POLI 3446

This course explores the relations between politics and criminal justice, with attention to how political approaches to crime are instrumental to the racial and socio-economic hierarchies and systemic discrimination that structure social relations. It addresses why crime continues to be a major political issue, nationally and internationally, and how various approaches to its control materially effect particular social groups. The course will also cover influential theoretical works and critical analyses of a range of topics, including criminality and punishment; law enforcement and police violence; restorative vs retributive justice; racial profiling; criminalization of poverty; mass-incarceration; and the over-representation of Black and Indigenous peoples in the prison system.