EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology

CRM/WMST 592: Race, Gender & Crime

Winter 2002, T 4:00 – 6:40, 715 PH
Dr P. S. Leighton
Office: 712 Pray Harrold, x 0012     Hours: Tues 3:15 – 4:00, Th 12:45 – 2:00 & by appointment. Please feel free to approach me & ask a question when I am in the Mudd House coffee shop

DESCRIPTION: The seminar will examine class, race, and gender ( and their intersections) to understand problems of crime, punishment and liberty in the US. Readings will provide an interdisciplinary context about class, race and gender, to prepare students for studying how these factors affect law making, the development of criminological theory and the administration of justice (including victimization patterns, policing, judicial processing, punishment, and media images).  Some required readings and assignments will be from the internet, so students should have internet access or be prepared to use EMU's computer labs.  

The required readings are meant to create some foundation of common knowledge and the regular papers are to help ensure that discussions maximize the limited time available to study the topic.  Seminar participants are encouraged to share their experiences and additional knowledge.  Everyone has a role as co-teacher and it is expected that much of the learning will be from your peers.  

REQUIRED BOOKS:
Scott Christianson, With Liberty for Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America Northeastern University Press 1998 1555534686
Gregg Barak, Jeanne Flavin & Paul Leighton, Class, Race, Gender & Crime: Social Realities of Justice in America. Roxbury 2001. 1891487345.   
Margaret Anderson and Patricia Hill Collins, Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology (4th ed) Wadsworth 2001. 0534568890.
Additional required materials will come from internet readings. Although these are free, they are an important part of the course content and are not optional (except where noted). 

REQUIREMENTS
50% Attendance, weekly papers and internet based papers
15% Participation
35% for a 15 page term paper 

Regular weekly papers should be 2-3 typewritten pages that contains two or three of the quotes from the reading you found most provocative along with several sentences of commentary about why that quote that interested you.  The narrative with the quote can also include any questions you had as you were reading.  Please DO NOT SUMMARIZE the readings – find passages or themes in the readings and comment on them. 
The idea of this paper is to ensure students have done the reading and some level of reflection on it as preparation for class.  Thus, it is important to have them ready at the start of class and turn them in ON TIME.  I will not accept papers as email attachments; if you cannot be present, please put them into my mailbox or FAX them to the department (487-7010). As the quality of this seminar rests on participation and everyone is expected to be a co-teacher, attendance is crucial.  In addition, the syllabus mentions short papers based on internet sites or searches. These are in addition to, not instead of, the papers based on the reading. 

The term paper is a research paper with two options. Either one should be about 15 pages and is due the last day of class. Paper should cite B, F & L, and they should also cite at least one article from A & HC. These are minimums and your paper should include additional citations beyond these two. 
	OPTION 1: Class, Race & Gender. Pick an article, piece of research or narrative of interest to you. In the first part of the paper, briefly summarize the reading you have chosen. Then, in subsequent sections of your paper, describe the impact of class, race and gender in the reading you have chosen. See Ch 25 Baca Zinn & Eitzen for a model of how the paper should be structured.
	OPTION 2: Domestic Violence. Describe some basic issues in dealing with domestic violence and battering that seem to apply to all women, regardless of class and race/ethnicity. The describe some of the different issues women face because of their class standing or ethnicity. You must include at least three different groups of women (i.e. upper class, Native American, African American, immigrant, etc). You can start at  the domestic violence section of StopViolence.com, but your paper should also include references to paper sources other than the 2 required readings. 

Education involves not just getting a degree but a search for truth, which requires honesty and personal integrity.  Thus, students at all times will behave in accordance with EMU’s policy on Academic Integrity forbidding such activities as plagiarism, fraud, cheating and knowingly assisting another student who is engaged in one of these acts.  Penalties can affect both your grade in this class and your continued presence at the university. More information on citing internet sources and avoiding plagiarism is from the link on the opening page of http://www.stopviolence.com.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

Circumstances sometimes require flexibility and students are responsible for any departures that are announced in class.

Internet assignments are part of the required reading unless otherwise noted.
  
Internet assignments listed here are for quick reference only.  The complete and ‘official’ versions of the assignment, with working links and additional recommended resources, can be found through http://www.paulsjusticepage.com - look for the EMU info section. 

DATE	REQUIRED READING	This class will be making use of WEB CAUCUS, which is a bulletin-board type discussion forum. CAUCUS will be used to follow up on class discussions, including topics that students want to explore at greater length than we could do in class. It is also helpful for controversial topic, because everyone has the chance to think more about what they want to say and how exactly to phrase it before posting a comment. Use of CAUCUS is not required but will help with your class participation grade. 
Please note - students are still required to attend classes and participate; CAUCUS is not an option for participating instead of coming to class, but is an option IN ADDITION to regular 'real time' class participation. The main WEB CAUCUS page has instructions for registering and I'll be setting up a conference for this class in Jan. 	
Jan 8	Introduction & greeting		
Jan 15	•	Christianson: ch 1-3
•	A & HC: 1-7, 13-21 & ch  3 Jordan		
Jan 22	•	Christianson: 4-5
•	B, F & L: ch 1
•	A & HC: 40 Garvey; 67 Miner; 6 Takaki		
Jan 29	•	Christianson: 6-8
•	A & HC: ch 2 Moraga OR 5 Frye
•	A& HC: 36 Moore	 	
Feb 5	•	B, F & L: Ch 2 p 25-47 
•	A & HC: ch 29 Newman
•	A & HC ch 16 Ehrenreich or 37 Mantisios 	REQUIRED: Go to the Paywatch database - look up both the total salary and total compensation for the CEOs of GM and Ford. In a 1-2 page paper, discuss what system or typology you would use to describe the class system in the US (See B,F & L ch 2 for some ideas). Also, describe your own place in this system. Be sure to distinguish or define white trash, poor, working poor, working class and middle class.  	
Feb 12	•	B, F & L: Ch 2, 48-72 
•	A & HC: ch 30 Vander Staay
•	A & HC: Ch 45 Collins or 13 Langston
•	Read the summaries for ch 1 and 2 of Reiman's The Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Prison	 	
Feb 19	•	A & HC: ch 18 Higginbotham & Weber
•	Read the summaries for ch 3 and 4 of Reiman's The Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Prison
•	Read 2 excerpts from David Korten's When Corporations Rule the World (see the 'sampling of themes' at the bottom of the page). 	 	
Feb 26 	Winter recess 2/25- 3/3	
March 5	•	B, F & L: Ch 3, 73-95
•	A & HC: ch 7 Yamato, 8, McIntosh,12 West, 9 Williams
•	A & HC: ch 11 Ferber or 49 Waters	REQUIRED: Go to WHY "DRIVING WHILE BLACK" MATTERS and read one section. Summarize it in your paper and be prepared to present it to the class.  
OR: Read A & HC 17 Dyson and 61 Anderson
RECOMMENDED: When Is Racial Profiling OK? 	
March 12	•	B, F & L: Ch 3 95-128
•	A & HC: 52 Asfahani
•	Bell, Chronicle of the Space Traders (to be handed out in class)	REQUIRED: Read KOREMATSU v. UNITED STATES and in a page summarize the argument for and against putting Japanese Americans in camps during WWII. We then discuss Bell's Slave Traders essays (where the US give up all the blacks in exchange for gold and a clean environment). Finally we'll discuss Arab fears about what the US would do to them Post Sept 11. Be sure to read the article on Arab's receiving letters from the government to report for questioning. 	
March 19	•	A & HC: ch 4 Gunn Allen, 42 Snipp & 50 Churchill
•	A & HC: ch 57 Takagi or ch 28 Moore	REQUIRED: Go to Indian Trust. Write a 3-4 page paper on what the issue and why the Secretary of the interior has been held in contempt of court.  	
March 26	•	B, F & L: Ch 4, p 129-140
•	A & HC: ch 19 Baca Zinn, 20 Lourde, 22 Le Espiritu, 23 Atkin & Rich, 41 Steinem & 56 Wolf	RECOMMENDED: Jean Kilbourne (Still Killing US Softly) and Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel 	
April 2	•	B, F & L: Ch 4, p 140-185 
•	A & HC: ch 58 Schultz
•	A & HC: Read all 4 of the following, OR read 2 and do the StopViolence.com exercise: 21 Blood, 24 Thompson, 39 Messner, 60 Kokopeli	StopViolence.com has a collection of resources on men working to end violence against women. Visit 2 of the sites listed there and review them in your weekly paper in place of two readings listed in the last bulleted point 	
April 9	•	A & HC: ch 26 Amott, 38 Ortiz Coffer, 53 Schwartz, 59 Davis, 63 Zia	 	
April 16	•	B, F & L: Ch 5
•	A & HC: 25 Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 51 Chan	TURN IN FINAL PAPERS