What causes wrongful prison convictions?

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 pscychology, law and sociology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professor Caroline Erentzen, a social psychologist at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada, who is researching wrongful convictions. With 2% to 5% of serious offences ended in an innocent person being convicted, Caroline’s work is playing a huge role in investigating how and why so many people spend years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
• This resource also contains interviews with Caroline and her student, Sarah, providing insights into careers in social psychology.
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Caroline’s research, and tasks them to run - and reflect on - a mock trial.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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