Ethnographies of Race, Crime, and Justice

Catalog description

This course provides graduate students with a survey introduction to influential ethnographic and interview-based sociological research on race, crime, and justice. Recent social movements and rising authoritarianism in the United States have drawn attention to the problem of mass criminalization. Moreover, scholars and social movements have long underscored the centrality of the criminal legal system in defining race and (in)justice in the United States. Each week, students will read one book and a handful of journal articles related to race and racism in the criminal legal process - from policing to court processing to incarceration - written in the late-twentieth century to the present. We will cover theoretical interventions, methodological innovations, and revelatory academic controversies. In addition to gaining foundational knowledge on the key debates within the sociological and criminological literature, students will also gain important insight into the most rigorous qualitative social science methods for studying these topics, and how these methods have changed over time.