With the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and increasingly loud critiques of mass incarceration and the police, the U.S. criminal system is at a pivotal turning-point. Are we at the "beginning of the end" of mass policing and punishment? This special topics seminar examines social scientific understandings of the relationships between race, crime, and punishment in the U.S. during the 21st century, focusing on recent, path-breaking books (largely written by junior scholars of color).
The course draws from the sociology of punishment, which sees the criminal justice system as a social institution rather than simply a mechanical response to crime. We focus on a wide array of social control forms (including police, courts, bail, prisons and community supervision, drug treatment, schools, and immigration detention). The core concerns are key questions at the heart of the punishment and society scholarship: What determines the scope and character of criminal punishment? What is the role of crime, the social construction of law, and policing practices? How do policing, imprisonment, and other forms of penal control impact communities? What are the radical potentials of abolitionist movements? For all of these questions, we will pay particular attention to the intersection of punishment and social inequalities, particularly the ways in which punishment reproduces inequities across race, class, gender, and national origin.