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Year 10 - Citizenship

What is crime?

What can we do to reduce crime?

Unit Summary

Pupils explore how crime impacts the UK and consider the purpose of sentencing and whether current sentencing approaches in the UK are effective.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to explain the changing nature of crime and how societal structures, such as the law, keep up with these changes.

Key Notes

  • A crime occurs when an illegal act, punishable by law, is committed, regardless of whether it's seen as immoral or not.
  • Crime rates fluctuate due to factors like legal changes, technological advances and shifts in societal structures.
  • Society has systems in place that aim to reduce crime such as education, crime deterrents and adapting the law.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • law: rules, usually made by parliament, that are used to order the way in which a society behaves
  • illegal: not allowed/forbidden by law
  • crime: an illegal act that is punishable by law
  • social structure: the way different customs, relationships and institutions work together to make up society

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • An action is only considered a crime if it's seen as morally wrong.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the lesson in two key points.

A crime occurs when an illegal act, punishable by law, is committed, regardless of whether it's seen as immoral or not. Crime rates fluctuate due to factors like legal changes, technological advances and shifts in societal structures.

2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'law'

rules, usually made by parliament, that are used to order the way in which a society behaves.

3. Correct this common mistake.

Mistake: An action is only considered a crime if it's seen as morally wrong. Correction: In reality, a crime is defined by breaking the law, regardless of whether it seems unethical to the individual.

More Lessons In This Unit

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