Why do most of the programmes relevant to psychology seem to be focused on crime at the moment? The public obviously has an appetite for them, and from a psychology teachers point of view, students love the topic! They make engaging resources too.This week is no exception to the usual forensic-fest. Even is you don't teach it currently, forensic psychology is an option on the new AQA specification so resources may come in handy ( and for all the other specifications too.)

Saturday night brings a documentary called 'Psychopath night' which explores what a psychopath is and how they are identified. Currently figures suggest that around 1% of the population are psychopathic, much higher than originally thought. This documentary challenges the idea that psychopaths are also all murderers. A good myth to shatter. You can see the documentary on Channel 4 at 11.15.

A series of Cracker starts on ITV3 on Monday evening at 11pm. It runs for the following 2 nights too, at the same time. Cracker is a criminal profiler, ably acted by Robbie Coltrane. Methods of profiling do appear on the specifications ( and on the new AQA one) so clips from this series might be useful to you?

On Thursday 28th on Channel 5 at 8pm there is a new series of Anatomy of a Murder. These show the build up to a murder and are a good resource for making students consider all the different factors. They often take Psychology as a subject to be able to explain behaviour, so this is Psychology applied! Discussion following the film about the main contributing factors is always rich and engaging. They all have opinions. I have used such cases as homework for them to watch and fill out a sheet whilst they watch to discuss later. It takes a minimal amount of preparation... which is always a bonus!