Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: No Exam

This course will examine policing and mass incarceration in the contemporary United States. The first half of the course will explore policing, considering how the modern police emerged, whether police reduce crime, and why police violence persists. The second half of the course will turn to mass incarceration, examining how the U.S. came to incarcerate people at a greater rate than any other nation, along with the individual and social consequences of incarceration. For both policing and mass incarceration, we will devote significant focus to the prospects for reform.

Readings will include scholarship from law, sociology, political science, and criminology, as well as journalistic and policy-focused accounts.