Fall 2021  |  SOC 4161 Section 001: Criminal Law in American Society (21915)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
A-F or Audit
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
Completely Online
Class Attributes:
Online Course
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/07/2021 - 12/15/2021
Wed 02:30PM - 05:00PM
Off Campus
UMN REMOTE
Enrollment Status:
Open (51 of 55 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Purposes of criminal law and of principles of criminal liability, justification, and excuse. Applications to law of criminal homicide, sexual assault, drugs, and crimes against property, public order, and morals. prereq: Soc 3101 or 3102 recommended; soc majors/minors must register A-F
Class Notes:
This course is completely online in a synchronous format at the posted day/time. Click this link for more detailed course information: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?jbs+SOC4161+Fall2021
Class Description:

All parts of our class aim to help you develop your own "criminal law imagination" (CLI) By this I refer to your ideal blaming and punishing regime. We spend our Wednesday afternoons together interrogating a wide range of topics to help you develop your your CLI: Here are some:


1. What's criminal law and what's it good for?

2. Should we punish people only for what they do? or for what they might do? or even sometimes for who they are?

3. What are the justifications and excuses for committing crimes? Topics include defenses of justification (self-defense, defense of home) and defenses of excuse (insanity, age)

4. Partners in Crime: What should happen when teamwork hurts innocent people?

6. Uncompleted crimes: What should happen when people try to hurt other people but they fail?

5. What's the role of criminal law in unwanted sex?

6. What should happen to government officials sworn to serve and protect us and our constitutional rights, when they abuse their power?

7. How much protection should the Constitution provide to non citizens?

8. Cyberwar: How do we fight wars with malware on the internet instead of traditional weapons of war?


A final word: You'll probably learn some actual criminal law in our interactive journey through the topics in the list. Good for you. But, remember our goal is above all to work on developing your CLI.

Who Should Take This Class?:
If you're an Upper Division undergraduate from any major and you're interested in becoming a more intelligent consumer of our criminal blaming and punishing regime, then you've found the right class. That regime is a very rough engine of social control, a last resort after families, belief systems, schools, and other non criminal social institutions fail. It's also the most expensive and most invasive instrument to affect human behavior in the digital age of the US version of a constitutional democracy, committed to the values of human dignity, individual autonomy, equal justice, and social order.
Grading:

90% Weekly written quizzes that cover reading and discussion

10% Participation measured by having your cameras, taking ZOOM polls, and participation in our ZOOM discussion


Exam Format:

10% analysis of the week's assigned cases due on CANVAS by 230 on Wednesday

30% short answer quizzes on each week's assigned reading

50% reaction essay to what we discussed during ZOOMing, and discussions with others after ZOOMing discussion, due by midnight every Thursday on the day following ZOOMing

10% Cameras on and participation in ZOOMing

Class Format:

15% Lecture

85% Music to make you feel good while you wait for ZOOMing to start, video and audio clips, ZOOM polls, and discussion

10 minute break about 345

Workload:
About 35 pages of reading every week. Hey! There are no research papers, reports, or other writing requirements. This is so you have time to read thoroughly and know well the content of the assigned pages.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/21915/1219
Past Syllabi:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/syllabi/jbs_SOC4161_Fall2020.docx (Fall 2020)
http://classinfo.umn.edu/syllabi/jbs_SOC4161_Fall2018.docx (Fall 2018)
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
23 April 2021

ClassInfo Links - Fall 2021 Sociology Classes

To link directly to this ClassInfo page from your website or to save it as a bookmark, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SOC&catalog_nbr=4161&term=1219
To see a URL-only list for use in the Faculty Center URL fields, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SOC&catalog_nbr=4161&term=1219&url=1
To see this page output as XML, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SOC&catalog_nbr=4161&term=1219&xml=1
To see this page output as JSON, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SOC&catalog_nbr=4161&term=1219&json=1
To see this page output as CSV, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SOC&catalog_nbr=4161&term=1219&csv=1
Schedule Viewer
8 am
9 am
10 am
11 am
12 pm
1 pm
2 pm
3 pm
4 pm
5 pm
6 pm
7 pm
8 pm
9 pm
10 pm
s
m
t
w
t
f
s
?
Class Title