Sociology and Criminology

M.A. Criminology Courses

REQUIRED COURSES

Advanced Seminar

This course is designed to contribute to students' professional development with a particular focus on writing skills.

Faculty who teach or have taught this course: Dr. Stephen Schneider, Prof. Ashley Carver, Dr. Russell Westhaver, Dr. Diane Crocker, Dr. Evie Tastsoglou

Advanced Theory

Instructor in 2007 - 2008:  Dr. John McMullan

 This seminar course is concerned with examining current themes and debates in criminological and sociological theory. Attention will be given to the influence of critical social theory, postmodernist, and poststructuralist writings for theorizing crime, criminality and other forms of regulation. Students may also be exposed to debates and critical discussions concerning criminology as a body of knowledge, the future of criminology as a discipline

View the syllabus here.

Advanced Research Methodology

Faculty who teach or have taught this course: Dr. Diane Crocker , Dr. Sandra Bell, Dr. Madine VanderPlaat

This seminar course is designed to cover advanced topics, issues and techniques in a range of research methods.  Students will be encouraged to apply a reflexive critique and understand the link between methodology and theory.

View samples of the syllabus for this course here, here and a more recent one here.

Critical Criminology

Critical criminology challenges the dominant paradigms of crime-control, adopting instead a social justice approach to crime. Critical criminologists draw on theoretical perspective that's challenge existing relations of power. In this seminar students will explore central themes of critical criminology including power; the social construction of crime; governance and regulation; the politicization of crime control; and, the significance of gender, race and class. Using these themes, students will probe into specific topics depending on the research expertise of the course instructor. Students will also apply the themes of critical criminology to better understand the issues underlying their chosen thesis research topic.

SEMINARS OFFERED IN PAST YEARS

Theory and Practice of Crime Prevention

Instructor: Dr. Stephen Schneider

Crime prevention has been broadly defined as “the anticipation, recognition, and appraisal of a crime risk and the initiative of some action to remove it”. One rationale underlying crime prevention is that the ‘cops, courts and corrections' approach has been unable to cope with the actual quantity of crime, and, of most relevance to the field of crime prevention fails to address the opportunities and the root causes that give rise to criminal behaviour.

Crime prevention stresses that public safety can no longer remain the exclusive domain of the criminal justice system, but should also be pursued through other state institutions and non-governmental organizations. Most important, the prevention of crime demands the proactive participation of communities and individual citizens, in partnership with police, other government agencies, local businesses, neighbourhood groups, schools, and any other partner with a stake in the community.

Within the last 25 years the popularity of crime prevention theory and practice has reached heights that must surprise even its greatest supporters. The approbation of this field is reflected in the proliferation of crime prevention strategies and programs and the prominence it has assumed in government crime control agendas. This ascension in the popularity of the crime prevention field can be attributed to many factors, including its seemingly common sense approach, it's association with the rarely disparaged notion of ‘community,' or because to many it represents the last salvo in the war against crime.

Crime in the Media

Instructor: Dr. Michele Byers

This graduate seminar special topics course will explore how media texts produce and are produced by a variety of contested discourses about criminality, identity, citizenship, and space.  Focusing primarily on contemporary texts, particularly from film and television, this course will look at the changing landscape of contemporary media production and reception and the political landscape that has underwritten these changes, along with changes in the way we understand things like prisons, policing, violence, victims, democracy, rights, and nation. This course will look at the way various media texts that take criminality as their focal point have in some way tried to grapple with issues of crime, identity, citizenship, and space, and how their ability to do so relates to the particular socio-historical contexts in which they are/were produced.

View the syllabus as a PDF here.

Law in Society

Instructor:  Dr. Val Marie Johnson

This seminar is an interdisciplinary examination of law and legal processes as social institutions inseparable from the context in which they operate. The creation, interpretation, and enforcement of laws occur in connection with historical change, social and cultural norms, and unequal power relations. Using theory, history, government documents, and case law, the course will cover a range of perspectives and issues, and examine law in theory and practice as historically specific manifestations of the social relations around class, gender, sexuality, race and colonialism, citizenship, and nation.

Issues of Corruption

Instructor: Dr. Alfredo Schulte-Bockholt

This seminar is an interdisciplinary study of corruption as a global phenomenon, albeit with an emphasis on Latin America. Designed for students from Criminology, International Development Studies, Political Science, or Sociology, the course explores cultural and historical issues, as well as the existing theoretical literature. Also, participants will study specific manifestations of corruption in various Latin American societies as well as analyze the criminogenic effects of globalization. Finally, students will examine the 'new corruption' that materialized during the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in Peru (1990-2000).

Syllabus pending.

Students may also have the option of taking courses from among the 4000-level courses that we offer each year. Please see the undergraduate calendar for courses.

 


This page last modified Monday, 05-Dec-2011 14:40:42 AST