SOCI 190 - Criminal Behavior/Social Control

The use of imprisonment as a form of criminal punishment is only about as old at the United States. By 2003, nearly 7 million people in the United States were under correctional supervision. How should we understand the growth of this form of criminal punishment? In what ways is it similar to other methods to react to and to attempt to control unwanted behavior? What are the social impacts of these formal institutions of social control? What insights can a sociological approach offer on these questions? In this course, we examine these developments in the processes and organization of social control, with particular attention to how formal institutions of social control compare to informal social control. We study and evaluate sociological theories of criminal behavior to understand how social forces influence levels of crimes. We examine recent policies and their connections to inequality along with the processes that lead to criminalization, to determine if there is a political nature to crime control. Finally, we compare the development of formal, bureaucratic systems of social control and informal methods of social control, paying attention to the social and political implications of these developments. Alternate years. (4 Credits)