CLJ Courses

The class serves as an introduction to the Crime, Law and Justice Studies minor through an interdisciplinary approach. The course uses approaches from history, sociology, ethnography, critical theory and literature to examine the sequence of events that occur in the criminal legal system to address the following questions and topics: Is our system just? What is crime, and what are some theories that claim to explain "criminality"? How did the US criminal legal process and procedures emerge, and how do they function today? What is the history of policing and the police, and what are current issues that shape policing today? What happens once a person is caught up in the criminal legal process, and what role do judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and forensics play in that process? In the small percentage of cases that proceed to trial, what happens, and what are the options for the person? What happens after, and do prisons administer just punishment? What about after prison?

The driving question of the course is what it means to have and create a just system and for whom, and how does race, gender, sexuality and other categories of identity shape how a person experiences this sequence of often inevitable events. To understand complex issues like Crime, Law and Justice, we will use numerous case studies and stories such as Kalief Browder, a 16-year who spent years in Rikers Island Prison without a conviction, and whose case spurred the movement to close Rikers. We look at how judges and prosecutors make decisions in a Cleveland Courthouse, how one man experienced the death penalty, and read short stories that imagine societies with different ways of administering justice. This class will have multiple class visits including a Juvenile Prison superintendent, a police officer, people who have been in prison, a lawyer with the Clemency project and others.

The purpose of this .5 seminar is to provide students with guidance and a supportive environment in which to pursue an independent research project that will serve as the culmination of their minor in Crime, Law and Justice Studies. The course allows students, in consultation with the CLJ director, to reflect upon, evaluate, and apply the knowledge they have gained in their course work with an institution, group or organization related to crime, law and justice. Students conduct research for or about the organization, which might include archival research, interviews or participant observation. Students identify themes, as well as particular questions and/or methodological comparisons to create connections between their coursework and the organization. The culmination of the seminar is project in a paper or non-paper format that they present to the class. For example, a student who focused on carceral systems might choose to work with an organization or with a legislator involved in prison reform and write about that experience. A student focusing on forensics and policing could examine how the Tacoma police utilize forensic science through a video, zine or slide presentation. A student focused on law and race in the US could shadow a lawyer at the Defenders Association or Civil Survival and create a video about it or write a paper, short story or art installation.

This course provides students with tools of ethical analysis so that they can think critically about pressing contemporary moral issues through the lens of justice. The course focuses on ethical methods from world Christianity and western philosophy. The course introduces both ethical theories and justice theories, and examines multicultural perspectives of the long-standing religious, theological, and philosophical understanding of justice. It analyzes how social justice concepts have been applied in different cultural contexts, including nonwestern communities. Students examine different models of justice and their implications for contemporary moral issues (e.g. racism, healthcare, social welfare, capital punishment, human rights, immigration, refugees, property rights, and the environment). The class includes interactive lectures on justice theories and students actively participate in discussions on selected case studies. Course readings may include excerpts from Aristotle, Aquinas, Mill, Locke, Calvin, Kant, Rawls, Sandel, Nussbaum, Singer, Cone, Williams, Hauerwas, and Ahn.

Crosslisted as AFAM/REL 265.

This course is designed to be both an introduction and a deep dive into the interconnectedness of African Americans and Capitalism within the United States. Capitalist ideologies are continually at the foundation of the captivity (oppression) of African Americans. Emphasis is on the ways in which African Americans have financed the capitalist gains in this country, and the ways that capitalism in the U.S. has harmed African Americans. The necessities of life--healthcare, education, job and food security--are more accessible to some than all, and one's status within the U.S. economy is a major determinant. This inequity becomes very apparent during national emergencies. This course focuses on the economic intricacies within U.S. systems, using a social impacts approach to engage with the inequity of the U.S. economy. Major areas of economic oppression potentially to be covered include: The Slave Trade & U.S. Slavery, Mass Incarceration (free labor), Education (Student Loan Debt), Sports and Music (Black culture/White Ownership), Housing policies (Redlining/Blockbusting), Medical Industry (Health Advancements/Black Bodies), Drug Industry (Marijuana), Lottery (The Numbers), and Pandemics and Natural Disasters (Hurricane Katrina & COVID-19).

This course is designed to be an introduction to major racial and ethnic groups which comprise the population of the United States. Emphasis will be according to the history and culture of racial/ethnic peoples in America as well as the role of race and nationality in the pursuit and achievement of the "American Dream." Also highlighted will be an exploration of the linkage between social power and the concepts of race and ethnicity in the United States and how this linkage affects personal identity formation and worldview assumptions. Discussion of the formation of myths and stereotypes and contemporary issues will be highlighted.

This course explores the relationship between African Americans and American law, especially but not exclusively American constitutional law. The first part of the course examines important antebellum cases such as Scott v. Sanford (Dred Scott).The second part of the course traces two conflicting trajectories of legal decisions that emerged as the federal courts sought to determine whether and how the fourteenth amendment altered race relations in America. The final part of the course begins with the landmark Brown decision and then examines two important domains of American law: race, law, and American educational practices (e.g. desegregation, busing, affirmative action, school assignment policies) and race, law, and the workplace (e.g. employment discrimination, affirmative action).

For most of recorded history, the study of law and the study of rhetoric were linked. The professionalization and specialization of legal education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries severed a connection that had persisted for two thousand years. Over the past few decades, rhetorical scholars in communication departments and scholars in other academic disciplines (including political science, literary studies, and the law itself) have begun to forge a new link among the law, legal advocacy, and rhetoric, and this course introduces students to this relatively new interdisciplinary movement. The course concentrates on three intersecting themes: the law as language, the law as argument, and the law as constitutive rhetoric.

The youth development approach is based in positive youth development research, the commitment to creating and maintaining a safe, supportive, and productive environments for youth. This course empowers volunteers, mentors, coaches, tutors, and youth practitioners to adapt, implement, and scale research validated quality standards in their respective volunteer sites. Students apply standards by working with youth in the Tacoma community in an active and meaningful way. Students are required to volunteer a minimum of 10 hours during the course of the semester working with youth by means of mentorship, tutoring, or coaching.

Race is central to understanding American politics.This course asks the questions: what does race mean; how has it changed over time; what is the relationship between race and ethnicity and power; and what is the role of race in American politics. This course examines these questions by looking at a variety of historical and contemporary moments, and a variety of political forces including electoral politics, social movements, government institutions, and everyday politics. By the end of this course, students should be able to talk critically about the evolution of the concept of race in America, identify how race shapes our political language and outcomes, and evaluate contemporary racial politics.

Detention is one of the most extreme forms of state control. This class explores the theoretical justifications for state detention, the effectiveness of this policy tool, the politics that lead to its use and acceptance, and the impacts of detention, both on the individual and various communities. Looking at the variation across three policy areas, criminal justice, the war on terror, and immigration, highlights what forces are at work on all three and what pulls the practices of detention in different directions, providing leverage on questions of justice, the balance of power, and the role of identity in public policy formation.

Examination of the role of the Supreme Court in the American constitutional systems with particular emphasis on its role in establishing a national government and national economy, and in protecting the rights of individuals. Views Supreme Court from historical, political, and legal perspectives to understand its responses to changing interests and conditions.

This course introduces students to the nature, functions, and processes of law. The course surveys criminal and civil trials in the U.S., England, and France, appellate deliberations in several countries, constitutional courts and public law, and specific extra-judicial legal institutions. The latter third of the course details lessons of the first two-thirds by case study of litigation in the United States.

The course surveys the state of civil liberties in the U.S. and the world. Primary emphasis is given to institutions in the United States and how they enforce, obstruct, or affect the protection of civil liberties. Specific topics include free expression, free belief, freedom of religion, and emerging rights and claims.

How do emerging democracies confront violent pasts while constructing the political institutions for a stable future? Does the need to heal society outweigh individuals' claims to justice for human rights abuses? In this course students examine the choices post-conflict societies have made and continue to confront throughout Latin America. The region has often been characterized by civil war, autocratic government, and grave human rights violations. At the same time, Latin America has emerged as an innovator of institutional forms that have allowed states to confront violence, seek justice, and transition to democracy--a broad array of institutions known collectively as "transitional justice" mechanisms. In the first half of the course students explore the process through which societies in Latin America have sought to come to terms with violent pasts with a focus on specific country case studies. We situate these individual cases in a broader exploration of transitional justice mechanisms, from criminal prosecutions of past leaders to truth commissions that trade amnesty for information. In the second half of the course students will apply these concepts to an in-depth simulation of peace negotiations. Students will represent the interests of a specific political stakeholder while negotiating the form and functioning of transitional justice institutions that might put the country on a path toward peace, justice, and reconciliation.

What is international Law? Who determines its content? Why do sovereign states willingly bind themselves under its rules? Is it a tool of the powerful, or a safeguard against exploitation? In short, does international law matter? This course draws on primary source materials (cases and treaties) and scholarly articles to examine the processes of international law as seen from the perspective of politically motivated actors. Readings examine broad theoretical issues pertaining to international law as well as the functioning of international legal regimes in specific issue areas such as trade, human rights, and the environment. Students apply political science methodologies in an attempt to understand and explain the behavior of states and non-state actors as they engage in a competition to create, enforce, and resist international law. Students should have a familiarity with international relations theory and social science methodologies prior to taking the course.

This course interrogates intersectionality as an approach to the study of politics. Students will study the history and theory of intersectionality and will engage current debates about the application, benefits, and limitations of the intersectional method. In the second part of the semester, students will undertake an archival, group-based research project as a way to test the intersectional method.

This course is concerned with the nature of law and the relationship between law and morality. The course is centered on questions like the following: What is the connection between law and morality? Is it morally wrong to break the law? Is breaking the law sometimes morally permissible or even morally required? Should morality be legally enforced? To what extent, if at all, should legal decisions be influenced by moral beliefs? What are the relationships between legal, constitutional, moral, and political rights? How can legal punishment be morally justified? While pursuing answers to these questions through the work of leading legal philosophers, students read a number of actual court cases and discuss specific issues like hate speech, homosexuality, and capital punishment, among others. Crosslisted as PHIL 378 / PG 348

This course explores some of the central questions in Social and Political Philosophy as well as some well-developed attempts to answer these questions: What makes a government legitimate? What should the goal of government be? Is it to maximize justice, to maximize liberty, to provide common defense, or something else? What is justice? What is liberty? Readings are drawn from prominent historical and contemporary thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Mill, Rawls, Nozick, Cohen, Okin.

How does social change happen? Religious groups were central to many instances of transformative social activism like the Civil Rights movement, Feminism and Occupy Wall Street. This course addresses how religious beliefs, identities, affiliations, and practices shape social activism and justice in the United States and the world. The class examines the multiple ways that religion intersects with power and resistance with particular attention to how religion acts as a resource and identity for enacting both reformative and radical social change. The course uses history, fiction, sociology and theory to examine religion in both conservative and progressive movements including Immigrant rights, Prison Abolition, the Civil Rights movement, white supremacy past and present, suffrage and voting rights, reproductive rights, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. Students will have the opportunity to do oral histories of people involved in religious activism and study a movement or group in depth.

What is the relationship between the university and the prison? How does college in prison raise questions of authority, power and privilege? This is an experiential learning class that combines involvement in a college program at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) and academic classes and readings. Students read texts on the history of prisons, theories of punishment, higher education in prison, and how the intersection of race, gender and sexuality impact the experience of incarceration and education in prison. Students also participate as research partners and study hall co-learners with students at the prison in collaboration with the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS), a signature initiative of the University of Puget Sound. Through collaboration with FEPPS students, students in this class will gain knowledge about the challenges and benefits of the liberal arts in prison.

Notwithstanding the many attempts around the world to separate them, the spheres of law and religion repeatedly overlap in their histories and will continue to intersect into the foreseeable future. Both spheres reflect the deepest of humanistic concerns; both serve as arenas for contesting and projecting the authority of individuals, institutions, and texts within all human contexts. Law and religion chart the contours of our personal, social, and civilizational identities along with the relationships between these identities and their relation to the other, both in its sentient and non-sentient forms. This seminar examines the intersection of law and religion within a broad sampling of historical and contemporary contexts. It does so with the goal of identifying the questions and debates that account for these intersections. The first half of the course surveys the most influential legal systems that are grounded in what is known conventionally as a religious tradition. The second part of the course turns its attention to what is known conventionally as secular models of law to discern how such models define religion and locate themselves in relation to it.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of multiple theories of deviance and social control. Each section of the class is organized around a particular theoretical orientation; each theory will elucidate both how deviance happens and the mechanism of social control that align with that particular theory. Every theory covered in this course is situated within a social, historical, and political context. Social and scientific theories are socially constructed, and thus, the context in which they emerge and exist is fundamental to their basic understanding. Students also learn how to use this diverse set of theories to make sense of how knowledge, power, and inequalities are all fundamentally tied to the ways in which a society comes to define and control deviance. As the semester progresses, students synthesize and integrate these theories to allow for a deeper, holistic understanding of deviance and social control.

The field of criminology covers two main areas: (1) analysis of law-breaking and (2) investigation of the ways in which laws are made and enforced by the criminal justice system. The first seeks to answer the question, Why do people break (or follow) the law? The second asks, How is (criminal) law made and enforced? These issues are examined historically and cross-nationally but there is particular attention given to contemporary conditions in the United States, a country with a high rate of offending and probably the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In addition to investigating the variation in offending and victimization, the course examines the extent to which the U.S. criminal justice system is biased against certain classes and groups.

Why do people commit crimes and what role does forensic science play in determining who is culpable? Using a historical approach, this course examines the development of forensic science and criminology. It focuses on the history of forensic medicine and psychology, fingerprinting, toxicology, blood typing, DNA evidence as well as the role of expert witnesses in homicide investigations. It also includes a discussion of the legal issues surrounding what constitutes admissible evidence and how that has changed over time.