sociology Knowledge Organisers

Following from a safe distance the recent batches of A-level Knowledge Organisers (A Few More A-level Sociology Knowledge Organisers and Even More Sociology A-Level Organisers) comes something similar for GCSE. These are largely for AQA but there are a couple of sets aimed specifically at WJEC/Eduqas. Chase Terrace Academy: Although I’ve previously posted Organisers for […]
Even More A-level Sociology Organisers

A little like the iconic red buses of yore, you wait a couple of years for a new batch of a-level sociology knowledge organisers and then two come along at once. Or a few days later at any rate. Bit like red buses when you come to think about it. Still, a gift horse is […]
A Few More Sociology Knowledge Organisers

I think it’s probably fair to say that Knowledge Organisers / Learning Tables have become a well-established part of the A-level Sociology curriculum these past few years and while I’ve only posted one new set of examples over the past couple of years (the aptly-named New Selection) plus a rather-brilliant variation on the theme that […]
PowerPoint: Does Prison Work?

Previously posted on Crime and Deviance Channel, this PowerPoint Presentation outlining Bandyopadhyay et al’s “Acquisitive Crime: Imprisonment, Detection and Social Factors” (2012) research is now available in two forms: 1. Click to advance Presentation. 2. Auto-advance Presentation. The research looked at three main questions: How are crime rates affected by the costs and benefits of […]
Sociological Stories: Broken Windows Revisited

This attempt to create something a little different in PowerPoint expands on the first effort by being significantly longer, around 50 slides, split into three separate-but-related sections and dotted with a few choice bits of online video and hyperlinks (for which you will obviously need to be connected to the Internet). Although it’s made in […]
Broken Windows Revisited | 3: Proactive Policing

The 3rd and final part of our Broken Windows reassessment looks at the latest American research that questions the claim proactive / Zero Tolerance policing prevents minor forms of social disorder developing into major forms. In two previous posts re-examining Broken Windows we’ve considered both its general theoretical and empirical background and its theoretical origins […]
Doing Nothing as Deviance

“What are you doing?” “Nothing” “No, really. What are you doing?” “I’m. Doing. Nothing”. While breaking social norms is always a fun and interesting way to get students to think sociologically about the world in which they live and generally take-for-granted, it’s not always something that’s easy to do / demonstrate in a safe and […]
Essay Planning: Killing The Question

This is an idea that I found on an old Rachel Whitfield blog page that I’ve pimped-up a bit but which is essentially her’s – although part of the attraction, for me, was that it fitted quite neatly into my own ideas about Sociology students taking on the role of Sociological Detectives. In this particular […]