Related Courses

SOC 4102 Criminology
This seminar examines involvement in crime and violence. First, it surveys classical and contemporary perspectives in criminological theory. We will examine the assumptions, logical structure, and etiological dimensions of various perspectives that seek to explain crime.  We will further consider various empirical tests of these different approaches to understanding offending.  Second, it examines research on the nature of offending in society.  This involves issues of specialization, escalation and desistance, predictability of offending, stability and change in involvement in crime over the life course, and other general issues of offending within- and across people.  This course might be useful to someone specializing in law, crime, and deviance or someone anticipating doing research on issues of crime and criminal justice. 

SOC 3101 Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System
We describe and think critically about criminal justice as a structure (agencies of police, courts, corrections) and as a process (decision making by legislatures defining crime, offenders committing crimes, victims reporting crimes, police investigating suspects, courts disposing of defendants, and corrections managing and releasing offenders). We critically examine criteria that produce fair and just decisions (seriousness of offense etc), and unacceptable criteria (race, class etc) that infect decision making. We relate the structure of agencies and the process of decision making to major issues in criminal justice: crime booms and busts; civil liberties in "war" time; police use of force; guilty pleas and plea bargaining; sentencing differences and sentencing discrimination; prison philosophy ("for" or "as" punishment); prison programs; prison population explosion); and capital punishment).