This course offers an overview of theoretical developments and empirical research in criminology and criminal policy. It will address major defining theoretical tradition and critical empirical test of that theory. It will also offer a critique of the theory or the research generated by it. In addition, it will offer an attempt to translate the theory into policy. The major issues addressed will include introductions, social disorganization, differential association, anomie, and social control theories. The course will stimulate a student’s thinking about questions at the intersection of social science and public policy. These include how we produce our knowledge, its relevance to lives outside the academy (and penitentiary), and the utility of crime theories and criminologists themselves. Such big-picture considerations may help a student to choose the level of abstraction to work with and the contribution one makes as a teacher and researcher of the sociology of crime.
