SOC 485 - Policing and Society

Units: 4 ; Breadth Area: GE-UD-4
Examines issues related to police, policing, and police-related public policy. It addresses knowledge of crime, how the police respond to crime, and how institutions designed to address crime (police, courts, corrections) function. Race and class is also addressed.

Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UD-4 - Upper Division Social and Behavioral Sciences
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas 1A, 1B, 1C, and 2 all with grades of C- (CR) or better.
Strongly Recommended Preparation: SOC 100
Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground, or Hybrid, or Online-Asynchronous, or Online-Synchronous.
Grading: A-F grading only.
Course Typically Offered: Fall & Spring

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Explain how sociology contributes to understandings of U.S policing practices and its unequal impact on various populations, based on social class, gender, and race, and immigration status.
Critically examine how our conceptions of the law and of law enforcement and are shaped by power, history, culture, and institutions .
Learn how various social factors (such as race, gender, class, sexuality, disability, mental illness immigration status) contribute to the rates, experience of disparate impacts and outcomes of American policing for different communities.
Communicate the above outcomes in oral and written forms.
Apply insights and concepts from course materials to better understand personal experiences and current events related to policing.

GE-UD-4. Upper-division Social and Behavioral Sciences Learning Outcomes

Analyze how power and social identity affect social outcomes for different cultural and economic groups using methods of social science inquiry and vocabulary appropriate to those methods.
Demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply accurately disciplinary concepts of the social or behavioral sciences.
Demonstrate an understanding of and the ability to effectively plan or conduct research using an appropriate method of the social or behavioral sciences.