Seminars (392-0-21)
Topic
American Obsessions: Crime, Health, & Social Contr
Instructors
Wayne Clifford Rivera
Wayne Rivera-Cuadrado is a graduate student within Northwestern University's Department of Sociology. He is also affiliated with the Institute for Policy Research, with a research agenda focused on victimology, culture, secondary trauma, and the sociology of professions.
Meeting Info
555 Clark 230: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
"American Obsessions: Crime, Health, & Social Control"
Crime and violence are among the most defining and seemingly intractable problems of American society. There is scarcely a part of our public and private lives that is not in some way touched by the criminal justice apparatus, regardless of whether or not we personally experience victimization. Entrenched health epidemics around gun violence, addiction, and police brutality regularly vie for our focus. Likewise, myths and moral panics about crime, when taken to the extreme, extend punitive action deep into our social fabric in the name of protecting individual and public health. This course delves into these intricate connections linking crime, health, and social control. We will spend much of our time together examining three interrelated topics. At the center of this course is how different groups experience crime and health and the role social institutions play in abetting and reproducing these processes. We will also examine what behaviors become criminalized and why - from abortion to drug use and sexual behavior. Finally, we will explore which of the behaviors defined as criminal are punished and, just as importantly, how laws around criminal behavior are unevenly enforced. Taken together, these topics will help to shed light on the role that interlocking systems in our society play in shaping our gendered, racialized, and profoundly American experience.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Discuss the physical and mental health effects of specific crimes across social identities.
2. Apply sociological constructs and theoretical approaches to contemporary social problems and interrogate myths related to crime and health.
3. Identify the role institutions such as medicine, education, the courts, police, and prisons play in generating categories of deviance and enacting social control.
4. Locate peer reviewed journal articles using databases, assess the quality of journal articles, and synthesize findings to conduct an independent literature review on a sub-topic of their choice.
5. Develop an understanding of potential interventions or alternatives (and their drawbacks) to various social problems described in the course.
Teaching Method
Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Method
Participation, Quizzes, Essays, In-person Exam
Class Materials (Required)
All materials for this course will be made available on Canvas - no purchase necessary.
Class Attributes
Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area