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Topic title: Crime and Deviance

Year group: Year 13

When taught: Term 6

What are we learning?

  • Definitions of crime and deviance as social constructs.
  • The role of the media.
  • Measuring crime:
    • Official government statistics (Police statistics)
    • Victim studies (the British Crime Survey).
    • Self-report studies

Why is this important to know? 

  • This unit introduced the crime topic.
  • It is useful for students as they begin to critically challenge what they see in the media. Looking at the motives and agenda setting of different media outlets and challenging what they read.
  • It is also useful for helping students to think about the difference between a social fact and a social construction and introduces the idea of crime being socially constructed.

Where does this link into our past and future learning? 

  • Students are introduced to the crime topic which sets them up well for continuing this for year 13. For example they will use the ways of measuring crime to support their patterns of crime knowledge at year 13.
  • This unit also looks at the media which they will have covered as an agent of socialisation in the acquiring culture topic.

How will we be assessed on this topic?

  • Students will sit a formal exam on this topic in the summer. This section makes up 60 marks and 75 minutes of Paper 3 at A Level.
  • They will be asked one 20 mark question and have a choice from two 40 mark questions.
  • There will also be mid topic and end of topic tests on the unit when we study it.
  • Students will also have recap tests / questioning / exam questions on this topic during most lessons.

What makes a strong piece of work in this topic?  What are teachers hoping to see?  

  • A detailed description of the content.
  • Sustained evaluation that is fully ‘PEEEL’ed.

What key words are there in this topic?

What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?

  • Use the key study list to ensure you know the details of the studies in this topic:
  • There is an extension challenge set for this unit. This consists of 4 interesting tasks such as videos to watch, podcasts to listen to, articles to read and online courses to complete with a feedback task at the end. Please see your subject teacher to access this sheet.

What wider reading can be done on this topic?

  • There are several Sociology Review Magazine articles relevant to this topic that you can read to extend your knowledge.
  • You could read some Sociology journal articles and practise identifying and evaluating the different research methods used.

Supporting document/links: