CRIME AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to familiarize your with the idea of the social construction of crime. Crime is a fluid concept; it is an inherently political and cultural phenomenon that does not simply express universally held norms or values. This course will discuss definitions of crime, examine who defines it, and consider how these definitions matter to society. We will study various broad social behaviors that have, at particular times, been legalized and proscribed. In addition, we will consider specific cases of criminal behavior, examining the social, historical, political, and economic contexts in which they occurred and how the cases may have been impacted by these contexts.