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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: March 22, 2007
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 385 Media, Crime, Criminal Justice

You will be held accountable for the readings and discussion questions 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 11: Week of March 25, 2007

Topic: Media and Corrections

Preparatory Readings:



• Rafter. Shots in the Mirror. Chapter 6 .
• Surette. Media, Crime and Criminal Justice . Chapter 6.
• Potter and Kappeler. Constructing Crime . entirety.
• Documentary: "---" (to be shown in class).
  
  

Lecture related links:



• Ray Surette's website
• W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
• Metaphor and Theory. The Blind Men and the Elephant fable.
• Join the Yahoo Discussion Group with CSUDH students
  
  




Concepts to be covered:



• jails
• prisons
• probation
• parole
• super max
• the imprisonment binge
• three-strikes policy
• electronic monitoring
• alternatives to incarceration
• community corrections
• smug hack



Discussion Questions:

Note: Be sure to incorporate the documentary, "---" in your answers.

1. Why is bad news about corrections more newsworthy than good news? [Surette, p. 169]

2. Can correctional personnel do anything to significantly change the public image of corrections? [Surette, p. 169]

3. Who is most responsible for the content and nature of news about corrections -- correctional administrators, journalists, news agency administrators, or the public? [Surette, p. 169]

4. How does the media influence correctional policy? Provide an example to better illustrate your point.



Dates and Deadlines




Friday, April 20th - The Final Absolute Deadline.

Friday, May 4th - The Last Day of Class.




Suggested Creative Measures:




Note: Your creative measure/visual presentation: 1) must relate to "media, crime, and the criminal justice system." 2) must be approved via email BEFORE starting. 3) cannot be something that you are doing or have done for another course. 4) research cannot be 100% online (i.e., google, askjeeves). Must conduct a review of the scholarly literature in the library, (not the popular press -- Time Magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated). Go beyond the required readings in this course. YOU MUST CITE YOUR SOURCES that backup your visual presentations. No term papers! 5) Allow time to dialogue and present your creative measure in class (preferably before the deadline).



• Some reference sources that you might find helpful:

  Evaluating Authority
  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. An excellent resource for juvenile justice related issues.
  National Criminal Justice Resource Service. Administered by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
  
  

• Make an "explosion box/card" that focuses on this week's topic, " Corrections."
• Compare real correctional officer duties to the medial portrait of them, similar to the Chapter 4 comparison of media and the street police . [Surette, p. 169]
• Watch Shawshank Redemption and discuss the use of correctional stereotypes. If this film was all someone knew about corrections, what correctional policies would he or she likely support or oppose? [Surette, p. 169]
• Watch crime shows for a week and note how many criminals are also ex-cons. Note how deterrence and rehabilitation are portrayed as likely outcomes of incarceration.
• View one of the following prison movies: "The Birdman of Alcatraz," "Brubaker," "American Me," "Escape from Alcatraz," or another prison movie. Compare and contrast the media construction of the correctional system.
• View one of the following movies focusing on capital punishment: "The Green Mile, " "Dead Man Walking," "The Life of David Gale," "Redemption," or others. Analyze the media's construction of capital punishment.
• Listen to an old-time radio program about crime, criminals and criminal justice. (Every week-night on 780 AM from midnight to 1 a.m. or Sunday evenings on 90.7FM, from 9-11 p.m.) Compare and contrast the radio image of crime and criminal justice with today's television and/or movie images.



Recommended Readings:



• Jennifer Gonnerman. Life on the Outside.
• Michael Santos. Inside.
• Thomas Bernard & Robert Johnson. A Life for a Life.
• Mumia Abu-Jamal. Live from Death Row.
• Jarvis Jay Masters. Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row .
• Kathleen O'Shea. Women on the Row: Revelations from Both Sides of the Bars.
• John Irwin. The Warehouse Prison.
• Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish.
  
  
• Gaye Tuchman. Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality.
• Bernard Goldberg. Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite.
• Bernard Goldberg. Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News.
• Steven Levy. The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness.
• Lawrence Lessig. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford University, has made his book free online.
• Internet Movie Database