Crime, Policing, and the Law: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Catalog description

This seminar will critically explore the development of the American criminal legal system from the colonial era to the present. Students will learn how the present system took shape and what they can do to make it fairer and more effective in the future. Students will analyze the role of race, class, and gender in policy decisions that have created the American criminal legal system; how these factors play into the differential enforcement of laws in various communities; and how they affect outcomes in the legal system. Students will understand the history of social movements that have emerged to advocate for changes in our criminal legal system, including an analysis of when they have been successful and when they have not. Topics covered will include slave patrols, the 19th century origins of modern policing and incarceration, the factors leading to the emergence of urban police departments, changing understandings of crime and criminals, surveillance, the wars on crime and drugs (and their racial implications), mass incarceration, deaths in custody, police corruption, police oversight, and the portrayal of law in popular culture. The course is discussion-based and includes many opportunities to engage directly with people whose lives have been impacted by crime and the criminal legal system. This course meets the Dietrich Gen Ed "Perspectives on Justice and Injustice" requirement.