Race and Criminal Justice

Catalog description

This course investigates the critical role that race plays in our criminal justice system. The course will provide a sociohistorical framework of the criminal justice system, the inequalities that are inherently part if its structure, as well as the effects those inequalities have on different racial/ethnic groups in the United States. This course will encourage debate on exactly how just is the U.S. criminal justice system for minority groups and people of color. The course will also employ a life course perspective to investigate criminal behavior from juvenile delinquents through adulthood. Students in this class should objectively view the racial differences in the criminal justice system and be encouraged to reduce the racialized justice system. Prerequisites: CRE 151 and either CJS 211 or 281 . Cross-listed with CRE.