| CRIMINOLOGY WEEKLY SCHEDULE -- PART 1 (schedule, assignments, and links for first exam) Note: Other internet assignments might be added during the semester ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 3 Introduction to the instructor, course, and course website Discussion of two worlds of crime - "crime in the streets" (crimes by poor people) and "crime in the suites" (crimes by rich people, especially corporations). PowerPoint >> You should start reading Corporate Predators this week (study guide) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 10 Historical Perspective on "Street Crime" The reading for this week lays out some of the social context of how "street crime" has evolved with the transition from agricultural to industrial societies. In order to understand this, it is useful to look at how social structure and social control have changed, how sectors of the work force changed (and how this changes the lives of millions of people), how the current globalization of the economy is changing job opportunities, especially for the poorer classes (jobs with livable wages are the only alternative to "illegal economies" and crime), how the US class system has changed and how it is reproduced, and how all of this relates to the "bottom half" of the US population being trapped in a downward economic spiral that sustains high rates of crime and violence. >> Read: Historical Perspective PowerPoint ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 17 Street Crime in America Peter Linebaugh's The London Hanged, published in 1992 but already a classic, describes the desperation of early town workers and surplus populations in an era when there were not enough jobs, pay was far too low to live on, and many people were faced with the choice of starving (literally!), or "risking the hanging tree at Tyburn" by committing petty crimes in order to survive for another day. This is also a metaphor for the enduring dilemma of the young poor in modern class societies like ours - the irrational response to the impossible dilemma. The reading for this week includes a brief history/overview of "street crime" (crimes by poor people) in Europe and America, the types of crimes committed, and the perspectives that "street criminals" have on their own relationship to law, crime, and society. >> Read: Street Crime in America PowerPoint Review of The London Hanged ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 24 Corporate Crime in America Paul's Justice Page is posted and maintained by Professor Paul Leighton of Eastern Michigan University, and deals mostly with corporate crime. Be sure to check out the cartoon section, mostly about Enron - one of the latest corporate predator scandals. The reading for this week includes a brief history/overview of corporate crime in America, and the response (or lack of response!) by criminologists to this problem. Corporate crime costs much more money than street crime and kills and injures many more people each year than street crime. Practice Exam >> Read: Corporate Crime PowerPoint Browse Paul's Justice Page Finish Corporate Predators ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 1 Review and first exam ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |