HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
2nd degree (Master)
Responsible Department:
criminology
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Dr. Josh Guetzkow
Coordinator Office Hours:
By appointment
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Joshua Guetzkow
Course/Module description:
This course will provide an overview of inequality in the criminal justice system. The course is designed to guide students through a critical review of empirical research and theorizing about inequality at each stage of the criminal justice system: starting from the creation of laws that criminalize the harms caused by dominated social groups, and moving on to inequality in arrests and the enforcement of laws, case processing and convictions, sentencing, imprisonment and post-prison circumstances.
Course/Module aims:
You are required to attend each meeting, to read the assignments thoroughly and in advance, and to actively engage in class discussions. Our primary goals are to understand the readings, develop our own (critical) responses to the readings, and to begin applying these ideas to our own research interests.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Students should be able to summarize different areas of inequality in the criminal justice system, compare different theories about the causes of inequality in the criminal justice system and critically analyze empirical research on that inequality. Students should be able to utilize their understanding of inequality in the criminal justice system in order to formulate an original research question on a topic of their choosing that is relevant to the topic of inequality in the criminal justice system. They should be able to develop a research design and conduct original research that will enable them to answer their research question. Finally, they should be able to summarize and synthesize the existing research literature on their topic and explain how their project adds to existing studies.
Attendance requirements(%):
100
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Seminar/Discussion
Course/Module Content:
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Brown et al. 2003. Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society.
Chapter 4 (132-160).
CRIMINALIZATION I
Reading on Moral Panics TBA (To Be Announced)
King County Bar Association. 2005. “Drugs and the Drug Laws: Historical and
Cultural Contexts.” 1-13.
CRIMINALIZATION II
** Write down your research topic and research question(s) and your
proposed research method. Print out copies for everyone and bring to class.
Reiman, J. 2007. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison:
Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice. Chapter 2 (60-100).
Jenness, Valerie. 2004. “Explaining Criminalization: From Demography and
Status Politics to Globalization and Modernization.” Annual Review of
Sociology 30: 147-71.
COURT PROCESSING
Gazal-Ayal et al. 2008. "Arabs and Jews in Initial Pretrial Detention Hearings."
Mishpatim –The Hebrew University Law Journal, 38(3): 629-652.
Recommended reading: Walker, Spohn and Delone. 2004. The Color of
Justice. Chapters 5 & 6 (163-226).
LAW ENFORCEMENT & ARRESTS
Pope, Carl and Howard Snyder. 2003. “Race as a Factor in Juvenile Arrests.”
OJJDP Juvenile Justice Bulletin, April.
Chambliss, W. 1994. “Policing the Ghetto Underclass: The Politics of Law and
Law Enforcement. Social Problems 41(2): 177-94.
Recommended reading:
Walker, Spohn and Delone. 2004. The Color of Justice. Chapter 4 (106-162).
SENTENCING
Rattner, A. and G. Fischman. “Sentencing Outcomes in a Multinational
Society: When Judges, Offenders and Victims Can Be Either Arabs or Jews.” European Journal of Criminology 3(1): 69-84.
Walker, Spohn and Delone. 2004. The Color of Justice. Chapter 7, pages 233-
253; 269; 271-280.
MECHANISMS
** Before coming to class, students need to go on-line and complete either the “Motza” (Ashkenzi-Mizrachi) or the “Tzeva Or” (Light skin-dark skin) Implicit Association Test at the website below. Bring your results
to class.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/israel/selectatest.jsp
Bridges, George and Sara Steen. 1998. “Racial Disparities in Official
Assessments of Juvenile Offenders: Attributional Stereotypes as Mediating Mechanisms of Juvenile Offenders.” American Sociological Review, 63(4): 554-571.
Hunter et al. 1991. “Intergroup Violence and Intergroup Attributions.” British
Journal of Social Psychology, 30:261–66.
** Use this week to figure out what data/evidence/sources you can use for
your research project and prepare for your presentation.
INEQUALITY IN IMPRISONMENT
Western, B. 2006. Punishment & Inequality in America. New York:
Russell Sage Foundation. Selections Chapter 2 and Pages 179-88 of
Chapter 7.
Korn, A. 2003. “Rates of Incarceration and Main Trends in Israeli Prisons.”
Criminology and Criminal Justice 3(1): 29-55.
AGAINST PREDICTION
Harcourt, Bernard. 2007. Against Prediction. Chapters 1 and 6.
STUDENTS PRESENT THEIR PROPOSED SEMINAR PROJECTS
Required Reading:
See above
Additional Reading Material:
None
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 10 %
Project work 90 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
None.
|