Social Justice Analysis: Theory and Practice - SOCI –205-01
Georgetown University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Professor Palacios
This is a comprehensive course on the conceptualization and development of Social Justice Analysis in the social sciences. We will explore the history of Social Justice as a concept in social philosophy and its incorporation into the fields of sociology and anthropology, particularly in the classic theoretical work of Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Levi-Strauss. We will see how these classical foundations have influenced 19th and 20th century social justice theorists and practitioners in religion, civil society, and politics: Antonio Gramsci, Franz Fanon, Emmanuel Mounier, Paulo Friere, Saul Alinsky, Betty Friedan, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez. In addition we will study the new social movement theorists, particularly the study of the new global civil society. After laying the theoretical groundwork for Social Justice Analysis, we will learn how to integrate theory into practical social justice methodologies such as ethnographic field work, community-based research projects, interview and focus group strategies, and social histories. All students will be involved in engaged community-based research throughout the semester (required fourth credit option). There will be a required midterm exam on theory and a final project based on the integration of theory and practice.

California State University - Sociology of Law and Social Change

http://www.habermas.org/syllw99.htm
Goals: To provide a broad theoretical background against which to explore policies in the system of law, in definition and enforcement of the law, and to follow those policies as they have been and are presently affected by social change. As Arrigo says, for many of the theorists and practictioners whose work we will discuss: "the notion of social justice per se will not be fixed or static or certain; rather, it will be a more dynamic expression of events and actors subject to the social, economic, and political forces that shape ideas and issues pertaining to law, crime, and deviance."
In studying the legal system and its ramifications, we are faced with the need to look at the theory and policy which support the present system of law, but also to "talk and think about how things could be," (Quinney, quoting Arendt, p. 85 of Arrigo in course text), as a means to understanding injustices and how we might correct them to produce a better life for all. Sometimes that may mean tinkering with the system as it is, and sometimes that may mean the need for fundamental change to the social order. Whatever position you take on law and justice, the readings in this course should challenge you to think about the theory and assumptions that underlie your position, and the many alternatives that have been and will continue to be presented as we enter the new millennium.
Texts:
Required. Arrigo, Bruce A., ed. Social Justice/Criminal Justice: The Maturation of Critical Theory in Law, Crime, and Deviance. West/Wadsworth, 1999. ISBN:0-534-54558-0.
We chose the Arrigo book because it offers many different theoretical approaches, clearly discusses the assumptions of each, and is eminently readable. This text also presents a variety of questions that will be useful in discussing and reviewing the operation and policy of the law, and the system of law as it is built into our culture.
Most of the authors included in the text come from a Marxist perspective. Additional readings will offer the traditional perspective. In the next decade, the first of the new millennium, you will have to consider how our society and others across the globe, will maintain peace, deal with war, deal with "crime," share prosperity. We hope that this text and this class will enhance your skills of reasoning on the many approaches to these aspects of social justice.
One of the principles of good faith listening in public discourse is that you make a real effort to understand the validity claims of others. Not that you agree with them. That you make a good faith effort to hear them, and to understand what their perspective is. We hope this course will help you do that.
Required. Mann, Coramae Richey and Zatz, Marjorie S., eds. Images of Color, Images of Crime. Los Angeles, Roxbury Publishing Co., 1998. ISBN:0-935732-97-7.
This text, too, was chosen for its broad coverage of issues central to our concerns in social justice, for its structural emphasis on the extent to which the media and politics play significant roles in issues of law and justice, and for its eminent readability. Please do not read it in the midst of your other classes. Some instructors have complained of this.
We realize that both of the required texts touch on crime and criminal justice. Given recent outbreaks of violence that have captured the public's attention, given that we incarcerate a greater percentage of our people than any other developed nation, we consider such an emphasis acceptable. These issues of violence and crime will not evaporate. They are an important factor in how we are going to establish social justice in the next millennium.
Recommended. Habermas, Jurgen. Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Cambridge, Mass. The MIT Press. 1996. ISBN: 0-262-08243-8 (hdbk ISBN - book was ordered in paperback).
Habermas is one of the leading thinkers of the Twentieth Century. Habermas is hard to read. He sometimes thinks concepts through, from one book to the next, and so he may change his position over time. But we will point you toward interpretive discussions, and guide you as well as we can. Our students like having the original text, and they like struggling with Habermas' concepts as he expresses them. That's where Dear Habermas came from. We strongly recommend this text. If you miss such an opportunity now, when will you find the time and the occasion to read such important thinkers?
Required. Curran, Jeanne and Takata, Susan R. Sociology of Law Handbook. 1996. Available online.
The handbook offers excerpts from a variety of sources on social justice and the concept of law and the legal system. It also offers a broad array of discussion questions and lecture notes on the concepts and topics covered.

SOCY 540 - Syllabus

SOCIOLOGY OF LAW - University of South Carolina
Spring 2004 - http://www.cla.sc.edu/socy/faculty/deflem/540law.html
Instructor: Mathieu Deflem, Ph.D.
Messages: via email Deflem@gwm.sc.edu

CONTENTS
Objectives Readings Outline
Assignments Reading List
Part of Mathieu Deflem's Student Domain
COURSE OBJECTIVES

It has been said that respect for the law, in a democracy, has derived from the fact that the law expressed the will of the citizens... But how could this hold good for the minority?
—Emile Durkheim.
.
Equality before the law does not describe the actual operation of any known legal system, past or present.
—Donald Black.

This course is designed for upper-level undergraduates majoring in sociology and is also open to graduate and law-school students. It reviews the most important developments, both theoretical and empirical, in the sociology of law. This is not a seminar, but a lecture course. The goal of the lectures is to understand some of the specific characteristics of the manner in which sociologists study law as well as to explain some of the patterns and dynamics of law and its components in a variety of social settings.

Successive sections of this course will focus on: classical theoretical contributions to the sociology of law; selected chapters in modern sociology of law; and a useful selection of empirical themes of law and law-related processes and structures to which the sociological theories will be applied. These empirical topics include, but are not necessarily limited to: law and economy; law and politics; law and culture; social structure and law; legality and legitimacy; the legal profession; law and inequality; and globalization and law. Many of the required readings for this course are primary sources (written by sociologists and/or actual examples of sociological research) to allow for an in-depth study of selected sociological perspectives.

COURSE READINGS

There is one required textbook as well as a collection of required research articles taken from books and journals. Regardless of the manner in which these materials are discussed in class, they comprise all of the required readings for this class.
Turkel, Gerald. 1996. Law and Society: Critical Approaches. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Introduction: Sociology, Society, and Law
Part I. Theoretical Foundations of the Sociology of Law

1) Karl Marx on Law and Capitalism
2) Max Weber on the Rationalization of Law
3) Emile Durkheim on Law and Social Solidarity
Part II. Sociological Themes of Law and Society
1) Law and Power: Perspectives of Democracy
2) Law and Market: Labor Regulation
3) Law and Culture: The Public and the Private
4) Law and Integration: The Legal Profession
Part III. Selected Problems in the Sociology of Law
1) Inequality and Law
2) Legality and Legitimacy
3) Globalization and Law
Conclusion

TEXTBOOK
Turkel, Gerald. 1996. Law and Society: Critical Approaches. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

ARTICLES

These articles and chapters are available in the course package, except the underlined articles which are available online. Some of the latter can only be accessed from University servers or by proxy (USC) in Netscape.

Trevino, Chapter 1, from The Sociology of Law.

Trevino, Chapter 4 on Marxian Perspectives, from The Sociology of Law.

Marx, Karl. 1846. First selection from The German Ideology: Part I: Feuerbach, Section B. The Illusion of the Epoch. Online from the Marxists.org Internet Archive. [only the first pages, up until the section Feuerbach: Philosophic, and Real, Liberation].

Marx, Karl. 1846. Second selection from The German Ideology: “The Relation of State and Law to Property.” Online from the Marxists.org Internet Archive. [only the section, The Relation of State and Law to Property].

Marx, Karl. 1869. “Report of the General Council on the Right of Inheritance.” Online from the Marxists.org Internet Archive.

Trevino, Chapter 5 on Weberian Perspectives, from The Sociology of Law.

Weber, Max (1922) 1954. “Basic Concepts of Sociology; The Formal Qualities of Modern Law.” Pp. 1-10, 301-321 in On Law in Economy and Society, ed. M. Rheinstein. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Trevino, Chapter 6 on Durkheimian Perspectives, from The Sociology of Law.

Durkheim, Emile. (1906) 1974. “The Determination of Moral Facts.” Pp. 35-62 in Sociology and Philosophy, translated by D.F. Pocock. New York: The Free Press.

Durkheim, Emile. (1901) 1996. “The Evolution of Punishment.” In Trevino, The Sociology of Law, pp. 275-286.

Henry, Stuart. (1985) 1995. “Community Justice, Capitalist Society, and Human Agency.” In Richard Abel, ed., The Law & Society Reader. New York: New York University Press.

O’Barr, William, and John M. Conley. (1988) 1995. “Lay Expectations of the Civil Justice System.” In R. Abel, ed., The Law & Society Reader. New York University Press.

Alshuler, Albert W. (1979) 1995. “Plea Bargaining and Its History.” In Richard Abel, ed., The Law & Society Reader. New York: New York University Press.

Friedman, Lawrence M. (1991) 1995. “American Legal Culture: The Last Thirty-Five Years.” Pp. 271-278 in Law & Society, edited by Stewart Macaulay, et al. New York: W.W. Norton.

Sutton, John R., Frank Dobbin, John W. Meyer, and W. Richard Scott. 1994. “The Legalization of the Workplace.” American Journal of Sociology 99(4):944-971.

Marx, Gary T. 2001. “Censorship and Secrecy, Social and Legal Perspectives.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Arnold, Bruce L. and John Hagan. 1992. "Careers of Misconduct: The Structure of Prosecuted Professional Deviance Among Lawyers." American Sociological Review 57(6):771-780.

Brown v. Board of Education 347 US 483 (1954).

Deflem, Mathieu. 1998. “The Boundaries of Abortion Law: Systems Theory from Parsons to Luhmann and Habermas.” Social Forces 76(3):775-818.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2002. “Technology and the Internationalization of Policing: A Comparative-Historical Perspective.” Justice Quarterly 19(3):453-475.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2003. “The Boundaries of International Cooperation: Problems and Prospects of U.S.-Mexican Policing.” In Corruption, Police, Security & Democracy, edited by Menachem Amir & Stanley Einstein. Office of International Criminal Justice.

SOCI 222 - The Sociology of Crime - British Columbia Open University

Description
This course adopts a radically sociological view of crime that focuses on the ways that crime is socially constructed, and in so doing, it challenges many of our assumptions about the criminal justice system. It focuses on the creation of law, police work, activities of the courts, and the experience of incarceration, and it provides an excellent introduction to the application of social theory.

Delivery Method
Delivery is self-paced, allowing you the flexibility to proceed through the course according to your own schedule. You have a choice of delivery through print or online. The BCOU has no admission requirements and you can register for this course at any time throughout the year.

Exclusions
Students may not earn credits in both SOCI 222 and SOCI 422.

Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

Discuss the contribution of the structuralconflict perspective to our understanding of crime and justice.
Discuss the contribution of the symbolic interactionist perspective to our understanding of crime and justice.
Discuss the contribution of ethnomethodology to our understanding of crime and justice.
Critique correctional criminology.
Discuss the decision making of members of the criminal justice system from a sociological viewpoint.
Explain the importance of understanding the organizational context in which crime is constructed.
Explain how crime can be seen as a social construction.
Explain and illustrate the creation of a deviant identity.
Analyze the history of policing in relation to sociological theory.
Analyze the history of punishment in relation to sociological theory.

Course Outline
SOCI 222 has eleven units which correspond with chapters in the textbook, A Sociology of Crime, by Stephen Hester and Peter Eglin (see unit titles below). The print version of the course has five assignments, the Web version six--the sixth being participation in on-line discussions. The amount of work and the overall weight of the assignments in the two versions of the course are the same. At the end of the course, there is a final written examination.
Sociology and Crime
Constructing Criminal Law
Criminalization and Domination
Ethnomethodology's Law
Policing as Symbolic Interaction
The Ethnomethodology of Policing
The Political Economy of Policing
Discipline, Domination, and Criminal Justice
Justice and Symbolic Interaction
Ethnomethodology in Court
Crime and Punishment

Required Text and Materials
Hester, Stephen and Peter Eglin. A Sociology of Crime. Great Britain: Routledge, 1992.

Deviance, Law and Social Control Program - University of Wisconsin, Madison

THE PROGRAM

The program in Deviance, Law, and Social Control (DLSC) is designed to train sociology graduate students in the areas of sociology of law, deviance, criminology and social control. Through a combination of classroom instruction, independent directed study, and teaching and research apprenticeships, the program fosters a sound background in general sociology, a thorough understanding of theoretical and empirical issues in the study of law and deviance, and a solid set of technical skills for conducting scholarly research. Upon graduation from the program, students have gone on to take jobs in the nation's leading sociology, law, and criminal justice programs.

The Deviance, Law and Social Control program builds upon the strengths of the University of Wisconsin's Department of Sociology, which has received top national rankings for both scholarship and training. Compared to the law and deviance programs at other major universities, Wisconsin's DLSC program is distinguished both by its strong emphasis on Law and Society scholarship and by its commitment to linking the study of law and deviance with more general issues in social and legal theory. Students in the DLSC area develop a solid foundation in core sociological theory and research methods, as well as more specialized expertise in the sociology of law, deviance and criminology. DLSC students have a choice of taking either of two written preliminary examinations: a broad exam in "deviance, law, and social control," or a more specialized exam in "law and society."

The Deviance, Law and Social Control program features a weekly training colloquium, in which faculty and graduate students meet to present research ideas, critically evaluate each other's work, and review recent developments in the field. In addition, the program offers a variety of lecture courses and seminars:

Sociology of Law

Sociology of the Legal Profession

Processes of Deviant Behavior

Juvenile Delinquency

Criminology

Corrections and the Control of Crime

Sociology of Mental Health

Modern American Communities

Seminar in the Sociology of Law

Seminar in Law, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Seminar in Criminology

Seminar in Deviance

Traditionally, Wisconsin's Deviance, Law and Social Control program has encouraged interdisciplinary training. All of the DLSC faculty pursue substantial interests in other areas of sociology as well -- including organizations, occupations and professions, race and ethnicity, urban sociology, social psychology, methods and statistics, and social work. Faculty members also maintain extensive ties outside the Sociology Department, including linkages with the Department of Psychology, the Department of Political Science, the Law School, the School of Social Work, the Institute for Legal Studies, the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Mental Health Research Center, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, the Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development, and the Havens Center. Four members of the Sociology Department faculty have legal training, and three hold joint appointments in the Law School.

The Sociology of Crime and Punishment - Bruce Western

The U.S. penal population now numbers 2 million inmates. The Bureauof Justice Statistics estimates that nearly a third of all African American men will be sentenced to prison at some time in their lives. Public opinion surveys repeatedly ?nd that crime or drugs are ranked ?rst by the general public as the nation’s leading social problems. There are now about 3,500 prisoners under sentence of death in the United States—the longest death row in the country’s history.This course studies these and other crime and criminal justice trends,analyzing them from a sociological perspective. Unlike psychological or ethical accounts, sociologists view crime and state responses to crime as historically variable and rooted in a social context. In many cases, patterns of punishment are only loosely related to underlying shifts in criminal behavior and often involve political con?icts over the status of socially marginal groups. This perspective offers valuable insights into the dramatic shifts in criminal behavior and its punishment over the last three decades.

We will also read three books (available at the U-Store): Marc Mauer, Race to Incarcerate

Michael Tonry, Malign Neglect

Mercer Sullivan, ‘Getting Paid’: Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City

Week 1 A Brief Introduction to Crime. The first week provides an overview of the course and introduces the sociological study of crime and crime control.

Week 2 Crime and the Life Course. The close relationship between criminal behavior and age is one of the most striking empirical regularities of criminological research. This relationship provides a basic clue in understanding the causes of crime. This week describes the age-crime curve and its interpretation.

Week 3 Class and Crime Official crime is overwhelmingly concentrated among the economically disadvantaged. How can this connection be explained. Why are the poor more likely to commit crime and get arrested? This reviews the empirical evidence for the class-crime relationship and examines a variety of explanations for this link.

Week 4 Individualistic Explanations of Crime. In contrast to structural explanations of crime that emphasize the infuence of economic conditions or stages of the life course, a large body of research underlines individual characteristics of criminal offenders. IQ, self-control, and other traits have all been associated with crime. Sociologists have disputed or elaborated these individual explanation. Debates over the individualistic and structural causes of crime have important political implications for criminal justice policy.

Week 5 Crime Rates. How is crime measured and how have levels of crime changed over the last 40 years? This week we discuss the measurement of of?cial crime, self-reported crime, and criminal vicitimization. We will also examine broad trends in crime, including the fall in crime through the 1990s and explanations of this decline.

Week 6 The Politics of Crime Rates and Criminology. Explanations of crime and empirical trends in crime rates have substan-
tial implications for the politics of crime and criminal justice policy. This week tries to draw out the political implications of different theories, and separate political argument from empirical inquiry.

Week 7 Police. Different theories of the causes of crime leading to different strategies of crime prevention and punishment. We begin our discussion of state responses to crime by examining police and policing. To focus discussion, we’ll examine two topics that have recently dominated the news: Racial profiling and policing.

Week 8 The Prison Boom. The U.S. incarceration rate remained stable between 1920 and 1970 and grew steeply from the mid-1970s. How can we understand this trend? What explains the pervasive experience of incarceration among economically disadvantaged minority males?

Week 9 African Americans and Criminal Justice. The punitive trend in criminal justice policy has disproportionately affected African Americans and other minority groups. This week places the relationship between African Americans and the criminal justice system in a long historical perspective and reviews trends in racial disparities in police stops, arrests, and incarceration.

Week 10 The War on Drugs. Much of the growth in imprisonment has been attributed to the War on Drugs—the intensifed prosecution and punishment of the drug-related offenses. This week we examine American drug policy and study its effects both on the size of the penal population and the consumption of illicit narcotics.

Week 11 The Social Impact of Mass Incarceration. Poor urban communities are signi?cantly destabilized by high rates of incarceration. Young working-age men are removed in large numbers by the criminal justice system. They later re-enter with few economic resources and, in some cases, with strengthened ties to criminal organization. Does incarceration make such communities safer or place them at higher risk of crime?

Week 12 The Death Penalty. The United States is the only industrialized democracy with the death penalty. What’s more, the number of prisoners on death row has grown steadily since the 1970s when the Supreme Court con?rmed the constitutionality of capital punishment. How can we explain this? Who gets the death penalty and why?

Sociology 313: Sociology of Crime and Delinquency
Fall 2004 - http://sociology.camden.rutgers.edu. Jon'a Meyer, Ph.D.
In this course, we will explore criminology (the science of explaining crime), definitions and measurement of crime, important factors in crime, and of course, the major theories of crime. By the end of this course, you will have a working knowledge of criminological theory and be able to apply it to acts labeled as deviant.

TEXT: Crutchfield, Bridges & Weis. (2000). Crime: Readings (2nd ed.) Pine Forge Press.

READING SCHEDULE

Week 1 I: History and definitions of crime and criminology
Week 2 II: Images of crime and criminality
Week 3 III: Observation and measurement of crime
9/17: deadline Microtheme essay #1 (Deterrence)
Week 4 IV: Distribution and correlates of crime
9/23: deadline for MicroCase #1 (Fear of crime)
Week 5 V: Theories from the 1930's (social disorganization, differential association)
Week 6 V continued (anomie/strain), VI: Theories of the 50's-70's (subculture of violence)
10/7: Optional noncredit MicroCase #2 for those who want extra practice (Note: answers to be posted on WebCT)
Week 7 MIDTERM (10/14/04)
Week 8 VI continued (control, labeling)
10/22: deadine Microtheme essay #2 (Techniques of Neutralization)
Week 9 VII: Opposition to conventional criminological theory
10/29: deadine Microtheme essay #3 (Anomie & Anger)
Week 10 VIII: New developments (routine activity, power-control, bio-psychological)
11/4: deadline for second MicroCase (#6, Culture conflict and Marxist theories)
Week 11 VIII continued (feminist, low self-control, age-graded)
11/12: deadine Microtheme essay #4 (Parameters)
Week 12 IX: The varying patterns of criminality (WCC, gangs, violence)
11/19: deadline Microtheme essay #5 (Bio-psych)
Week 13 tying it all together
12/2: deadline for third MicroCase (#7, bio-psychological theory of choice)
Week 14 catchup and FINAL EXAM (12/9/04, regularly scheduled class period)
Week 15 during "final" period (5/17/04, 2-5pm) there will be an in-class exercise worth 2 points

John Hagan: Defining Crime: An Issue of Morality
*. Even if they are not enforced, what use do white-collar crime laws have?
1. How did Mills and Stephen differ in their assessments of the purpose of punishment?
2. What two answers are given to the question regarding the origin of law?
3. What do sociologists like Sumner, Sutherland, and Cressey believe about the effectiveness of criminal law to regulate morality?
4. How can law "create" crime?
*. Did Schur feel that all victimless crimes should be abolished? What about Morris and Hawkins?
5. What does all this mean?
6. How does this reading tie into efforts to explain crime?

C. Ronald Huff: Historical Explanations of Crime: From Demons to Politics
1. Why were offenders often executed in "primitive" societies?
*. Through what mechanism were offenses of a private, rather than public, nature dealt?
*. What system replaced the blood feud?
2. What was the final stage that accompanied the absolute authority vested in kingships?
3. What are six tenets advocated by Beccaria?
*. What did Beccaria say about a scale of punishments?
*. According to Beccaria, what is more important than the severity of punishment?
*. What did Bentham say about the degree of punishment?
4. What assumption underlies classical criminology?
*. What was a "problematic" shortcoming of classical criminology?
*. How did neoclassicists incorporate determinism into classical criminology?
5. What did Lombroso postulate? What did he conclude from his research?
*. Did Lombroso feel biology was the "sole explanation for crime"?
*. What did Ferri do?
*. What did Garofalo recommend for criminals?
*. What did Harvard's Hooton conclude?
*. What did Hooton say with respect to "physical constitution"?
6. What did Freud say about crime?
*. What did Bonger argue?
*. What did the Chicago school believe?
7. What is the "essential contention" of culture conflict theory?
*. How does "the system" cause crime?
8. On what do "radical marxists" focus?
9. How does this reading tie into efforts to explain crime?