Last post of the year so it's a big one.

There's been a few reports and things I'd like to mention to you before 2013 waves goodbye.

I don't usually stick different things together like this, but I thought one message might be easier on this occasion.

So the first thing is the annual report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) looking at poverty in the UK. If you're a first year this may be your first introduction to the JRF. As a word of explanation they're a charity who conduct excellent research in the areas of housing, ageing, poverty and welfare. The new report is a vast exploration of social exclusion in the UK and you can read (and save) it from here.

The second thing may be of interest for criminology students. There's been a study looking at re-offending rates which the Guardian has reported like this. I think the full thing may be out tomorrow so I'll draw your attention to it in the new year.

OK. One more. An academic called Jock Young died a few weeks back. You may have seen his most famous book on your reading list (The Drug Takers) although he's done many more recent things on criminological theory.

Here is a video of him discussing the concept of moral panic.

I'm now away until January 8th so please don't be offended if you don't hear from me until then. As fabulous as you all are I'm really looking forward to doing nothing more academic than eating cheese for a few weeks. Thank you for all your encouragement this year, I hope your Christmas break is everything you're hoping for.

Al

Second episode of Whatever Happened to Community?

I didn't intend mentioning this series again after I drew your attention to the first episode last week, but episode 2 last night was just brilliant. Such an intelligent 30 minutes of radio touching on nostalgia, architecture and far right politics and the sort of thing that Radio 4 does brilliantly.

In conclusion, do yourself a favour and listen to this.

Would you like the research to read itself to you?

You may have heard me say in the past that one short cut you can never take is with the reading. After all the clever searching, the tricks and the uses of technology, at some point you have to sit down and just read.

Well I've recently discovered that in some cases that isn't entirely true.

There are some journal articles on DISCOVER that'll read themselves to you.

Interested? Thought so.

Here's what you do:

1) Search DISCOVER as usual with appropriate keywords.

2) Select any journal articles that offer html (not pdf's) as a full text option.

3) Click on the orange play button to hear the article in a choice of accents. You can even save them as MP3's.

4) The screenshot below shows you what it should look like.

5) Don't make me regret showing you this! If I hear any stories from lecturers that students are only using articles that are html formatted I'll know why.

6) You're welcome.

Reminder of my next workshop

Hello.

I'll be in training room 1 (TR1) in the library on Wednesday afternoon from 2pm until 3pm.

You can turn up at any point during the hour and ask me questions about anything you like.
Not geography though, as I'm rubbish at it.

But anything else is fine.

New series on the nature of community

Nice quick one today, but thought this was worth sharing.

A three part series begins on Monday looking at what the notion of 'community' actually still means.

All the details are here.

Major new report from UoB on gang-related sexual violence

Two days ago a report, two years in the writing, was released on gang-related sexual violence in England. It was commissioned by the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC) and written by researchers working at UoB. I think it's one of the hardest hitting things I've ever read whilst I've done this job, but I'm proud to say that I work for the institution that produced it.

It details both the depth and breadth of sexual abuse that is perpetrated against young girls within the world of gang culture, featuring many hours of interviews with both victims and perpetrators. UoB reported the findings like this.

In addition there was a special report on Newsnight which is currently available on iplayer. The item (which begins 16 minutes into the show and runs for 17 minutes in total) will be accessible for another 5 days. I should also add that it includes strong descriptions of sexual and violent acts.

The full report, which is called "It's wrong...but you get used to it", is available here.

Finally, there are four films made by young people to accompany the report and they're available here.

If you have any questions at all about the research carried out then please do ask.

New report on the future of the police in the UK

Firstly, thanks to all you first years who've tolerated me showing you new things very quickly in the last few days. It'll all start to make sense soon I hope.

This post is of relevance to any of you studying criminology or law related subjects. Yesterday the Independent Police commission published the most wide ranging and in depth report on the future of policing in 50 years.

The full thing is over 200 pages long and if you're feeling brave you can find it here. Alternatively, the highlights were covered yesterday by the BBC, along with an interview from Lord Stevens who wrote the thing.

If you'd like help with how to reference something like this then feel free to email me.