Taught By:
Ann Frost
Associate Teaching Professor
Law, Societies, and Justice; Sociology
University of Washington
Read profile here.
Course Description:
This course will focus on punishment in the American criminal justice system, highlighting both intended and unintended consequences of various methods of punishment. As we address various methods of punishment we will investigate and analyze punishment theory. Throughout the quarter we will read historical academic texts regarding various philosophies of punishment. These theory readings will enrich our understanding of how and why we punish people in America today, but they will also raise additional questions about punishment in the American system of criminal justice. While some of these readings will be challenging, my hope is that the theory component of the course will be one of the most rewarding. It is in taking on difficult content that we find ourselves discovering some of the most interesting puzzles. These are puzzles that were posed by philosophers many years ago, and which remain unsolved in large part today. Analysis of such questions will take us deeper into the vagaries of punishment in America and allow us to broaden our inquiry of the system.
In focusing on punishment in the criminal justice system, the intended outcomes would include punishment and rehabilitation of offenders, deterrence to future potential offenders, restitution for victims, reduction of crime, and education for the community. Equally important will be analysis of the unintended outcomes of punishment. These would include failure to rehabilitate, institutionalization of offenders, causes of recidivism including conditions in prison and how inmates 'learn' to incorporate illegal activities into their lives, racial injustices, the failure to impact crime rates, and the repeating cycle that many offenders become trapped in as a result of their involvement in the criminal justice system.
