This course will examine relationships between structural elements and the nature of crime, especially in terms of how these elements affect both the definitions of behaviors as criminal a well as how society responds to them. More specifically, this course will examine the nature of social order and social controls—laws defining behaviors as criminal—in terms of how complex social structures and processes—social forces—produce this order/control, thus defining specific behaviors as contrary to such order, labeling them crimes. Crime can thus be seen as a function of which particular structures exist and impact these definitions. Thus what is a crime depends on "whose" law and "what" order is established by and through what particular social structures and social forces operate. Power, control, and vested interests, as institutionalized in our social structures in stratification systems, contribute significantly to this process. Structured inequalities illustrated in class, racial, ethnic, and gender differences, and categorically defined as such, further indicate how critical social forces are in determining the nature of crime in society, and in governing society's responses to it.

Clearly, significant social forces operate as definitional and respondent characteristics in criminal behaviors. Sociology 390 Crime and Society will essentially capture, demonstrate, and share the nature and impact of these forces with all the students enrolled in this class.

Text: The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, by Jeffrey Reiman, Allyn & Bacon, 6^th Ed., 2000.