This two-quarter program will introduce students to the study of social forces in our society ordering in human behavior. In the fall term, the class will focus on the development and influence of rules including mores, folkways, norms and laws. Our focus will be questions about social rules such as: How do they develop? Why do we comply with them? When do we violate them? Who enforces them? Which populations and interest groups benefit most from their enforcement? The class will study how rules vary across social groups and how they inevitably change over time. Finally, we will devote significant time to studying the nature of laws and how sociologists understand them.
In the winter term, the class will focus more intentionally on civil and criminal laws, their differences, and how they are administered and enforced in the justice system. Our focus will be understanding the many stages of the legal process and the social and legal forces influencing how the process works. We will discuss the working relationships between legal actors in the justice system and how they interact with one another and with the clients they represent. Finally, the class will study the relationships between laws, their enforcement, and social, racial and economic inequality the larger society.
Students will be expected to participate actively in seminar discussions, develop and demonstrate a deep understanding of the ideas and concepts studied, and participate in observational studies of social groups and processes in the surrounding community. Students will strengthen their skills in reading original research, writing argumentative/expository essays, and reasoning through major social problems and their remedies.