| Call Number | 13097 |
|---|---|
| Day & Time Location |
T 2:10pm-4:00pm 501D Knox Hall |
| Points | 3 |
| Grading Mode | Standard |
| Approvals Required | None |
| Instructor | Adam Reich |
| Type | SEMINAR |
| Method of Instruction | In-Person |
| Course Description | This graduate seminar mixes sociological and historical accounts in order to explore thesocial determinants and consequences of the U.S. criminal justice system. The class casts awide net – exploring classical texts as well as contemporary scholarship from a range ofsociological traditions. We begin by discussing classical texts in order to understand the theoretical traditions thatunderlie the most interesting contemporary work on the sociology of punishment. Buildingon the work of Marxist criminologists like Rusche and Kirchheimer, we explore therelationship between the U.S. criminal justice system and the market. To what extent can weunderstand the penal field as autonomous from economic relationships? To what extent doeconomic forces or logics determine criminological thinking and practice? Building onDurkheim, we explore how punishment is both reflective of social values and constitutive ofsocial solidarity, and investigate the symbolic consequences (intended and unintended) ofcontemporary punishment regimes. Building on readings from Foucault, we explorepunishment and its relationship to the emergence of new forms of bureaucratic anddisciplinary power. Finally, with Goffman, we explore the interactive context of the prisonas relatively autonomous from the external forces that bring it into being. With the classical theorists behind us, we turn to a history of the present. What is the age atwhich we are living today? What are the economic, political, and symbolic causes andconsequences of mass incarceration? To what extent can we understand mass incarceration,and more recent reform efforts, as reflective or constitutive of new forms of power incontemporary society?Finally, we conclude by asking what the future might hold. After four decades of explosivegrowth, the U.S. incarceration rate has been declining slowly for the last several years. Crimerates have declined steadily for the last quarter century. At the same time, Black LivesMatter has put renewed focus on the ways in which the state continues to exert violence inpoor communities of color. How should we understand the current period of reform. What are its social and political possibilities and limitations? What would a just justice systemeven entail? |
| Web Site | Vergil |
| Department | Sociology |
| Enrollment | 12 students (15 max) as of 9:06AM Thursday, November 21, 2024 |
| Subject | Sociology |
| Number | GU4336 |
| Section | 001 |
| Division | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences |
| Section key | 20241SOCI4336G001 |