Cotswold_School_Logo_CMYK_100_72_0_0-01

Topic title: Crime and Deviance

Year group: Year 13

When taught: Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3

What are we learning?

  • Patterns of the social distribution of crime and deviance related to:
    • Social class
    • Gender
    • Ethnicity
    • Age
  • Theories and explanations of crime and deviance:
    • Functionalist
    • Marxist
    • Neo-Marxist
    • Interactionist
    • Right Realism
    • Left Realism
    • Post Modernist
    • Feminist
    • Subcultural
  • The influence of theories and explanations on social policy and the impact of contemporary social policies on crime rates

Why is this important to know? 

  • This unit is important for getting students to understand the different groups in society and how group membership might influence criminality.
  • They are also introduced the idea of fighting crime with government policy. If they are interested in a career in the criminal justice system or the government this will be an interesting and useful unit to study.

Where does this link into our past and future learning? 

  • This unit focuses on how each of the sociological theorists describes criminality. This will build on when they have covered these theories in other topics such as education and families and households.
  • The patterns of criminality covered in this topic will be useful as evidence of inequality for their inequalities topic covered in year 13.

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.
    • Baroness Casey Review
    • Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
    • Scarman Report
    • Clarke

Supporting document/links:

  • Sutherland – White Collar Crime – click here