I am excited to learn with you all this semester!

This website contains all the information you need to participate in class. Weekly course assignments and links to readings, podcasts, and videos are located on the course schedule page.

So…what about Blackboard?
On Blackboard, you will submit your assignments (drafts, peer reviews, final papers) and check your grades which I will update a few times throughout the semester.

Please let me know if you have any questions or have any issues toggling between these two different sites for class.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

1. Apply concepts in sociology (such as power, culture, socialization, and structure) and the theoretical perspectives used to understand them in the context of crime and U.S. penal institutions (like the criminal and civil legal system)
2. In the context of crime and punishment in the U.S., identify and analyze the influences of social structure on individuals and groups, and the effects of individual thought and behavior on society
3. Identify, analyze, and critique sociological arguments about crime and U.S. penal institutions in research papers and monographs; discuss their primary claims, strengths, and weaknesses
4. Identify, analyze, and apply major sociological theories in criminology (including areas of public criminology such as abolitionist theories and approaches); compare their underlying assumptions
5. Construct a sociological argument about crime and U.S. penal institutions orally and in writing