Merton was one of the first sociologists to look at the relationship between culture and crime. This film provides a clear introduction to Merton’s strain theory, looks at its application to contemporary consumer societies and its continuing influence on modern theories of crime.
Producers: ShortCutsTV
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Labelling Theory
Traditionally criminology focused on criminal action and its control. Labelling theory widened the focus to include the social reaction to crime and its consequences. This film documents the rise and fall of labelling theory and illustrates how aspects of it continue to influence contemporary criminology and criminal justice.
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Space, Place & Crime
Spatial criminology asks whether it’s possible to reduce crime by changing social spaces. This film begins with Zimbardo’s influential abandoned cars experiment and the development of Wilson and Kelling’s broken windows theory. It looks at the impact of broken windows policy on crime in New York in the 1990s and concludes by looking at recent experiments in the Netherlands by Keizer that demonstrate the effect of environmental change on crime.
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The Cannibal on Bus 1170: Re-Thinking Moral Panics
When Vincent Li murdered and then cannibalised 22 year old Tim McLean on a Greyhound Bus heading for Winnipeg, the shock waves ran through Canadian society. But when Li was found unfit to face trail and later released, shock turned to outrage and triggered a social media moral panic. This film looks at the social reaction to Tim McLean’s murder and how it challenged the conventional sociological model of how moral panics are generated.
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Self Report Methods: Interviews and Questionnaires
How do school students negotiate the pressures to perform well academically alongside the pressure to popular and cool? Carolyn Jackson combined questionnaires and interviews to research this question and this film uses her study, Lads and Ladettes, to illustrate why these methods are chosen, their respective strengths and limitations and how the strengths of one can be used to offset the limitations of the other.
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Participant Observation
Some research questions can only really be studied by sociologists getting out of their offices and interacting directly with the people they want to study. Starting with the famous Chicago School of sociology, this film looks at some classic studies to illustrate why participation observation is used in sociology, its major strengths and limitations and its contribution to sociological understanding.
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Case Studies
If you go and see your doctor or a therapist, you’ll become a ‘case’ to them. They’ll want to know a lot more about you. Similarly, sociological case studies involve putting a social group, an event or a place ‘under the microscope’. This film looks at a classic sociological study, The Spiritual Revolution, to show why case studies are used in sociology, what they provide for the sociologist and the extent to which findings can be generalised.
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Criminal Offender Profiling
An area that’s captured the public imagination from tv shows like Mindhunter and Criminal Minds is criminal profiling. But what’s the reality behind the hype? What is criminal profiling? What do profilers do? Does profiling work? In this film we address these questions through contemporary UK profilers and psychologists, look at some famous case studies and examine different approaches to criminal offender profiling.
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Why Do We Sleep?
We spend about a third of our lives asleep. But why do we need to sleep? Filmed at a University Sleep Lab, this short film demonstrates the effects of lack of sleep and explains why it is so essential to brain function and, ultimately, to survival. An excellent resource for students new to the topic.
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The Structure of Sleep
Until relatively recently what happens while we sleep was a mystery. But that changed with the advent of polysomnography, the electrical recording of brain activity. This short film provides students with a clear visual introduction to the stages of sleep. It also shows why we can’t fully understand our waking lives without understanding how sleep works.