Syllabus

PLS 494 01 (Seminar in American Politics: Race and Crime in America) Fall 2015

Instructor: Craig Curtis (Bradley Hall, room 426B) ph. 677-2492; e-mail: rcc@fsmail.bradley.edu.

Course meeting times: Monday and Wednesday, 3:00 to 4:15 pm, Bradley Hall, room 220

Instructor office hours: Monday: 8 to 10 am; 2 to 3 pm, Tuesday: 8 to 10 am, Wednesday, 2 to 3 pm, Thursday: 1:30 to 3 pm.

Required Texts: Michelle Alexander (2012) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness. New York: The New Press. ISBN: 978-1595586438

Epp, Charles R., Steven Maynard-Moody, and Donald P. Haider-Markel. 2014. Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226113999

Marie Gottschalk. 2015. Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691164052

Additional Readings will be posted on Sakai or as hyperlinks in the syllabus itself. Students leading discussions can add readings by sending a request to Dr. Curtis along with the link or pdf files to be posted.

Course Description: This course will examine the startling disparate outcomes by race in our criminal justice system. We will consider the argument that these outcomes are effectively a new form of racism in our society, but not without a critical look at the data. We will begin with an examination of one of the most celebrated books on this topic in which Law Professor Michele Alexander calls our criminal justice system the “New Jim Crow.” We will also read some of the classic articles on racial profiling, read a book on investigatory stops that is data based and highly critical of the tactic. Lastly, we will read one of the best books written, in my view, on the phenomenon of our policy of mass incarceration. We will also hear from you as you report the results of your own research on a topic related to the course.

This course is a senior seminar. As such, it is designed along the lines of a graduate seminar. The purpose is to master advanced material on race and crime in an interactive learning environment. Collaboration is strongly encouraged, except, of course, that you should not copy each other’s essays. There will be few formal lectures, no midterm tests, or final exams. It is assumed that you have read and understood assigned materials, although you are strongly encouraged to ask questions. The grade will be based on three review essays, a research paper on a topic of your choosing, and on your in-class work, including a report of your research.

Because the learning process is interactive, class participation is essential for the seminar to work. Each of you will be responsible for themselves, but also responsible to each of your peers. You must come to class and must be current with your reading assignments. You must prepare conscientiously when it is your turn to lead the discussion. The material is advanced and may be unfamiliar to some of you. As such, the reading will be difficult at times and will require careful attention. Sometimes you will not understand the reading before you get to class, but you will likely understand it by the end of class that day. Come see us if you are having problems. If, for some reason, you were not able to read the assignment before class, please let me know before class so that I will not call on you that day. There will be no repercussions for occasionally telling us that you are not prepared; however, repeated instances of unpreparedness will result in poor class participation marks.

Grading: The final grade will be based on the following:

1) 3 review essays (approximately 3 to 5 printed pages each), each worth 15% of the final grade.

2) 1 carefully researched paper on a topic of your choosing (the topic will need to be approved and must be related to the class subject) of about 8 to 12 pages in length, worth 25% of the grade

3) A day in which you will lead the discussion, having primary responsibility for the presentation of the reading material for that day, worth 10% of the grade. I will circulate a sign-up sheet.

4) A day near the end of the semester in which you present your research, worth 10% of the grade.

5) The final 10% will come from your daily contributions to the class discussion. As such, I will take note of attendance.

The final letter grade will be on the following scale:

A = 90-100% B= 80-89% C= 70-79% D= 60-69% F= Below 60%

Class Policies: The nature of this class makes us all very interdependent. If you don’t do the work, all of your classmates are adversely affected as a consequence.

The due dates for the papers as listed on the syllabus are important to me. Essays are due on the date specified. Late essays will be penalized at the rate of 10% of the grade per day. Please follow smart computer procedures — back up your work frequently. It is the responsibility of the student to keep files containing the essays. Due dates are subject to change if the needs of the class so indicate; any changes will be made by the instructor in consultation with the class. I assume that you have language skills commensurate with your educational level. Therefore, I will treat poor usage and grammar as evidence of lack of effort, and will grade the essays accordingly.

All assignments will be turned in electronically using the assignments function of Sakai. We will be using turnitin, which means that the assignments must be turned in as a single computer file. You can use doc, docx, rtf, htm, pdf, or text files. I prefer doc or docx files. I expect you to fully cite all sources and to use American Political Science Association citation style. A pdf copy of the APSA style manual is posted under Resources in Sakai.

Course Outline

Overview: The class is broken into four sections: 1) racial disparities in our criminal justice system as a “New Jim Crow.” 2) an examination of the investigatory traffic stop; 3) an exploration of the concept of mass incarceration and of the U.S. as a “carceral state;” and, 6) presentation of your research.

August 26^th- Introduction and Housekeeping Chores – why are the police killing so many young black men in America? Readings -- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32740523 - Why do US police keep killing unarmed black men?, https://www.aclu.org/blog-feed/ferguson-and-beyond aclu page with blog entries, and https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/walter-scotts-killing-direct-result-current-state-policing-america-today.

August 31^st and September 2^nd Tuesday, What is meant by the term “Jim Crow,” Alexander, Introduction and Chapter 1; Thursday, The Lockdown, Alexander, Chapter 2, and a visit from the Career Center

September 7^th and 9^th – Tuesday, Alexander, Chapter 3, McClesky v. Kemp, the use of social science evidence in court; Thursday, The Cruel Hand, Alexander, Chapter 4, NPR Series, guilty and charged, http://www.npr.org/series/313986316/guilty-and-charged.

September 14^th and 16^th – Tuesday, The link between the CJ system and larger social factors, Alexander, Chapter 5; Thursday, Final thoughts on the New Jim Crow, Alexander, Chapter 6, Tolan v. Cotton.

First review essay due on Friday, September 18^th at 5 pm

September 21^st and 23^rd -- Tuesday, classics of racial profiling – David Harris, “Driving While Black,” “The Stories, the Statistics,” Engel, Calnon, and Bernard, “Theory_Racial_Profiling,” and, Engel and Calnon, “Examining_Influence_Drivers_Characteristics,” Thursday, Start Pulled Over, Chapters 1 and 2.

Research topics due on September 25th

September 28^th and 30^th -- Tuesday, Officer discretion and victim experiences, Pulled Over, Chapters 3 and 4. Thursday, How investigatory or pretextual stops work, Pulled Over, chapter 5, Whren v. United States.

October 5^th and 7^th - Tuesday, The cops aren’t prejudiced, so why does this happen? Pulled Over, Chapter 6 and 7, Thursday, So what do we do about this? Pulled Over, Chapter 8.

October 14^th – Juvenile Justice, Miller v. Alabama, Sentencing Project, “Disproportionate Minority Contact,” and https://www.aclu.org/blog/awareness-school-prison-pipeline-rises-some-schools-rethink-role-police.

Second review essay due on October 16^th at 5:00 pm

October 19^th and 21^st - Tuesday, The Lockdown of American Politics, Caught, Chapter 1, Thursday, Political Economy and Penal Reform, Caught, Chapters 2 and 3.

Annotated bibliography for research papers due on October 23^rd

October 26^th and 28^th – Tuesday, Reentry and Reinvestment, Caught, Chapters 4 and 5.

November 2^nd and 4^th – Tuesday, Was Alexander right? Caught, Chapters 6 and 7, Thursday, the No, Non, Nons, Caught, Chapter 8.

November 9^th and 11^th – Tuesday, Sex Offenders and Immigrants, Caught, Chapters 9 and 10. What do we do about it? Caught, Chapters 11 and 12.

Third Review Essay due November 13^th at 5:00 pm

November 16^th and 18^th – student presentations

Rough drafts of Research papers due November 20^th at 5 pm.

November 23^rd student presentations

December 2^nd and 4^th – student presentations

Final draft of research paper due Thursday, December 10, 2015, at 2:00 pm.

Review Essay Topics: You must write a 3 to 5 page essay, complete with full citation of sources, if any outside of the assigned text are used, on each of the following prompts. You may rewrite the first essay after I provide feedback. The second and third essays will be final when submitted. Please use APSA citation style – a copy of the APSA Style Manual is posted under “resources” on Sakai.

1. Whenever a major policy problem is viewed through the lens of race, white conservatives in America often decry such efforts as just another in a series of attempts to demonize whites for things done many generations ago. How do you convince a Republican Party primary voter that Michelle Alexander has a point? (Due date: September 18^th, 5:00 pm. Optional rewrites are due one week after their return by the instructor.)

2. The Authors of Pulled Over go to great lengths to argue that even if the police are not racists, and very few are overtly racist, that the investigatory stop is a major problem in the United States, with huge negatives in terms of police effectiveness and as well as unacceptable racial disparities and damage to our democracy. How do you convince a police officer who has likely bought heavily into the argument that investigatory stops are effective law enforcement tools, to change their discretionary behavior while on patrol? (Due date: October 16^th, 5:00 pm)

3. Marie Gottschalk attempts to be as thorough as possible in basing her argument in both the concepts of political economy as well as more conventional political science analysis. Thus, the book is not just about crime. It is about our larger political system. To what extent can you take this kind of work and use it as a model for the analysis of other policy problems in the United States? Please make sure you provide illustrative examples. (Due date: November 13^th, 5:00 pm)

Research Paper: As a significant part of the grade, you will need to do a thorough job of research on a topic of your choosing (subject to my approval), and produce a research paper of approximately 10 pages. The deadlines are listed in the course outline. You are required to use APSA citation style – the APSA Style Manual appears under resources in Sakai.

The purpose of the paper is for you to become an expert in some aspect of our criminal justice system as it relates to race. Potential topics includes the use of deadly force, capital punishment, the effectiveness of appointed attorneys, the effects of diversity among police officers, the effects of women on patrol, the impact of quality of life policing, the future of immigration enforcement, as well as many others. Your research should identify your thesis clearly, lay out the relevant social science theories, and posit and defend potential policy solutions to the problem that prompted you to do the research. There is a grading rubric posted as part of this assignment. Please use that to guide your research effort.