The strengths and limitations of covert participant observation – sociologists don’t generally use covert participant observation because of the ethical problem of deception means they can’t get funding. This methods is more commonly used by journalists doing investigative reporting, or you could even say undercover police officers use it, and you can use these examples to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of this method. Sociologists use a range of quantitative and qualitative, primary and secondary social research methods to collect data about society. Although very similar to Knowledge Organisers, Learning Mats are designed to be completed by students and are sufficiently flexible to be used in a variety of ways: as individual worksheets, for note- taking, short- answer tests, revision and more (probably). The pre- defined examples here (around 70 Mats) cover Perspectives, Education, Families and Households, Crime and Deviance.

The process of research design – e.g. choosing a research area, establishing an aim and/or hypothesis, choosing a method, pilot study, sampling techniques, analysis of data, triangulation identify, describe and explain formal and informal methods of social control including unwritten rules and sanctions What is State Crime? – A simple explanation is that state crimes are crimes committed by governments, which are in breach of human rights. Historically the Nazi Genocide is the most obvious example.

Positivism, Sociology and Social Research – detailed class notes on the relationship between The Enlightenment, industrialisation and positivist sociology, which sees sociology as a science. Right Realist Criminology – Includes an introduction to Realism and detailed class notes on Right Realism covering rational choice theory, broken windows theory, Charles Murray’s views on the underclass, situational crime prevention and environmental crime prevention (mainly zero tolerance policing) Capitalism, Globalisation and Crime – A Marxist perspective on global crime covering global finance and tax havens and TNCs and law evasion.

Official Statistics in Sociology – class notes on the general strengths and limitations of official statistics, which are numerical data collected by the government. Examples include crime statistics, school league tables and education statistics. The Underclass Theory of Crime – brief class notes covering Charle’s Murray’s theory of the underclass. Murray argues the long term unemployed get cut off over the generations and socialise their kids into a culture of worklesseness and criminality. Marxist Theories of Crime and Deviance Globalisation, global criminal networks and crime – covering Misha Glenny’s work on the McMafia. He argues that the growth of the Mafia in ex-communist countries such as Bulgaria have been central to the growth of global crime – because they are perfectly located to ship illegal products such as drugs and sex-slaves from the global south to meet demand in the wealth global north.The Strengths and Limitations of Education Statistics – This post discusses the strengths and limitations of results statistics. NB these may not be as valid as you think. Sociological theories of stratification – e.g. Consensus View – Functionalism, Conflict View – Marxism, Weber, Feminism Our GCSE Revision guide contains everything you need to know to get that 9 on your exams. Exam board specs, courses and interactive quizzes to improve your knowledge. Find your courses below and sign up to UK's #1 revision app. All for free.

Perspectives on Crime and Deviance – A Very Brief Overview – A summary grid of 21 theorists, their ‘key points’, their ‘perspective’ and an evaluation. If you like you can cut and paste, cut it up and use it as a sentence sort! Functionalism and Strain Theories of Crime – summary revision notes – a briefer version of the three posts above. Structured Interviews in Social Research – Interviews are effectively one of the means of administering social surveys. This post covers the different contexts (types) of structured interview, and the stages of doing them. It also looks at the strengths, limitations and criticisms. Experimentsanalyse and evaluate different research methods used in sociological investigations and assess, critically, the appropriateness of their use Sensationalisation of Crime in the Media – There are a lot of fictional programmes about crime in the UK, many of them tend to present criminal characters as likeable and make the hideous crimes they commit (in fiction) seem ‘cool’.