Additional tasks

Taking it still further – some additional tasks for students

Task 1
Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NULUriK8uu0.  It is produced by the UK Home Office, and is aimed at publically encouraging crime prevention, but think about the video.

● What does it say about offenders and their motivations?
● Who does it hold as culpable for criminal victimization?
● What messages does it send out about crime and its likelihood?
● Thinking all these things through, is it fair to say ‘Administrative’ criminology of this sort is apolitical and value free?

Task 2
Watch the 9 minute and 33 second-long BBC Newsnight video attached to this site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8259765.stm.

● What does the case of Trafigura figure in our current conceptions and definitions of crime?
● How criminal (if at all) were the actions of Tarfigura employees?
● Thinking in criminological terms, what theories or explanations from criminology might help us to understand this case?

Task 3
Watch the 1 minute and 22 second-long video on this webpage, where the Former Home Secretary talks about recorded crime levels in 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7400372/True-scale-of-violent-crime-rise-revealed.html.

● He says that ‘it is vital that the public are given “the facts” about crime in the UK’, but:
- What are these ‘facts’ about crime in the UK?
- How reliable are crime statistics nationally (and internationally)?
- Why might the public feel disinclined to believe that crime is falling?
- How accurate and reliable can various forms of crime statistics be said to be?

Task 4
Watch this 44 second-long video taken from the BBC programme Crimewatch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdCZdOCtzm8.

● How common is the crime featured in this video?
● What sort of message may it send to the public about the types of crime that are common in the UK?

Task 5
Now watch this 6 minute and 32 second-long video featuring the working lives of crime reporters on the Edmonton Journal in Alberta, Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqgQns7JCQ0.

● While the context and practices may be slightly different to the UK, do you think that the news values that are driving the crime reporters may be similar to those of the media in the UK?
● How can we best explain media reporting of crime?