SOCI422-12S2 (C) Semester Two 2012
Social Control

Description

We will be examining ways in which the law operates as a means of social control.  For example, criminal law is whatever we say it is: law-makers decide what is and what is not permissible.  We will begin by exploring how the criminal law develops, and asking whether it ought to be developing differently—looking specifically at whether the sale of human body parts for transplant purposes should be decriminalized.  That is the first week.  From there we examine:

• Development of defences in criminal law [specifically self-defence for women who kill]
• Capital punishment: the death penalty in the US
• Police Ethics: focusing on deceptive interrogation, gratuities, perjury
• Lawyers’ Ethics: focuses on the duty to maintain a client’s confidence and the duty to provide zealous representation
• Jury Nullification: the absolute power of the jury in a criminal case to refuse to follow the law
• Search and Seizure of evidence: protections of the people against the government
• Admissions and Confessions: again, what protections do we have against the government?
• Plea Bargaining: negotiation between the defendant and the prosecutor

Pre-requisites

For further information see School of Social and Political Sciences.