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[25 Jul 2008|09:33am] What is psychology? Drawing on examples, illustrate how psychology can contribute to explanations for crime? Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour of individuals and groups of people within societies across the globe and also in laboratory settings. Psychology covers a broad spectrum of subject matter and there’re many different fields and theoretical approaches to psychology. There are six main approaches that psychologists often adapt and use in their research which are behaviourist approach, the psychodynamic approach, the humanist approach, the cognitive approach, physiologist approach and the social constructionist approach. Behaviourist psychology, known as behaviourism, looks towards behaviour being shaped by the environment. An important part of the behaviourist approach are classical and operant conditioning, which are known as learning theory. Classical conditioning was theorised by Ivan Pavlov (1849 –1936), who after noticing that dogs salivate when presented with food and then managed to condition a dog to salivate on hearing a bell ring when no food was present, the bell acted as a trigger causing the dog to salivate on hearing the bell. Other well know psychologists responsible for the development of behaviourism are Skinner (1904-1990) , who discovered operant conditioning after experimenting with rats by placing them in a box and seeing if they would press a lever to get food. The psychodynamic approach, known also as psychoanalysis, originates from the psychologist Sigmund Freud, (1856 –1939) who is known as the father of psychoanalysis. Freud’s research and published work revolutionised psychology. The humanist approach uses counselling as an alternative approach and is similar to psychoanalysis. Critics of psychoanalysis and humanist approaches claim that both are unscientific. The cognitive approach, know as cognitive development, looks at the mind as working similar to a computer. Jean Piaget’s (1896 –1980) research on cognitive development is an important factor in this branch of psychology and Piaget’s theory on cognitive development is considered an alternative to Freud’s psychosexual stages of development. The physiological approach looks mainly at genetics, such as hereditary personality traits such as mental illnesses and abnormal personality. The social constructionist approach is considered a diverse approach and looks mainly at psychological research that might be biased concerning gender and sexuality. Social psychology is important when looking for answers to why people within society break the law and commit crimes. Primary and secondary Socialisation plays an important role in creating individuals who will function productively in society and to cause an individual person to adhere to social norms. Committing a Crime is classed as an act of deviance which deviates from social norms, but depending on the society, most laws have been put in place to protect people and their property, but this isn’t always the case. Crimes of violence are often not premeditated and often alcohol and drug misuse are to blame for modern day urban city violence in many western societies. The physiological approach to psychology would view criminal activity by looking at personality traits and theorise that they are hereditary, in meaning, as an example, that sociopathic and psychopathic personalities are created naturally rather than to blame poor socialisation of an individual who have broken the law. Albert Bandura in 1961 carried out research with young children to test if it was possible for a child to mimic the actions of others concerning aggression and over all to explain social behaviour. The experiments (bashing bobo –Banyard et al :246) involved using a bobo doll, which is a lifelike inflatable doll, and letting the children watch while an adult beat the doll, which was to see if the child would mimic the adult. Bandura found that this is the case, and used different scenarios with the bobo doll to test this theory. Bandura’s research can give some insight into why certain people appear to be naturally aggressive, which could be due to desensitisation to violence rather than due to genetics. This is also known as nature vs. Nurture and often referred to as social learning theory. (Gross-2005-p615) Gross – 2005; 523 mentions “Concern about the possible antisocial influences of television far outweighs the consideration given to other area of children’s involvement with television. Television programs contain many examples of good behaviour, of people acting kindly and with generosity. It is equally logical to assume that these portrayals provide models for children to copy.” Another reason for growing crime rates are relative and absolute poverty. People who find their self’s homeless due to debts and loss of income (absolute poverty), will most probably turn to crime if they have no other possible choice. People who live in absolute poverty will often turn to prostitution and drug dealing and consumption, as a way of surviving. People who live in relative poverty, which means that they lack the same resources as the rest of the people within society, may commit crimes such as burglary, car theft and other such crimes where the main reason for the crime is materialistic rather than pure greed. Crimes, such as burglary, drug dealing, car theft and prostitution can be linked to social disadvantage and poverty. Juvenile delinquency in deprived housing estates is common and can be linked to social disadvantage caused by family poverty and high levels of unemployment. Antisocial behaviour can be linked to attention deficit hyperactive disorder in adolescents and poor parenting combined but it is claimed that children will grow out of delinquent behaviour by the age of 18. It is common for the magistrates’ court to simply label people by giving people who have committed crimes that are classed as antisocial, an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) which then prevents the person from entering in to the city centre or within a certain area that the person lives. It’s possible to speculate that alcohol and drug misuse could be a growing trend in anti-social behaviour. ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) relates to the Crime and disorder act, 1998, (Home Office-2008) in which persons behaving in an anti-social fashion are given by the courts to people who have been found to be causing a nuisance or harassing other people within a local community. Word count -1,009 Bibliography Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour- Richard D. Gross - Paperback - 30 Jun 2005-(Hodder Arnold Publication) Complete Psychology-2004 –Graham Davey-et al -Published: 2004 –Hodder Arnold Introducing Psychological Research –second edition –Philp Banyard et al-published 2000-palgrave Macmillan Criminal psychology-R Bull et al-published 2006 –oneworld publications http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ post comment

[24 Jul 2008|03:14am] The article that I have chosen is from the British journal of criminology 2006, “Drugs. Crime and social exclusion – social context and social theory in British drugs - crime research- p680-690 - part 1.” The Author, Toby Seddon, who wrote the article that I have chosen from the British journal of criminology, has carried out research on the problem of drugs and its connection with crime and social exclusion of people within British society. Dr Seddon studied law in 1991 and then went on to study an MA in Criminology in 1993. In 2004, Dr Seddon was awarded a PhD. Over the last decade Dr Seddon has carried out research at Leeds University and Manchester University mainly concentrating on drug dependency and subject matter connected with the growing problem of illegal drugs and there misuse by people within British society. Some of the material of this research paper was originally presented by the author at a criminal justice seminar at Leeds University, in 2004. The main aim of the author in this research paper is to explain how the drug problem in British society has escalated since the 1970’s, and to illustrate that there is a social connection with drugs, crime and social exclusion. The author has used many different sources of research published over the last two decades and notes that the phenomena of drug use in modern day society was non existence over 20 years ago, mainly before the 1980s heroin and crack cocaine use was almost unheard of and wasn’t considered to be a real social problem. The author looks at social deprivation, and hypothesises a link between unemployment and social deprivation, in relation to drug use, trying to give reasons for why drug use has almost become an accepted evil of society. The author looks at how cities, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow suddenly had an influx of heroin users in the mid 1980s, when before heroin use in the mentioned city’s was relatively unheard of. The authors Methodology is mainly using published research to explain links between criminal activity and why drug use has gone from being a small problem that existed in London in the 1970’s to a major epidemic in the late 1990s to present day. The author briefly explains the difference between social exclusion and poverty. The author provides evidence from many different criminologists, sociologists and psychologists to give a better insight into why people become heroin and crack cocaine users and how the drug epidemic has spiralled out of control over the last two decades. The main Arguments addressed in the article are how illegal drug use has managed to reach epidemic proportions over the last three decades.”In 1980, the number of new heroin addicts notified to the home office was 1,151, whereas by 1985, the annual figure of new notifications was 5,930.”(T Seddon-drug, crime and social exclusions-2006-p 683) The author hypothesises that there might be a link to the recession in the 1980s which could be a reason for the increase of heroin and crack users, but also argues that social exclusion and poverty are not necessarily synonymous with social economic disadvantage. The key Concepts that featured in the journal article are mainly about how heroin and crack cocaine have become a part of modern day society and also how over the last few decades, how the drugs have gone from being used by a very small minority in the 1970’s with the mentioned drugs being used by larger numbers of people in present day. The author notes that statistically it is impossible to know the true numbers of people who use heroin and crack cocaine because obviously the nature of the drugs, possession of which could lead to a custodial sentence because they are both class A substances, so people who use the drugs would be unlikely to admit that they use the substances. The author is also interested in the criminal activities of the drug users and dealers and is looking more towards reasons for the drug epidemic such as social exclusion and absolute and relative poverty. Another key concept is that heroin distribution has become easier for the heroin and crack dealers, with the use of mobile phones and pagers; it has become easier to supply the users. The author also notes that the routes have changed that the smugglers of the heroin and crack cocaine originally used and how the growing network of motorways eased the problem of shipping heroin and crack to other cities throughout the United Kingdom. Social exclusion can mean many different things, religion, gender; disability and social class can all lead to social exclusion of an individual or minority group within society. In this instance, the author is noting that social class can contribute to the use of illegal substances such as heroin and crack cocaine. The modern day heroin user of the early 1990’s was mainly the young unemployed who are living in poverty in run down housing estates, indicating social disadvantage. But to claim that all heroin users were unemployed is a misconception. The authors Style of writing is straightforward but at times there’re so many references in one paragraph that the article becomes difficult to read, but on the other hand the article is well referenced and the author has clearly indicted his sources. To conclude, I found the article to be interesting because the author has looked at how heroin and crack cocaine have reached epidemic proportions in modern day society and that only 3 decades ago it was unheard of for people in British society to use the two substances. The author has looked at the main reasons that the substances are used by people in society, which are social exclusion and poverty; the two drugs are merely an attempt at escapism from the harsh realities of living in absolute or relative poverty. The article is definitely worth reading and is of interest to people who are studying social sciences. post comment

[22 Jul 2008|11:27pm] Summary The research paper is based on the bystander effect which is a psychological theory that people are less likely to inform the police during or after an emergency situation, which is more likely if the person is alone as an individual but is less likely to intervene if in a group with other people. The research paper is testing the theory of the bystander effect in the computer mediated communication network, mainly in yahoo.com chat rooms, news groups and forums on the internet. The bystander effect, also known as bystander intervention, originates from an event in history which happened in 1964 in New York, where a woman was stabbed to death in front of 38 of her neighbours in broad daylight. The women, Kitty Genovese, was attacked and stabbed to death while her neighbours watched her being attacked and not one person out of the 38 decided to come to her aid or alerted the police. kitty Genovese lay dying in the street after the first attack, then attacker then came back to attack and kill her ten minutes later. Psychologists determined that the reason that the neighbours who witnessed Kitty Genovese being attacked and who didn’t call the police, that it was bystander apathy. When the neighbours of kitty Genovese were interviewed after the incident, only one out of the 38 had decided to inform the police 35 minutes after the attack, the other witnesses basically told the detective that they didn’t want to get in to trouble, and others said that they thought it was a domestic and that Kitty Genovese was arguing with her boyfriend and didn’t want to get involved with the argument. (Richard Gross -2005 psychology-p 513) This study looks at bystander intervention in yahoo chat rooms on the internet. A case that the researcher had looked at concerning bystander intervention is the case of Larry Froistad, who admitted to 200 people in a support chat room for recovering alcoholics, that he had murdered his five year old daughter by setting the house on fire. Only three people out of the 200 informed the authorities of Froistad’s confession that he had made in the chat room. Evaluation The design of the research project involved 400 randomly selected yahoo internet chat groups with a population of 4833 participants in the chat rooms. The experiment was carried out over a 30 day period. The researchers would enter a chat room with a male screen name (Jake Harmen) and a female screen name (Suzy Harmen). The researcher would ask a simple question, which was how can you view a person’s profile on yahoo.com. The stimulus question was repeated in the randomly selected chat rooms every 60 seconds until a response was given. A response was classed as any acknowledgment of the question by any participant in the chat room. The replicability of the research project is that the study could be replicated with similar results. This is mainly because the actual design of the project was very simple so the project could be replicated without any problems. The experiment conditions wouldn’t be hard to replicate because it involves entering random chat rooms on the internet and asking a simple question in order to get responses from people in the chat room. The ethics involving the project are fine, even though the individuals in the chat room were unaware that their responses would be evaluated for research purposes, the question “how do you view a person’s profile” was harmless enough and the question was nothing more than what other people may have asked in chat rooms previous to the researchers experiment and is nothing more than what an individual new to a chat room would ask if they wasn’t sure how to check a person’s profile. The ecological validity of the experiment was very true to life on the internet because the research was carried out in 400 random chat rooms with a sample of 4833 participants, which clearly represents the average random user of chat rooms on yahoo.com. However, the actual research project does not really prove that bystander intervention in chat rooms on the internet is similar to bystander intervention in real time situations. The question is a very simple question but it’s possible that many in the chat rooms would avoid answering a simple question such as used in the research. The researcher uses evidence from many different sources but mainly looks at research carried out by Latane and Darley on Bystander Apathy in 1970, who carried out psychological experiments on people, which involved testing bystander intervention. One of the experiments had students at a university attend an interview about their life at university, and while sitting in a waiting room filling out the preliminary questionnaire, smoke was blown in through an air-duct. They found that when the people in the group noticed the smoke that many didn’t become alarmed by the smoke, but when people were on their own in the room with the smoke billowing in, the person became alarmed and left the room to report the smoke that was coming in to the room from the air-duct. Other experiments included people being left in a room, and then a woman would scream out in an adjacent room which again had similar results confirming bystander intervention which tested the theory of why kitty Genovese neighbours never reported the incident to the police, while she was being attacked In front of her apartment while her neighbours and even people on a passing bus simply watched and did nothing to help her. This showed what is known as pluralistic ignorance. Latane and Darley’s 1968-1970 study’s found that when people are in groups that individuals would notice that the other people in the group were trying to appear calm, so they also tried to appear calm, which is known as pluralistic ignorance. (Complete Psychology - Graham Davey- p423) The basic principle of bystander effect is the more people that are present during an emergency situation, the less likely that people will intervene or report the incident to the police. This is known as diffusion of responsibility, in meaning people will assume that other people will intervene and will take control of the incident. Basically, everyone assumes the same, which is that someone else has intervened and/or contacted the police. Word count Bibliography post comment

Work in process...needs to be in at 10am. 24 hour essay. [28 May 2008|01:12am] How does sociology help us understand social divisions evident in British society? The class system within British society has changed dramatically over the last one hundred years, since the sociologist Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) published his work titled “The Communist Manifesto”, published in 1848, which detailed how Marx viewed society to function and how social class affects the average person in society. Marx wrote of four groups of class, which were the bourgeoisie (ruling class), petty bourgeois (middle class), proletarians (working class) and the lumpen-proletariat (the underclass). These four classes that Marx theorised that existed in society are still relevant to this very day within British society. Marx visualised a world uprising where the working class would eventually overthrow the ruling class, by controlling the means of production, which happened in the early 20th century in Russia, by means of a civil war. Marx’s work has been very influential regarding sociological theory. The sociologist Charles Murray theorised of an underclass in British society, which is a class below the working class. The underclass, according to Murray, are inadequately educated, poor and mainly come from single parent families. Murray blames the women rather than the men for the single parent families. Murray is considered to be very far right with reference to in his theories. Feminism is another example of sociological theory which can help academics to understand social division concerning gender rather than social division due to class. Feminism looks towards inequality between male and female members of society. A lot has been done over the years mainly by the government to improve the divide that existed in British society concerning gender but many feminists still believe that inequality still exists and that women are still considered inferior to men within British society. Describe and explain the main domains in psychology explored in this module. There are four main domains that featured in this module concerning approaches to psychology which are Intrapersonal, Interpersonal , Group and Societal explanations. Intrapersonal explanations to psychology uses four main disciplines which are Psychoanalysis, Bio-psychology, Personality psychology and Cognitive psychology. Intrapersonal explanations focuses on what goes on inside the individual. Interpersonal explanations to psychology uses four main disciplines which are Developmental/child psychology, Family systems theory, Existential/humanist psychology and social psychology. Interpersonal explanation focuses on interactions between persons. Group explanations to psychology are Symbolic interactionism, Social identity theory, Social psychology. Group explanation looks towards the effects of group dynamics on individual behaviour. Societal explanations to psychology are Cultural & social psychology, Critical psychology and Feminist psychology. Societal explanation focuses on role of social structures, groups and classes in determining human behaviour. Psychoanalysis can be used to help individuals by using a method which is known as free association, which is where a patient will speak to a psychiatrist about whatever they are thinking and the psychiatrist can analyse the conversation. The conversation may involve questions about past life experiences and this approach is known as the psychodynamic approach aka Freudian psychology. The biological approach is mainly theories that exist concerning chemicals in the brain, which are called neurotransmitters. The theories are that certain neurotransmitters within the brain, such as dopamine and serotonin, that there is too much or too little, or that the levels fluctuate, which can give explanations for psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression. Medication is often administered when using the biological approach. Personality psychology is similar to psychoanalysis, and explanations for personality traits can often be found by the free association by analysing an individual’s childhood experiences. Cognitive psychology is mainly in the form of counselling a person by improving their thoughts; examples can be for people who have obsessive compulsive disorder, where a psychologist can counsel an individual by making their obsessive behaviour seem irrational. What is the state and how does power relate to it? The term “state” refers to a country that has a political group that controls the citizens of the country often which has more power than the monarchy. In many countries a parliamentary system exists but this isn’t always the case. Many countries are classed as Police states, which means that the governments control peoples actions by enforcing strict laws, this form of power is known as social control. The state in many western countries consists of a democratic institution rather than a dictatorship. In England, for many decades the government consisted of a two party leadership, labour and conservative, where no other political party stood a chance of being elected, and this is still the case in modern day England and is also the case in America. In the united kingdom the head of state is queen Elizabeth the 2nd with the Queen having absolute control over the country but in modern day society the queen often only advises the prime-minister and doesn’t control his and the governments decisions. How have traditional approaches to crime influenced current research in criminology? What is social policy? Give examples of some of the questions addressed by social policy? Social policy refers to social welfare and the welfare state. Social welfare is basically the government’s policies on its citizen’s welfare, such as health care, education, pensions and benefits such as unemployment and housing benefits. The history of social policy dates back to the early 20 century during the Victorian era but mainly during and after WW2 when Sir William Beverage was asked by the government to create a report on improving British society, which is known as the Beverage report. Beverage noted the five evils of society which are Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. The report was issued as a white paper in 1942 and after the labour party won the general election in 1945 the beverage report was used to create the welfare state. Much of the welfare, such as pensions and the NHS, would in theory be covered by the employed making National insurance contributions from their wages and taxation. Modern day Social policy looks towards improving human welfare and public services such as the National Health Service are slowly being improved by the British government, with health care being free. 1 comment|post comment

[24 Apr 2008|04:55am] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=C9c5otT-RUA&feature=related post comment

[07 Apr 2008|12:18pm] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm2eT-sTVys post comment

C [03 Apr 2008|04:34pm] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xpcvv2qQEyI post comment

[11 Mar 2008|06:20pm] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FaEIA1YxZkg post comment

[20 Feb 2008|04:41pm] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyudz639N7E post comment

[11 Feb 2008|01:14pm] Because it was the end of the semester I decided to go on a little trip to Rome. I had never been before and I really liked the city. Rome seems to be busy all the time and its rush hour on the metro nearly all day. My first port of call was the coliseum and I knew it would be one of those moments that when you see it for the first time that I would be impressed. It costs $11 Euro entry but instead I went in with a professional tour guide who made the visit seem much more than what it was. After visiting the coliseum I went with the tour guide to “the forum”, which, according to legend, is where Romulus built Rome after an argument with his brother Remus. The Forum is where the wealthy people of ancient Rome lived. Without the tour guide I would have just been looking at some old pillars and decayed buildings, so it was good that I managed to go on the tour. I went to the Vatican City but didn’t get to see the pope. I went in to St Peters and walked up 320 steps to reach the top of the building. I nearly died. The Spanish steps. 2 comments|post comment

[28 Jan 2008|08:35pm] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R4MGmC8FPc&feature=related post comment

[31 Dec 2007|02:05pm] Jason Bourne post comment

[13 Dec 2007|11:29am] What is psychology? Drawing on examples, illustrate how psychology can contribute to explanations for crime? Psychology is mainly the study of human mind and behaviour of people within modern day industrialised societies, past and present. Psychology is classed as a social science, similar to sociology and criminology, where academics carry out research on individual and group behaviour by using psychological methodology, such as statistical analysis of information gathered from extensive research carried out by academics across the world. Social psychology mainly looks towards the scientific study of individuals in society, and psychologists often give explanations for micro and macro sociological group behaviour within different modern day societies across the globe. Social psychology is very important in relation as to why people within societies commit criminal activities and to why many people end up breaking the law that has been put in place by a country’s government. From homicide to fox hunting, many developed countries have laws which have developed along with the actual society. So what is it that makes individuals break laws that have been put in place to protect citizens of a country? Homicide, Crimes of violence and of a sexual nature is obviously not a modern day phenomenon, yet people still commit crimes of this nature. So has modern day society been desensitised to violence or has the media been able to publish such crimes more graphically in modern day society with the aid of televised media? Could the modern day pastime of young teenagers watching movies that have a violent content and playing video games that feature violence, be a growing cause of aggressive behaviour? “Concern about the possible antisocial influences of television far outweighs the consideration given to other area of children’s involvement with television. Television programs contain many examples of good behaviour, of people acting kindly and with generosity. It is equally logical to assume that these portrayals provide models for children to copy.” (Richard Gross- psychology - pg 523) The psychologist Albert Bandura carried out research using children to see if it was possible that children might mimic the behaviour of adults and other children. His famous experiment, known as “sock it to the Bobo doll”, showed evidence that young children will often behave and mimic the actions of other people and other children. He also found that the children came to be desensitised to the violence which the children visualised that involved violence concerning “the Bobo doll experiment”. His experiments are considered to be highly unethical but also invaluable in relation to the “Nature vs. nature” debate and “social learning theory”. Primary and secondary Socialisation plays a huge role in the development of morals and ethics in an individual’s psyche, which is not to say that all the people who break the laws of society have not been socialised to a high standard. In many modern day industrialised societies it is common for people to commit crimes due to poverty, rather than greed. The two main types of crime are often referred to as “White collar” and “blue collar “crime. White collar is mainly categorised as corporate crimes which are committed by people of high standing within society, business wise, and blue collar is crime carried out by the working class of society. Blue collar crime, such as drug dealing, burglary, and protection rackets (organised crime) are nearly always reported by the police to the media and are day to day occurrences. Examples of white collar corporate crimes are that of the business tycoon Robert Maxwell, who it was found to have committed fraud by illegally using pension funds, which lead to the collapse of Maxwell’s business empire when the fraud was revealed soon after his death in 1991. Nick Leeson is another example, who caused the collapse of one of the UK’s oldest investment bank, Barings, owing almost 1.4 billion from bad investments. But not all “White collar” crimes are always this extravagant in relation to fraud and amounts of money. Corporate crime can often exist within the very core of a country’s government and democratic system, which is known as governmental crime. “White-collar crime and crimes of the powerful refer to crimes carried out by those in the more affluent sectors of society. Organised crime refers to institutionalised forms of criminal activity, in which many of the characteristics of orthodox organisations appear, but the activities engaged in are systematically illegal.” (Gidden’s -sociology – 3rd edition –page 207) Blue collar crimes are people in a lower class who commit crimes, white collar being people of a higher class who commit crimes. And to conclude, Poverty can often lead to high crime rates, with people who live in deprived housing estates in the UK being labelled as anti-social rather than actually having anti-social personality disorders. In modern day British society it is common for the magistrates court to simply label people by giving the person an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) which then prevents the person from entering in to the city centre or within a certain area that the person lives. It’s possible to speculate that alcohol and drug misuse could be a growing trend in anti-social behaviour. ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) relates to the Crime and disorder act, 1998, in which persons behaving in an anti-social fashion are given by the courts to people who have been found to be causing a nuisance or harassing other people within a local community. A child being diagnosed with “attention deficit disorder” is common, with sufferers being unable to distinguish right from wrong. Another reason for growing crime is relative poverty and absolute poverty. People who find their self’s homeless due to debts and loss of income (absolute poverty), will most probably turn to crime if they have no other possible choice. People who live in absolute poverty will often turn to prostitution and drug dealing and consumption, as a way of surviving. People who live in relative poverty, which means that they lack the same resources as the rest of the people within society, may commit crimes such as burglary, car theft and other such crimes where the main reason for the crime is materialistic rather than pure greed. Word count - 1,009 Bibliography Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour (Hodder Arnold Publication) by Richard D. Gross - Paperback - 30 Jun 2005 Complete Psychology-2004 –Graham Davey-et al – Published -28/05/2004 – (Hodder Arnold) Sociology (3rd edition) Anthony Giddens - Polity Press: Cambridge-1997 References http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/375259.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/newsid_2514000/2514649.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6361349.stm http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0999/is_7250_320/ai_63255039 http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/sociallearning.htm http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics3/bulger/ post comment

work in progress. [12 Nov 2007|01:02pm] “Durkheim’s latent theory of Gender and Homicide”, reviewed by Bruce Di Cristina, the British journal of Criminology – 2006. I have chosen an article from the British journal of criminology in which I’ve been asked to review an article from the journal which interests me, and I have chosen an article which has been reviewed by the Criminologist Brice Di Cristina. The article is mainly about gender and homicide in which the author, Bruce Di Cristina, explains and defines research carried out by the sociologist Emile Durkheim, who theorized about gender role evolution and different types of homicide and crime. The article reflects on different types of homicide and the idea that gender plays an important role in homicide statistics but the author also notes that the research is mainly of historical value and most of Durkheim’s work is also analyzed. Di Cristina also looks at other criminologists views on Durkheim’s research and criticizes their views. Durkheim theories that gender role evolution is basically how men and women have evolved and notes that women’s strength has become relative to men’s and that women’s brains have become smaller than a mans brain as men and women have evolved to modern day society. “This article consists of four parts: In the First part, I outline Durkheim’s general theory of homicide. In the second part, I outline his theory of gender role evolution. In the third part, I use these theories to elaborate his specific comments on the gender/homicide relationship and attempt to derive a Durkheimian theory of historical variation in this relationship. In the final part, I note some of the conservative and liberal contentions of Durkheim’s work, and I address the relationship between his perspective and the late –nineteenth century French tradition of ‘familial feminism’” (page 213 – Bruce Di Cristina -Brit.J.Criminol-2006- ) The lack of socialization and the break down of the belief system also is noted to be the reason for growing rates of crime, according to Durkheim. The article mentions that women commit homicides such as poisoning, infanticides and abortions and that it is common for women to commit fewer homicides than men. “He asserted that women generally receive more lenient treatment from the criminal justice system and thus, are more likely than men to receive the benefit of doubt than men, in a homicide case.” (Page 218 – Bruce Di Cristina -Brit.J.Criminol-2006- ) 2 comments|post comment

[30 Sep 2007|07:45pm] 1 comment|post comment

[28 Sep 2007|06:42pm] The course work on my course is very interesting indeed. 1 comment|post comment

[25 Sep 2007|10:41am] Started University and I mow have a massive hangover from drinking last night. This song reminds me of London and going night clubing. http://youtube.com/watch?v=GCoCTkC0oL0 1 comment|post comment

[05 Sep 2007|10:09pm] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBEYyHGbwto post comment

[18 Aug 2007|02:18am] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZkBz0_5M0 post comment

[03 Aug 2007|11:42pm] Now it's time for the Hostel 2. A China-man came walking down my street today and he's the China-man who sells pirated DVD's at 3 for a tenner. I made him sell me 4 for ten pounds but he seemed happy enough. So i got Diehard 4, Transformers (which i watched early today) Hostel 2 and 28 weeks later. I told him to come back next week. No guess this movie is going to leave me feeling disturbed. post comment

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