Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action
Video and Multimedia
Video
Learning Objective: Explain the difference between biological, psychological and sociological theories of crime. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: Philip Zimbardo TED talk about the fluidity of “good” and “evil” and the influence of context and institution in people’s behavior. Defines evil, social processes that open a person to evil behavior, and the importance of ordinary people waiting for their heroic moment.
Learning Objective: Explain how race/ethnicity is an important predictor of offender or victim status. Explain the difference between biological, psychological and sociological theories of crime. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: The prison system that has made the U.S. the “most incarcerative” nation in history. Bill Moyers talks to Michelle Alexander about the movement to end this.
Learning Objective: Describe the transformation of American policing. Explain how race/ethnicity is an important predictor of offender or victim status. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: Beginning with the riots in Ferguson, MO, Michelle Alexander discusses how “broken windows” policing is enforced disproportionately against minorities, especially black men, having “the talk” with her own black son, and her hopes for an ongoing movement.
Learning Objective: Summarize the different types of crime. Explain the difference between biological, psychological and sociological theories of crime. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: Public service rap video about the factors that push young people into delinquency.
Learning Objective: Summarize the different types of crime. Explain whether private prisons are more effective than public prisons.
Description: As the camera moves through a prison a young inmate tells us it “ain’t really all that nice.” Several young men share the rooms they are given, from shared bunks with their friends to barren solitary cubicles. What “groups” they participate in so when they are released they might have a chance at a “regular life like everybody else.”
Learning Objective: Explain whether private prisons are more effective than public prisons.
Description: A tour of death row in a North Carolina prison. Description of the last day for the individual, how the death is induced, protections for the executioners. Could be disturbing for some students.
Learning Objective: Describe the transformation of American policing. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: An eyewitness may have sent them to prison, but DNA exonerated them through the work of the Innocence Project. Sixty Minutes report on the errors made and the conviction of the witness that sent the wrong person to jail.
Learning Objective: Explain whether private prisons are more effective than public prisons.
Description: Can we prevent murders before they happen? As defense lawyers begin defending clients earlier in the trial, death sentences decrease. This attorney argues that we need to intervene in the lives of convicted juveniles when we can prevent their criminal careers.
Audio
Learning Objective: Summarize the different types of crime. Explain the difference between biological, psychological and sociological theories of crime. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: Crime and criminals tend to be lumped into a single category. Three unusual cases of crime are profiled: Embezzlement, shoplifting and bank robbery. Which one was committed by the grandma? Which by the comedian?
Learning Objective: Explain whether private prisons are more effective than public prisons.
Description: The number of women in prison is rising.
Learning Objective: Explain the difference between biological, psychological and sociological theories of crime.
Description: Trailer for the third season of the Netflix hit.
Learning Objective: Summarize the different types of crime. Explain how race/ethnicity is an important predictor of offender or victim status. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: NPR interview with a mother of five who spent her teen years in an L.A. gang member.
Learning Objective: Describe the transformation of American policing. Explain how race/ethnicity is an important predictor of offender or victim status. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: Camden NJ is one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. and it can’t afford its own police department. The unemployment rate is 40 percent, and many residents shutter themselves in homes protected by bars.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: Summarize the different types of crime. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: Media services infographic depicting the number and type of cybercrimes committed with projections. Easy to explore.
Learning Objective: Explain whether private prisons are more effective than public prisons. Identify how the different sociological perspectives examine crime.
Description: Prisoners protest treatment in a privately run prison in Ohio. The state did not renew its contract. Prisoner treatment is reviewed.