Introducing Journal Corner

Introducing Journal Corner – the BSA’s new digested read for A-level Sociology.

Crime Prevention Strategies: Plain Language Summaries

Although keeping up-to-date with the latest research is something that should happen in an ideal world, the reality is that few of us have either the time or inclination to: a. Find and read a whole bunch of often-obscure research publications. b. Summarise this meta-analysis in a pithy, student-friendly, way. c. Present the information so […]

Geographical Profiling Applied: The M25 Rapist

Continuing the recent Crime and Criminology vibe with our films (if you’re interested in Geographic Profiling you might also be interested in it’s better-known counterpart Offender Profiling), this companion-piece to Introducing Geographical Offender Profiling complements the original film by using the example of Antoni Imiela, the man the media dubbed the M25 Rapist because the […]

Crime in England and Wales: March 2022

While the latest set of Official Crime Statistics covering England and Wales come with what should, by now, be the familiar methodological qualifications concerning both their reliability – or, more pertinently perhaps, their unreliability – and validity, they are nevertheless useful as general indicators of crime patterns. As such, they’re worth perusing if you have […]

Methods in Context: Crime in England and Wales

Keeping abreast of the various statistical sources and data on crime can be both time-consuming and somewhat confusing for teachers and students – both in terms of the volume of data and the reliability and validity of different data sources. For these reasons the Office for National Statistics statistical bulletin is a brilliant resource for […]

Victim Survey Report

The study of crime victims has, until quite recently, been a largely-neglected aspect of policing in England and Wales (and everywhere else come to that) so it may surprise you to know that since the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), there have been a succession of Victims’ Commissioners whose role is: “To promote […]

Home Office Research Findings

Between 1992 and 2008 the Home Office published around 250 “Research Fundings” – a heady mixture of sociological research, British Crime Survey data, evaluations of crime policies and the like – in a short-form that consisted of 4 – 6 pages built around summaries of: Key Points Methods and Methodology (where relevant) Key Findings Conclusions. […]

Harry Potter and the Functions of Crime?

Teaching something like Durkheim and the Functions of Crime can sometimes be a little difficult for students to grasp, so one way to make it more accessible might be to teach it by associating it with something more well-known and accessible, such as the Harry Potter books. More-specifically, Jenn Simms has drawn parallels between the […]

For A Few (A-Level Sociology) Organisers More

Every now and then – between creating short-but-beautifully-crafted films and resources that both push the a-level envelope and suggest interesting new ways of doing familiar things – I like to revisit old hits as a way of reassuring myself that, when it comes to creating interest and generating those sweet, sweet, Likes, you just can’t […]

Left Realism: Key Ideas and Criticisms

Left Realism is one of the major criminological theories at A-level  and, for this reason, it’s one that students need to know well. The following, therefore, is a basic overview of Left Realism’s key ideas: from how they conceptualise crime through to what they see as the main problem of crime and possible solutions to […]