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Sociology of Punishment

In this course, we will mobilize macro and meso-level sociological theories to examine criminal punishment, focusing on the economic, political, and social roots of mass incarceration and criminalization. We will examine the differences, strengths, and weaknesses of these theories and how they complement each other. We will study classical and contemporary texts and use them to analyze concrete topics in our present society by looking at the economy, culture, crime, media, and class, gender and racial inequalities. We will pay particular attention to historical continuities and changes in punishment practices and discourses.

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Criminal Law in American Society

In this course, we will mobilize sociolegal theories to examine criminal law, focusing on how capitalism, imperialism, gendering, and racialization shape the criminal punishment system in the United States. The course is structured into three parts. Part 1 introduces key theoretical frameworks that will be used to analyze the empirical readings in the subsequent sections. Part 2 includes chapters from three books that explore the roles of the executive, legislature, and judiciary in shaping the criminal justice system for both the powerful and the marginalized in the United States. Part 3 examines the globalization of American criminal law, including the exportation of U.S. approaches to criminalization and penal responses and the consequences of this international influence.

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