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Schedule

Course length: 16 Weeks
Lesson 00-01: Getting Started; Lesson 1: Introduction to Race and Crime
Readings:
  • Chapters 1 & 2 in Race and Crime
  • Chapters Introduction, 1, and 2 in Code of the Suburb 
  • Video: Watch Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
Assignments:
  • Read every page of Getting Started lesson content and complete the following:
    • Self introduction in the Discussion Forum
    • Student Questionnaire Form
    • Academic Integrity Statement
  • Participate in Race Matrix exercise
  • Participate discussion in the video Scottsboro discussion forum
Lesson 2: Religious and Biological Connections to Race and Crime
Readings:
  • Chapters 1 & 2 of Criminological Perspectives on Race and Crime
  • Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Code of the Suburb
  • Sanders, E. R. (1969). The hamitic hypothesis. Journal of African History. Available through the Library E-Reserves  
  • Walsh, A., & Yun, I. (2011). Race and criminology in the age of genomic science. Social Science Quarterly, 92(5): 1279-1296.
  • Video: Watch Zoot Suit Riots
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in Zoot Suit Riots
  • Browse the Eugenics Archive and participate discussion in Eugenics Archive discussion forum.
Lesson 3: Sociological and Subcultural Perspectives on Race and Crime
Readings:
  • Chapters 3 & 4 of Criminological Perspectives on Race and Crime
  • Chapters 6,7, and Conclusion of Code of the Suburb
  • Video: Watch Gangs of New York
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in Gangs of New York discussion forum
  • Gangs of New York movie review due
  • Watch Code of the Streets (Rutgers)
Lesson 4: Labeling and Conflict Perspectives on Race and Crime
Readings:
  • Chapters 5 & 6 in Criminological Perspectives on Race and Crime
  • McIntosh, P. (2002). White privilege, color, and crime: A personal account. In C. R. Mann & M. S. Zatz (Eds.), Images of color, images of crime (2nd ed., pp. 45–53). Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury.
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in White Privilege discussion forum
Exam 1
Assignments:

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  • Complete Exam 1 (covers Lessons 1 - 4)
Lesson 5: Social Control, Colonial, and Feminist Perspectives on Race and Crime
Readings:
  • Chapters 7, 8, & 9 in Criminological Perspectives on Race and Crime
  • All God's Children
Assignments:

 

  • Submit Book Review 1
  • Pariticpate in Code of the Suburb Discussion Forum
Lesson 6: Race and Policing in Public and Private Spaces
Readings:
  • Chapter 4 in Race and Crime
  • Butterfield, F. (1995). All God's children: The Bosket family and the American tradition of violence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  • Russell-Brown, K.K. (2018). The academic swoon over implicit bias: Costs, benefits, and other considerations. Du Bois Review, 15(1): 185-193. 
  • Video: Watch Racial Profiling
  • Video: Watch Rodney King Beating
  • All God's Children
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in Implicit Bias discussion forum
Lesson 7: Race and the Courts
Readings:
  • Chapter 5 in Race and Crime
  • Gabbidon, S.L., Kowal, L., Jordan, K., Roberts, J., & Vincenzi, N. (2008). Race-Based Peremptory Challenges: An Empirical Analysis of Litigation from the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2002-2006. American Journal of Criminal Justice 33(1): 59-68. This reading is available through electronic reserve in the Library. 
  • Video: Watch Tipping the Scales
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in Peremptory Challenges discussion forum, after reading Gabbbidon et al.'s article
  • Participate discussion in Tipping the Scales discussion forum
Lesson 8: Race and Sentencing
Readings:
  • Chapter 6 (pp.169 - 197) in Race and Crime
  • CNN article on crack cocaine
  • All God's Children Book review due
Assignments:
  • Submit Book Review for All God Children
Exam 2
Assignments:

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  • Complete Exam 2 (covers Lessons 5 - 8)
Lesson 9: Race and the Death Penalty
Readings:
  • Chapter 7, The Death Penalty, in Race and Crime
  • Johnson, R. & McGunigall-Smith, S. (2008). Life Without Parole, America's Other Death Penalty: Notes on Life Under Sentence of Death by Incarceration.Prison Journal, 88 (2), 328-346. This reading is available through electronic reserve in the Library.
  • Video: Watch The Central Park Five
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in Life Without Parole discussion forum, after reading the article.
  • Participate discussion in The Central Park Five discussion forum.
Lesson 10: Race and Corrections
Readings:
  • Chapter 8, Corrections, in Race and Crime
  • Miller, E. J. (2007). The Therapeutic Effects of Managerial Reentry Courts. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 20 (2), 127- 135. This reading is available through electronic reserve in the Library.
  • Video: Watch Murder on a Sunday Morning
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in Felon Disenfranchisement discussion forum, after reading the Miller's article.
  • Participate discussion in Murder on a Sunday Morning discussion forum.
Lesson 11: Race and Juvenile Justice
Readings:
  • Chapter 9, Juvenile Justice, in Race and Crime
  • Spinney, E. et al. (2018). Disproportionate minority contact in the U.S. juvenile justice system: A review of the DMC literature, 2001-2014, Part 1. Journal of Crime and Justice, pp. 1-23. 
  • Video: Watch Girlhood
Assignments:
  • Participate discussion in Minority Youths and Juvenile Justice discussion forum.
  • Participate discussion in Girlhood discussion forum.
Lesson 12: Race and Crime in the Twenty-first Century
Readings:

 

  • Kevin Beaver, et. al., No evidence of racial discrimination in criminal justice processing: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Personality and Individual Differences 55 (2013) 29-34. This reading is available through electronic reserve in the Library.
Assignments:
  • Participate in the Criminal Justice System discussion forum, after reading  the Beaver et al. article.
Exam 3
Assignments:

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  • Complete Exam 3 (covers Lessons 9-12)

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