Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP - Archives

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: February 3, 2005
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 352: Law and Social Change

You will be held accountable for purposes of grading for the readings and exercises listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

* * * * *

Week 4: Week of February 6, 2005

Topic: Marxist Criminology/Socialist Feminism

Special Announcement:

Preparatory Readings:

• Arrigo. Social Justice/Criminal Justice, Chapters 1 and 2.
• Mann and Zatz. Images of Color, Images of Crime, Chapter __.
• Video: __________ (to be shown in class).
  
  

  Lecture related links:

  
  --- Critcrim.org
  --- Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.
  
  
  

  Concepts to be covered:

  
  
  • Karl Marx
  • means of production
  • modes of production
  • infrastructure
  • superstructure
  • alienation
  • exploitation
  • marginalization
  • gender inequality
  • patriarchy
  
  

  Discussion Questions:

  1. What is social justice, according to Marxist criminologists? What is the connection between criminal justice and social justice? (from Arrigo, p. 27, Q.1).

  2. Imagine some of the things you have witnessed in your life that violate your sense of social justice. Discuss these with your classmates in an open forum. (from Arrigo, p. 28, Q.9).

  3. How do socialist feminists explain the criminality of women? (from Arrigo, p. 47, Q.4).

  4. What insights about social justice does a socialist feminist perspective offer? (Arrigo, p. 47, Q.6)
  
  

  Suggested Creative Measures:

  
  
  • Read one of the recommended books listed below on Marxist criminology and/or Socialist Feminism.
  • Examine how a particular setting (i.e., school, work, shopping mall, church) is socially stratified. Who's on top? Who's on the bottom? Why.
  • Trace the status and role of women. Did the laws relating to women cause social change or did social change cause the laws to change the status of women? Why.
    
    
  • Note: All creative measures: 1) Must relate to "law and social change." 2) Must be pre-approved. 3) Cannot be something that you are doing for another course. 4) Research cannot be 100% online (i.e., google, askjeeves). Must conduct library research using scholarly works, (not the popular press -- Time Magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated).
  
  

  Recommended Readings:

  
  
  • Jeffrey Reiman. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison.
  • Anthony Platt. The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.
  • M.J. Lynch & W.B. Groves. Primer in Radical Criminology.
  • R. Michalowski. Order, Law and Crime.
  • Freda Adler. Sisters in Crime.
  • A. Davis. Women, Race and Class.
  • Catherine MacKinnon. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State.
  • J. Messerschmidt. Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Crime.
  • Nicole Rafter and E. Stanko. Judge Lawyer Victim Thief: Women, Gender Roles and Criminal Justice.
  • I. Young. Justice and the Politics of Difference.
    
    
  • Jurgen Habermas. Between Facts and Norms.
  • Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion and American Law.

• Course Syllabus
  
  
• Links to the Sociology of Law Handbook readings
  -- Introduction
  -- Chapter 1, part 1
  -- Chapter 1, part 2
  -- Chapter 2

takata@uwp.edu