The Politics of Crime and Punishment

Why has the U.S. witnessed the rapid rise in mass incarceration? What roles have politicians, judges, prosecutors, and voters played in the astonishing growth in the incarceration rate over the past 40 years? What explains the racial disparities that exist in prosecutions and sentence length? This course will examine these and other questions related to crime and punishment by introducing students to historical and current debates surrounding the politics of criminal justice, criminal law, and state punishment. The course will emphasize cutting-edge research on crime and punishment in the social sciences, particularly political science.