Time Schedule:
Naomi D Murakawa
POL S 398
Seattle Campus
Intensive and advanced studies in various aspects of political science. Open only to participants in the departmental Honors program.
Class description
Description: Description: The American punishment regime at the end of the twentieth century is vast, internationally anomalous, and marked by extreme racial disparities. The United States currently incarcerates a greater proportion of its citizens than any nation in the world, it is the only western democracy that has retained capital punishment, and most people under criminal-justice supervision are black or Latino. This course explores the purposes, causes, and consequences of America’s distinctively severe punishment regime. We begin by exploring the political purposes of punishment. Some scholars argue that the purpose of punishment is to minimize crime, to honor the social contract, and to maintain order, but other scholars argue the punishment’s purpose resides in social control, the preservation of class hierarchy, and racial domination. We then explore the development of American crime policy and the modern mechanisms of punishment, including the politicization of street crime, the war on drugs, trends in policing, and the death penalty. Finally, we consider the consequences of the American punishment regime, including felon disenfranchisement and the rise of the prison industrial complex, giving particular attention to how these consequences restructure American political inequality.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Texts: Readings will include David Garland, The Culture of Control; David Oshinsky, "Worse Than Slavery": Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice; Bernard Harcourt, Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows Policing; and Franklin Zimring, The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment.
Class assignments and grading
