P381: The History of Social Control in the U.S.  (3 credits) Spring
2002 

W333: Intensive Writing (P/F)



Course description and requirements:



	In this course, we look at how formal criminal justice
institutions, such as the courts, the police, and prisons, have
changed over time.  Special emphasis is put on the ways in which those
institutions are shaped by the values and concerns of the larger
society. Case studies range from the Salem witch trials of the
seventeenth century to a wave of child abductions in late
nineteenth-century America to the trial of David Berkowitz, also known
as the "Son of Sam," in 1970s New York.



	Four books have been ordered for this course: Paula Fass,
Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America, Karen Halttunen,
Murder Most Foul, Idanna Puzzi, The Trials of Maria
Barbella, and David Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm
and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice.  In addition, we will use
several on-line sites, such as Doug Lindner's "Famous American
Trials."



	Course requires five short papers, plus a midterm and final.
All possible questions for the exams will be handed out in advance but
there will be relatively little choice on the exams themselves.  Both
exams consist exclusively of essay questions.



Course fulfills: COAS Intensive Writing Requirement.


Class meets:  Thursdays, 2:30 - 5:00 p.m., SY 105