Volume 23, Number 4, April 2014
Teaching notes
Using this issue
Joan Garrod
SociologyReviewExtras for this issue have the usual suggestions on how some of the articles could be
used to help with all the important sociology exam skills. The PowerPoint takes a look at some issues
surrounding current voting patterns, and for those of you who enjoy puzzles there is a wordsearch on
the topic of ‘poverty’. There is also a checklist to help students prepare for their exams, and some
weblinks to articles of interest to sociology students.
Headline homicides: murders and mass media
reporting (p. 2)
For students and teachers
You will benefit greatly, especially when it comes to revision, if you make careful notes on this article.
The following suggestions will help you to organise the notes under separate headings:

the problems of using quantitative analysis when looking at what makes particular homicides
‘newsworthy’

the types of homicide that seem to result in increased coverage

Anna Gekoski’s method of researching this issue

the ‘key factors’ identified by journalists that make particular types of homicide more
newsworthy than others, including ‘unpredictable’ factors
Having familiarised yourself with all of these, either with a few classmates or the whole class, look at
some homicides that have recently proved especially newsworthy — try to identify what particular
factors have made them so. Here are a couple of suggestions but you may think of other examples:

the murder of soldier Lee Rigby

the murder of three men by the female killer Joanna Dennehy
Then, in the same discussion group, look again at the questions raised in the conclusion to the article
and decide what your view is on these issues.
Path analysis: quantitative research into health
inequalities (p. 10)
For students
This article is quite challenging but if you persevere then it will give you useful information on a
method that is seldom discussed by students in exam answers. In order to get the most out of it, you
need to understand the following points.
Philip Allan Updates © 2014
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
Path analysis is a statistical method using quantitative data.

It enables researchers to analyse a lot of data, e.g. that gathered from large-scale social
surveys or statistical information gathered by governments and other bodies.

It is based on the knowledge that between an initial cause of something and the final outcome,
there are a number of intervening factors that may influence the latter.
All students should study the example given based on the Lord of the Rings. Those taking the ‘Health’
or ‘Wealth, poverty and welfare’ topics should also take careful note of the main example on which the
article is based, as this contains useful knowledge.
To help you see whether you have understood the principle of this method, consider the following
example, which gives an initial factor and a final outcome, and identify what you consider might be the
‘intervening factors’ that could influence the final outcome.
The social class of a pupil at age 11 and their exam results at GCSE.
Young people and politics in Britain (p. 18)
For teachers
This article lends itself to a class discussion and a ‘straw poll’ about young people’s attitudes to
politics. The following may help to give this some structure.

How many students in your class say that they are interested in politics?

How many students know the name of (a) their constituency and (b) the name and political
party of their elected MP?

How many students are registered to vote?
Look at Figures 1, 2 and 3 and Table 1 from the article and with a show of hands answer the
questions posed in the figures/table. Write down the numbers and then compare them with those
arising from the research discussed in the article.

What conclusions can you draw from your class results?
Sex, lies and deviance: criminology and the lie
detector (p. 24)
For students
Using the article and writing in your own words, rather than copying out chunks of text, answer the
following questions.
(1) What is meant by ‘biological determinism’?
(2) What was meant by ‘criminal man’ and how was this linked to what we would now recognise
as racist beliefs?
(3) What new developments in the twentieth century led to a move away from looking at purely
external phenomena?
(4) How were women viewed in this period?
(5) What is the polygraph machine, and when and where was it developed?
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(6) What did Cesare Lombroso believe about women?
(7) For what purpose was the polygraph machine used in the McCarthy period?
(8) Why did the polygraph machine come to be used in the USA on (suspected) homosexuals?
(9) As laws and attitudes towards homosexuals in the West became more liberalised, what
became the focus of the use of the polygraph machine?
(10) What is alleged to be the polygraph machine’s success in treating sex offenders?
(11) What does the author see as the link between the polygraph machine and biological
determinism?
(12) After reading the article and answering these questions, how useful a device do you consider
the polygraph machine to be?
Why don’t we trust politicians? (p. 30)
For students and teachers
This article is worthy of careful reading, as it helps to explain why so many of the electorate claim that
they do not trust politicians. You should be able to understand and discuss the ‘perceptions gap’, the
‘expectations gap’ and the ‘normative gap’ as a way of explaining the level of distrust.
Note the very important points about how many of the electorate expect politicians to have very high
ethical standards, and how politicians may hold a different perception of ‘ethics’ from that of their
constituents. This information would form an important part of a discussion regarding the falling levels
of both turnout and confidence in politicians and party leaders in recent elections.
Philip Allan Updates © 2014
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