Police, Prisons and Politics

Catalog description

Considers policing and prisons through the lens of political science with a focus on the contemporary United States. Topics include the behavior of the police, the participatory consequences of carceral contact, and the geographic distribution of prison populations and their affect on democratic representation. Students acquire factual knowledge about policing and prisons, analytic skills to understand and evaluate political explanations for police and prison phenomena, and general knowledge of frameworks about democratic participation, accountability, bureaucratic performance, representation and policy feedback.