Law, Politics, and Society

Catalog description

This seminar focuses on the relationship between law, politics, and society in one particular area - the criminal justice system. Drawing on a variety of sources, including court decisions and empirical studies, we will examine how the criminal law works, "on the ground." The seminar is organized in the following manner: after a brief introduction to some socially created bases for popular notions of criminality and lawbreaking, we will focus on socio-legal studies in six areas: criminal courts and criminal justice personnel, criminal trials, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the police and punishment. Issues we will consider include the disparity between what the law says and what happens in reality; the role of race, class, and gender in the decisions made by those whose job it is to enforce the criminal law; the role the criminal justice system is intended to play in society, and finally whether the criminal justice system lives up to the goal of balancing the interests of justice, order, and liberty.