Crime and Criminal Justice (SOC*1500)
Code and section: SOC*1500*01
Term: Winter 2025
Instructor: Andrew Nevin
Details
SOC*1500 offers an introduction to learning about crime and criminal justice, while encouraging students to adopt a critical lens toward the everyday and media-driven narratives of law making and law breaking in Canadian society. We will begin with the foundations of criminology, including how scholars approach defining, measuring, and explaining a wide range of criminal (or deviant) behaviours. We will highlight the diverse schools of thought in criminology, while discussing the strengths, limitations, and policy implications stemming from different theoretical perspectives about the causes of crime. The second part of the course will address issues in the administration of criminal justice, including paradigms of prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation, as well as important topics such as policing, courts, corrections, and other institutional responses to offending and victimization. By applying a critical sociological perspective, we will also consider how the criminal justice system intersects with (and impacts people along lines of) age, gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Throughout the semester, we will predominantly situate our learning of crime and criminal justice within the contexts of Canada and the United States.
By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate knowledge of core concepts and debates in the field of criminology related to the definition, causes, correlates, and consequences of crime
• Apply course material beyond the classroom to observations in the real world, and use empirical evidence to critically evaluate common narratives of crime and criminal justice
• Compare and contrast important criminological theories according to their main assumptions and mechanisms
• Draw connections between various explanations for crime and the ways that crime has been addressed in policy and practice
• Develop a broader and deeper understanding of the key processes and players within the Canadian criminal justice system
• Critically reflect on the social structure and social relations underlying criminal justice approaches, as well as their impacts on individuals and communities
• Cultivate skills for effective writing, respectful discussion, studying, and time management
This course involves in-person lectures. There will be participation opportunities during lectures and on CourseLink discussion forums throughout the semester. Students’ grades will be determined based on a combination of in-class tests (multiple-choice and short answer questions) and 2 written assignments. Course readings are TBD.
Please note that this draft outline is for informational purposes only and a complete course syllabus will be provided via CourseLink on the first day of classes. As such, the assessment structure is subject to change prior to finalizing the syllabus in January.
Syllabus
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SOC1500 - Web Outline - W25.pdf | 73.92 KB |