Thinking Allowed

When is a crime a 'hate crime', and what does that term actually mean? How has living on what other people throw away become a subject for criminologists? Laurie explores some of the latest ideas on crime as he visits the British Society of Criminology Conference held this year at Leicester University. He hears from the film maker Rex Bloomstein, from Sylvia Lancaster whose daughter Sophie was murdered because of the way she looked, from Jon Garland, Senior Lecturer in Crimilogy, University of Leicester, and also from Jeff Ferrell, the Professor of Criminology from the United States who has been living out of dumpsters, skips, rubbish bins in an attempt to understand an increasingly criminalised and marginalised way of life. Producer: Charlie Taylor.

Has French culture become provincial and inward looking? France aspires to be a global cultural power. But a new book - 'The Death of French Culture' - argues that its government creates a walled garden producing cinema and literature for its own market but not for the world. Gone are the days of geniuses like Emile Zola and Francois Truffaut who spoke to millions. Laurie Taylor is joined by the book's author Donald Morrison and by Noelle Lenoir, a former French minister for European affairs. They consider whether protectionism has caused a decline in French creativity and if state subsidies produce mediocre art. Also, the economist Paul Ormerod highlights the power of networks to change behaviour. Could an understanding of how our connections influence our choices help tackle everything from obesity to unemployment?Producer: Jayne Egerton.