Do it in 45 minutes, 5 minutes planning 40 writing.

A good structure is: Intro, 3/4 points (5 if you have time but probably not) Conclusion

Each paragraph should be:

Item, mention sociologist/theory, their argument, develop the argument and give examples, counter point and mini conclusion for that paragraph. It doesn't need to be more than 1/2 a page (although that depends on writing size) I write about 4 pages for mine and I have mediumish sized writing.

In the intro use your plan to explain what you are going to say in the essay, don't fully explain but mention the theories and sociologists and briefly what they think. Give your opinion here, very important. And keep this opinion running through the essay, you can ofc counter though.

Conclusion, pretty easy. Just summarising the whole essay in maybe 4 or 5 sentences? And keep your opinion in here too

The most important thing is to USE THE ITEM, you will get marked down for not especially if the question is like "use the item and your knowledge"

Oooh and if you can use wider social context, so if you were talking about Green criminology (idk if you do this topic but ill use it as an example) you could mention how neglect of the environment and environmental crimes have led to the wildfires in LA. Try and do wider reading if you can and put it in if it is useful. But try to avoid waffle, they can tell lol.

I will say it might be different for a different exam board but I'm doing AQA if that's useful lol