The History of American Criminal Justice offers an introduction to the historical study of crime, criminal law, and criminal justice in the United States from colonial times to the present. It highlights changes in criminal behavior and in the ways Americans have sought to define and deter crime and to punish and/or rehabilitate criminals.

Primary topics include:

• historical patterns of violence

• the role and organization of the police

• the evolution of punishment in theory and practice.

This course emphasizes differences in crime and punishment by:

• Region

• Class

• Race & Ethnicity

• Gender

• Age

Topics will include riots, homicide, sexual assaults, capital punishment, organized crime, the drug trade, gangs, prisons, policing, jurisprudence, and official violence.