Media and Crime - Moral Panics

'Panic on the streets on Carlise, Dublin, Dundee, Humberside. I wonder to myself' - The Smiths (mint!)


What role do the media play in causing a panic within society? How do those in power use the media to fulfil their means? This week we will try to address those questions, among others.

FRIDAY GROUP - as we have no class it is imperative that you do the aditional tasks which will appear HERE early next week. The emphasis is on independent learning and you taking a mature approach to YOUR learning.

CLICK HERE FOR COPY OF POWERPOINT





I hope you all have a geet canny Christmas and New Year, and come back refreshed and raring to go again!  Have a good 'un

Media representation of crime

This is week 1 of 2 on the media.  Firstly, sorry about the abrupt ending but I was running out of time fast!  We will be looking at how much and type of crime represented, and discussing the reasons for this and its impact in society.

CLICK HERE for the PPT. I will also email it to you all.

No video for week beginning 1/12/14

There is no pre-video to watch for week beginning 1/12/14.  I feel we need to consolidate the gender and crime topic, and ensure that we are organised in our work and files, as well as identifying work which should have been done.

Please bring your files, all work you have, any queries, and a head on to consolidate gender and crime.

See you at next lesson.

Stephen

This week we look at the final piece in the gender and crime puzzle; male crime.  When watching think about the reasons and see if you can link to any crimes you have seen or heard of yourself.

As ever we will delve into the ideas in class to reinforce our understanding.


Click here for copy of PowerPoint

Explaining Female Crime

We will be focusing in class on the ideas surrounding reasons for females committing more crimes, or more 'male' viewed crimes, and analysing the OCS.

As mentioned in the video I need you to refresh your memory on unstructured interviews from methods last year as we will be addressing this in class.



CLICK HERE for the PowerPoint
(If any issues accessing wither video or PPT please tell me BEFORE the class - no excuses will be taken)




Stephen

Gender and Crime Week 1 - Patterns and Trends

Here is the video in preparation for classes week beginning 10th November.

Questions to consider when watching the video:

• Why might some crimes not be reported?
• Does the 'chivalry thesis' still have weight and validity today?
• What impact, if any, might the rise in female positions within the court system have on how females are treated?

 CLICK HERE to download a copy of the PPT.





Enjoy

Stephen

Labelling Theory and Social construct of crime

This is the video on labelling theories in preparation for the week starting 29/9/14.  Take notes as ever, and email me a response to the following?  'What impact does labelling have on law making'?

Monday's class please watch and email me by Monday 10am

Friday's class responde by Wednesday 1st October.







Stephen

Subcultural Strain Theory

Here is a screecast video of the theory behind Subcultural strain.  It is linked closely with the Functionalist perspective and your notes should reflect this.  Below the screencast is another video from Dr. Phyllis Puffer, who offers a contradiction to the term 'anomie' which we covered last week.  I feel you need to know her ideas about it so you can formulate a full understanding.

At the bottom of this post is a Google Form link which has a set of questions that I need you to complete on Monday.  Monday's class, if you could complete these before class I can work with you on the responses, but obviously I realise I am late in posting this.

Google Forms - Subcultural strain questions

  Stephen

A2 Sociology Summer Assignment

SOCIOLOGY SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 2014

1.  Crime and Deviance Scrapbook

Using websites, newspapers, the news, and TV programmes I want you to start to develop a scrapbook of information relating to crime and deviance which address several key issues and questions.  This could be a physical scrapbook which you stick articles in and make notes etc. on what you have discovered or through the creation of a blog (see overleaf on ideas on how to do this).  There could be a theme or question that you want to answer (e.g. gender differences, ethnicity, ‘how does the media report crime happening here compared to abroad?’)

With each article/topic you need to think about a variety of things:

·         Why did it interest you?

·         Where are you getting your information from (is it reliable/objective/problems)?

·         What impact is it having on society/the state/individuals/the family?

·         Trends

·         Theories

·         Answers???????

This has to be a substantial piece of work.  As a guide I expect a minimum of 20 different articles (and they need to be from different sources/media) which have been annotated, summarised, and analysed.  As mentioned previously these can be totally independent of each other or follow a single theme/answer a single question.

The purpose of the scrapbook is to highlight your understanding of crime and deviance, as well as your ability to analyse information in a way which is critical and academic.  Remember in second year you need to be more analytical than descriptive to get the high marks. 

Instructions for setting up a blogspot.com account

The easy way of understanding how to do this is to just do it and mess around on the site, but here are some basic instructions on setting up an account.

Sticking a link to the BBC news website on to a piece of paper or in a physical scrapbook is going to be pretty hard, not to mention you have to buy the book in the first place.  Setting up a web based blog to record you work is a great alternative and it means it can be viewed and commented on by me throughout the summer.  I have personal experience of using blogspot so the instructions are based on that, but others are available.

You need a Google account to access it so if you haven’t already got a gmail account you will have to set one up.  Once you have set this up you will have automatic access to blogspot (or blogger as it is also called) as well as other things such as your own Youtube channel. There is an issue in that college block access to the site for students using college PC’s, so I need to inform them if you are planning on using this online system so I can get it unblocked.

I suggest just calling your blog something simple like ‘John’s A2 Sociology Scrapbook’ otherwise you’ll be on hours thinking of a catchy name.  Once this is sorted it’s just a case of adding posts which can include all sorts of things such as embedded videos, links to web addresses, copied and pasted texts or whatever YOU want to go on there.  The most important thing remember is your ability to address the questions and topics analytically.

If you get stuck in any way then give me a shout, and if you do plan on using a blog let me know ASAP so I can contact IT and also make a note of your address so I can see it develop over the summer.

Have Fun!

Stephen J