Visualising Strain Theory

Although examples of Merton’s “Responses to Strain” are fairly straightforward I always think it helps students if they can visualise the basic idea involved – something this simple image I came across on Twitter (apologies, but I don’t know who created it) does very well, I think. So, on the basis you can take a […]

Left Realism

A relatively easy way for students to get a handle on Left Realism is through three simple visualisations that can then be used to build-up a picture of this general approach to both explaining crime and deviance and suggesting solutions to the problem of crime. These visualisations involve: A three-cornered approach to deviance The criminogenic […]

Updating Crime & Deviance

Day Workshop with renowned sociologist and film-maker, Dr Steve Taylor Strain, Labelling, Realism etc. are still important because they underpin a lot of research in the contemporary study of Crime and Deviance. But supposing your students could demonstrate this with new concepts & 21st. Century research examples? This Workshop consolidates the key theories and concepts […]

ShortCuts to Sociology: Organised Crime

A few years ago we did some interviews for a film on organised crime that, for one reason or another (money, probably), didn’t get made – if memory serves we were going to include a version on ShortCuts to Crime and Deviance Vol. 1 but it didn’t make the final selection. Anyway, I was searching […]

Deviancy Amplification Spiral: Legal Highs

Wilkins’ (1964) concept of a deviancy amplification spiral (or ‘Positive Feedback Loop’ as he called it) has been a staple of the crime and deviance Specification for many years and there’s a range of ways to present the feedback process, both statically and a bit more dynamically. Examples of a “successful” feedback loop are, however, […]

Braithwaite and Restorative Justice: Crime Prevention and Control

Having spent the past couple of years working on Psychology films we’ve decided to turn our efforts towards a new volume of crime videos – a follow-up to “Shortcuts to Crime and Deviance Volume 1” imaginatively called “Volume 2”. We burnt the candle at both ends to come up with that corker. Anyway, one of […]

Sociology ShortCuts: State Crime

The ShortCuts series of films Is designed to give teachers and students very brief introductions to / overviews of a range of contemporary sociological ideas through the medium of leading academics. In this film, Professor Sandra Walklate offers a quick (2-minute) illustrated introduction to the concept of “the criminality of the State”. Please note that […]

Crime, Deviance and Methods: Self-report Questionnaire

Opportunities for students to link crime, deviance and research methods in a practical way are often limited by the constraints of time and space – but one simple approach that can be used effectively in the classroom is a self-report crime questionnaire. Although there are a few of these kicking around (from Ann Campbell’s onward…) […]

GCSE Revision Resources

While it’s probably fair to say that teacher-created GCSE revision resources are a bit thin on the ground (and take a bit of finding), there are useful resources “out there” if you’re prepared to do a lot of searching. To save you the time and trouble, here’s some I found earlier (the quality’s a bit […]

Sociological Detectives: Evidence Summary Sheet

To complement the Theory Summary sheet you can combine it with the Evidence Summary sheet that performs a similar function within the Sociological Detectives sim. In this respect it provides: A basic structure for students to follow when making notes about the different kinds of evidence they can use to support or question theoretical explanations […]

7 Sims in 7 Days – Day 4: The Anomie Within

This short (5 – 10 minute) sim can be used whenever you want to introduce the concept of anomie, such as if you’re introducing Merton’s Strain Theory or looking at Garfinkel’s breaching experiments. The package includes a little bit of background on breaching experiments and a couple of different anomie variations – mild and strong […]

Seven Sims in Seven Days: The Introduction

I’ve long been interested in the idea of using simulations (and games – see Disclaimer below) as teaching tools – there were a couple of online efforts I created many moons ago when the Internet was still young and frames seemed such a good idea: Education and Differential Achievement: The Sociological Detective was an attempt […]

Sociology ShortCuts: Labelling Theory

Labelling is a staple theory in the sociology of crime – both in its own right (Becker’s concept of the Outsider, for example) and in terms of its incorporation into other theoretical explanations (Radical Criminology, for example) – and in this ShortCut Professor Sandra Walklate outlines some of the theory’s key ideas: Outsiders Social interaction […]

Sociology ShortCuts: Crime, Consumption and Harm

In this ShortCut Dr Matt Follet briefly explains how consumption patterns in contemporary societies link into ideas about environmental / green crime and the concept of harm. It’s available in two flavours and while it’s usual to say that “you pays your money and you takes your choice” this would be a bit superfluous because […]