SYLLABUS SOCI/CRJU/WMST 3336: Women, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System Dr. Allison Foley, PhD Summer 2015 Full Term Online Course

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1 SYLLABUS SOCI/CRJU/WMST 3336: Women, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System Dr. Allison Foley, PhD Summer 2015 Full Term Online Course In person: Phone: CONTACT INFORMATION: Office Allgood Hall Room N229 Office Hours: M 1-4pm and by appointment (direct line; no voic ) (Sociology department) REQUIRED READING 1.) Mallicoat, Stacy L. and Ireland, Connie Estrada. (2013). Women and Crime: The Essentials. 2.) Miller, Jody. (2001). One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender. 3.) Additional readings will be assigned to supplement the text. These readings will be provided for you electronically and, when possible, in hard copy format. ACCESSING COURSE MATERIALS ONLINE Because this is online course, you ABSOLUTELY MUST have consistent access to the internet and you must check D2L and your university on a regular basis (at least every other day). Within the first week of class, make sure you have no problems accessing D2L and each of its components: Discussion, Grades, Quizzes, Dropbox, Content, Calendar. You MUST be able to download the Respondus browser for quizzes. If you have issues, you can me assignments during the first week, but you MUST contact ITS who handles the actual access issues. However, if you cannot pull up a document once you re in the system, always try another browser or another computer, restart the computer, or update the computer s version of Adobe Reader. COURSE GOALS Learning Outcomes: Understand the historical and socio-cultural construction of gender and how it influences agency and disempowerment Understand the varieties of feminism and feminist activism and how they connect to feminist-criminological theory and scholarship. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of core criminological concepts Demonstrate knowledge of historical, philosophical, and contemporary issues relevant to the operation of the criminal justice system Explain how gender influences offending and careers in the criminal justice system Understand the debate about gender differences in offending, its causes and its consequences

2 COURSE DESCRIPTION There are many ways to approach a topic such as Women, Crime, and Criminal Justice. You may be asking yourself why we are studying women in particular here. The answer to this question, in brief, is that the study of crime and criminal justice has, throughout history, focused overwhelmingly on males. To best understand women s experiences with crime and the criminal justice system, primarily as offenders and workers, we need to approach our study with recognition of historical inequalities between men and women. This is why we will explore the field of feminist criminology. This does not mean we will solely focus on feminist perspectives; we will consider others as well. Neither does this mean that you need to identify as a feminist to take this course. Your views on feminism are your own; I hope only to show you that feminism is broader and more complex and varied than most people think. This also does not mean that the answer to the question of why women have been historically overlooked in criminology is, All men are worthless pigs! or something to that effect. That is not what feminism is don t let anyone tell you otherwise. In reality, there are a number of possible explanations for the oversight of women, just as there are a number of different types of feminisms. We will begin our course by briefly considering these topics and by defining both gender and feminism. We will then move to examine how gender shapes women s experiences in the criminal justice system specifically. We will focus on how women experience structural and cultural pressures and how their lives reflect a gendered world. This gendered world can be oppressive and victimizing it can restrict women s choices, suppress their desires, and/or operate in ways that allow them to become victims of violence and abuse but that does not mean that women are pure victims of their circumstances who are completely unable to choose their own actions and make their own rational choices. As sociologists, we want to examine how social forces constrain the free will of individuals. This does not necessarily imply that women are always worse off than men, just as it does not imply that women always have it easier than men. We do not need to constantly pit women and men against one another either in or outside the classroom, as this encourages a less-than-productive battle of the sexes. To progress, we need to get beyond this. Gender norms constrain the free will of men as well. While there are similarities between men s and women s experiences with crime (which we will consider), there are many differences. Additionally, there are a number of other social factors (such as race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality) that shape the way each of us experiences the world. At times we will examine these intersections, recognizing that women of different races/classes/sexualities experience the world in different ways. Overall, though, the goal of this course is to develop an understanding of how women as a whole are impacted by a criminal justice system that was constructed by a patriarchal society characterized by gender inequality. One final comment: the battle of the sexes I referred to earlier can play out in real life in ways that lead to heated debate. Given the sometimes-sensitive nature of the topics of this course, I want to encourage each of you to think about what you say before you say it. There is a respectful, thoughtful way to express your opinion or to raise questions that some might interpret to be offensive. Respect is of upmost importance in the discussions in this class. 2

3 Teaching Method: To inspire and engage students, you can expect me to approach this class with enthusiasm and a willingness to keep the [online] floor open for discussion. I prefer an interactive classroom and like to pose questions. The assignments and discussions you do will reflect that. You can also expect me to provide clear expectations and to expect more from you than to summarize and memorize course material. I expect you to synthesize that which you learn from different parts of the course and to apply that knowledge in new contexts. With these expectations, I challenge you to develop and exercise your sociological and criminological imaginations to consider the role of social, historical, and structural factors as significant explanations for human behavior and the relationship between individuals and society. GENERAL COURSE EXPECTATIONS: RESPECT: Be respectful to your professor and to your fellow students. This is required in order to receive full participation/engagement points for this course. To determine part of your grade in this area, I will consider your adherence to the following rules: Participate in online discussions in a constructive, collaborative manner. Ask questions of clarification or that express curiosity. ENGAGE that person or persons in discussion. Do not criticize, demean, outright disrespect or anyone else. There is a respectful way to disagree with people or to point out errors or omissions in a person s argument or claims. I expect you to work on this throughout the semester. Hateful speech and trolling will not be tolerated under any circumstances whatsoever. It is my right to remove disruptive students from the brick-and-mortar classroom and that right extends to the virtual classroom as well. Do not dominate conversation I want to hear from everyone in the classroom, and so does everyone else. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Students must also adhere to the GRU Honor Code, ( which specifically prohibits lying, cheating, stealing, and plagiarism. Plagiarism, according to the GRU Honor Code constitutes an intentional act of verbatim repetition, borrowing, or paraphrasing the work of another without [PROPERLY] crediting the source of material with the intent of gaining an unfair advantage. Students caught plagiarizing in this class will suffer AT MINIMUM a zero for the assignment and AT MAXIMUM a zero for the course and referral to the Dean for expulsion. Plagiarism is also: Turning in a paper purchased or otherwise acquired from paper mills and the like; turning in another student's work with or without that student's knowledge; copying any part of your paper from a source without proper in-text citations; paraphrasing materials from a source without proper in-text citations; COPYING MATERIALS FROM A SOURCE TEXT AND UTILIZING IN-TEXT CITATIONS, BUT LEAVING OUT QUOTATION MARKS. Be proactive and empower yourself on the meaning of plagiarism. Seek assistance from quality resources to help you understand citations and to write well. Here are the best sources! 3

4 ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR LEARNING: Technical Support: Students should contact staff members at the Reese Library for assistance in securing scholarly sources for assignments or papers that require them. Students who need assistance in improving their technical writing should contact staff members at the Writing Center. It is in UHall 235. Call or contact Student Needs: Students with disabilities should have equal access to education and equal opportunities within it. If you have a disability that requires assistance, I am happy to accommodate your needs. In order to do so, you should contact GRU Testing and Disability Services within the first two weeks of class. TDS is located in Galloway Hall. Call , tds@gru.edu, or visit for more information. COURSE GRADING POLICIES LATE POLICY: I do not give full credit for late work unless you provide DOCUMENTATION of a LEGITIMATE EXCUSE for your not completing your work on time. Legitimate excuses include: illnesses, hospitalizations, observance of religious holidays, university-related absences (due to sports travel, etc.), and work or family emergencies. Documentation includes: A note from a doctor, a religious leader, a coach, a supervisor/boss, a family member (or funeral program or announcement in the newspaper), etc. If I receive your late work but do not receive documentation of a legitimate excuse, half a letter grade will be deducted from your final score for each day it is late. This equates to a 5% deduction per day. I WILL NOT GRADE YOUR ASSIGNMENT IF IT IS OVER 5 DAYS LATE unless you notified me ahead of time about your situation AND ALSO rescheduled the due date with me IN WRITING/ELECTRONICALLY. COMPONENTS OF YOUR GRADE (450 Points Total): DISCUSSIONS (15 points a piece; 150 points total): Discussions are a major part of this online course. There are eleven discussions scheduled but you will only be graded on 10 of them. You can miss one, in other words, with no penalty. If you do them all, you can receive extra credit. QUIZZES AND SURVEYS (50 Points Total): Some of the course content is less conducive to discussion but still very critical to know and understand. There will be quizzes over this content. Four are scheduled and you will need to take each of them. They re worth 10 points a piece. They will help you prepare for the Exams. The rest of the points here will go towards brief surveys I will send out for various purposes. Surveys have no right or wrong answers, so don t sweat them. They ll help shape Discussion and my lectures, and help with our research projects. EXAMS: There will be three exams over the course of the term. Each are worth 50 points for a total of 150 points going towards exams. They are like take home exams that consist of short answer and essay questions. You ll see them on the course calendar. I ll provide you with them well in advance of their due dates so you can work on them throughout the unit. 4

5 RESEARCH PAPER (100 points): Typically in this class, students have the option of doing this research paper over either (A) women who work in the criminal justice system or (B) a media content analysis. For Option A, you conduct informal qualitative interviews with women who work in the criminal justice system and compare and contrast what they had to say to what the scholarly literature tells us about their career fields. For Option B, you carefully and critically watch a good chunk of a television program and analyze it to determine the accuracy of its depictions of female offenders or workers (or you analyze it according to a different research question you set forth). This summer, I want to edit those options a little bit by either adding in the option of a group project or two. Or more, if there is interest. One of the surveys I send out will be related to this. I say this is a group project but, really, we would split the work up in a very systematic and structured way that would allow for a better, bigger content analysis of media that we could even get published. I m thinking Orange is the New Black, Wentworth, made-for-tv prison documentaries (Lockdown, Locked Up, Jail, etc.) you ll hear more from me about this very soon and I ll post updated prompts at this time. Meanwhile, you can find the usual prompts for both options at the very end of the syllabus. GRADE DISPUTES: Please keep all returned work in the event that you have a grade dispute at the end of the term. PLEASE NOTE: Incompletes will not be given to students who do not complete any coursework. It is your responsibility to initiate the proceedings to Withdraw I will not do this for you. After the deadline, per university policies, you will not be able to withdraw unless you have completed some coursework and unless you have extenuating circumstances. 5

6 COURSE CALENDAR Unit and Topic: To Read: To Do: Unit 1 Topic: Introduction to Gender, Feminism, and Feminist Criminology Unit 2 Topic: Women as Workers 1 ) News item on D2L 2) Feminism? Discussion Post Prompt 3) Course Syllabus 4) Weil NYT Reading 5) Lorber Reading 6) Belknap Reading 7) Mallicoat & Ireland Chapters 1-2 1) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 12 pages only 2) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 13 3) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 14 1) Unit 1 Feminism? Discussion Post by Tues. May 19 th at 5pm --Comment on at least two posts on or before Thurs. May 21 st at 5pm 2) Unit 1 XXXY Discussion Post (includes watching XXXY Video) and comments on or before Thursday, May 26th. 3) Unit 1 Pink in Prison Discussion Post on or before Tues. May 26 th. --Comment on at least two posts on or before Thurs. May 28 th. 1) Unit 2 Historical and International Places and Figures Discussion Posting Due on or before Thurs. May 28 th. --Comment on at least two posts on or before Fri May 29th. OTHER Unit 3 Topic: Theories of Female Offending AND Girls in the Juvenile Justice System OTHER Unit 1 and 2 Exam Released upon completion of Unit 1 Discussions 1) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 4 2) Pathways to Jail Reading on D2L 3) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 8 Unit 3 Exam Released at beginning of Unit Complete exam, which will consist of short answer and essay questions, and upload to the appropriate D2L Dropbox on Thurs. June 4 th. 1) Unit 3 Girlhood Discussion Post (includes watching Girlhood documentary film in Unit 3 Videos and Links) on or before Tues. June 9 th. --Comment on at least two posts on or before Thurs. June 11 th. 2) Complete Unit 3 Theory Quiz on Fri. June 12 th. 3) Complete Unit 3 Juvenile Justice Quiz on Tues. June 16 th. Complete exam, which will consist of short answer and essay questions, and upload to D2L Dropbox on Friday, June 19 th 6

7 Unit 4 Topic: Gang Girls OTHER Unit 5 Topic: Capital Punishment and Imprisonment OTHER 1) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 10 pg ) Jody Miller Book Unit 4 Exam Released at beginning of Unit 1) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 10 pg ) Mallicoat & Ireland Ch 12 RESEARCH PROJECT WEEK: JULY 20 TH -JULY 24 th 1) Complete Miller Chapter 1 Quiz on Tuesday, June 23 rd. 2) Unit 4 Studying and Getting into Gangs Discussion Posting due on Thursday, June 25 th. The prompt will allow you to choose either Chapter 2 or 3 to write about. 3) Unit 4 Columbus or St. Louis Discussion Posting due on Tuesday, June 30 th. The prompt will allow you to choose either Chapter 4 or 5 to write about. 4) Unit 4 Delinquency and Victimization Discussion Posting due on Thursday, July 2 nd. The prompt will allow you to choose either Chapter 6 or 7 to write about. 5) Complete Chapter 8 Quiz and Chapter 8 Discussion between July 6 th and July 7 th. Complete exam, which will consist of short answer and essay questions, and upload to the appropriate D2L Dropbox on Friday, July 10th. 1) Unit 5 Death Row Women Discussion Posting on or before Tuesday, July 14 th 2) Unit 5 Women and Prison Discussion Posting on or before Thursday, July 16 th SCHEDULE DETAILS TO BE DETERMINED 7

8 Research Paper Prompts Samples To be Updated with New or Modified Options You have two options for this assignment. Assignments should be typed using double-spacing and 12-point font with standard formatting and should be around 5-6 pages in length. When you reference a course reading, you should cite that reading using in-text citations in APA format. By reference, I mean when you refer to research findings in a particular reading or a concept or theory that is discussed in that reading. If you use a direct quote (more than 5 words, generally speaking), you must utilize quotation marks in addition to in-text citations in APA format. You do not need to submit a references/works cited page unless you utilize sources other than the course material. o Option 1: Women s Work Interviews For this assignment, you will conduct an informal interview with two different women who work in the criminal justice system or in a very closely related field (i.e. she works with criminal offenders in some capacity). You should anticipate each interview to last 45 minutes to an hour and it is important to stress to this person that the information gathered will only be used for a class assignment this is not formal research. That being said, you should still approach the writing of this assignment with formality in mind. Remember, you should formulate a research question and think of the content of the interview as being comprised of data that you re analyzing to determine the answer to your research question. Your goal is to get a sense from this person of (a) what their agency does, (b) what role they serve in that agency, and (c) how gender influences the work. To get at this last point, you could ask questions along the lines of As a woman, what kind of advice would you give to women who aspire to your career? How about for men? or How does gender influence your work? or How are the females that you work with different from the males or even! What has your experience been with transgender clients or offenders (Although I suspect most people won t have too much to talk about on this front!). You can discuss gender as it relates to the gender of the offenders or victims and as it relates to the worker and/or her colleagues. You will draft your own set of interview questions and provide me with a copy of them with the assignment itself. For verification purposes, submit your notes of the interview along with the assignment. This will allow for the identity of the individual to be withheld if they would prefer to keep it that way. You should then write a paper that includes an introduction, lit review that summarizes existing research as discussed in our course readings, a very brief methods section, a summary of the interview as your results/findings section, and then a reflection on it to tell me your overall thoughts about the job and career field, and compare and contrast their experience to that which is described in the course material. To do the latter, you must summarize what the course material says about the career field itself. o Option 2: Media Analysis For this assignment, you will conduct a critical media analysis of at least FOUR HOURS worth of a television program that features women working in the criminal justice system OR female offenders. Generally, you will discuss the depiction of women (the work they do, what causes their offending, what the consequences of their offending are, etc.) and compare and contrast these depictions to what the course material reports. To critically analyze these depictions, 8

9 you DON T just summarize the media/episodes. You should think very carefully about the way women are portrayed. What words are used to describe them? What are they shown doing or experiencing? Are they portrayed as conforming or transcending gender roles? As being empowered or disempowered? Is their portrayal accurate, when compared to scholarly literature? (To do this, you must summarize what the scholarly literature says, as discussed in our course material.) You should formulate a research question and think of the content of the television program as containing data that you re analyzing to determine the answer to your research question. You should then write a paper that includes an introduction, lit review that summarizes the existing scholarly literature on the topic (as discussed in our course readings), a brief methods section where you describe the media/program itself and how you analyzed it, a results/findings section, and then a discussion section where you compare and contrast the media depictions to that which is described in the course material. 9