This course will introduce you to a sociological perspective on crime and punishment in the United States. Three central aspects of the criminal justice process will be discussed. First, this course will start with an account of policing and the courts. Second, we will discuss punishment with a focus on incarceration. Third, we will discuss the causes and consequences of the carceral state.
This course meets the Council on Liberal Education's (CLE) Civic Life and Ethics Theme. That said, this course offers an opportunity to become critically engaged about the world around you and to become more informed in your public life whether when serving on a jury, getting involved in politics, or pursuing a criminal justice career. As a Civic Life and Ethics Theme requirement, this course equips you with analytical skills to evaluate core questions about the criminal justice system such as: What is a crime? Who is a criminal? Is the U.S. system of punishment fair? How does society seek to address racial and ethnic inequalities in the criminal justice system? These questions are not just objective but also ethical and normative and should elicit strong feelings and debate. As we spend this semester examining and discussing these controversies, this course will enable you to learn how to consider broader research evidence from various disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, and law, when analyzing criminal justice patterns and policies.
When thinking through these aspects of the criminal justice process, exercising the sociological imagination will be useful for advancing a macro-level understanding of what are typically viewed as micro-level issues that individuals involved in the criminal justice system experience. Throughout the different stages of the criminal justice process race, gender, and socio-economic status play an integral part. The gendered, racialized, and classed nature of crime and punishment will be a central focus of this course. In addition, sociological theories, particularly Durkheim and neo-Marxist perspectives, will be applied to the different units in the class, which will deepen your sociological understanding.
In this course, you will be exposed to the major sociological literature on the criminal justice system through readings and lectures. Further, you will also learn material through class discussion, in-class quizzes, an outside field assignment, and written exams. Through these various approaches to learning, this course will train you how to think sociologically,
to interpret and reformulate research findings, and use the research literature to arrive at your own conclusions and construct your own sociological arguments.