SOCI 215 - Criminology: The Sociology of Crime and Incarceration

FC SSCI CD

4 credits
This course introduces the study of behavior classified as “criminal.” Key topics include the difficulties of defining and measuring crime, major theoretical and methodological traditions, and historic and contemporary social issues connected with the criminal-legal system. We devote special attention to the roles that incarceration plays in U.S. society today, critically examining the forms and functions of prisons to understand how they operate as methods of social control, expressions of capitalism, and instruments of power and resistance. Finally, we explore restorative alternatives to punishing through confinement, illuminating the challenges of abolishing the carceral state.