CRIM 101 Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice

Discuss the relationships among race, crime, and criminal justice. Illustrate your discussion with examples from class and highlight issues specific to the Canadian context. Ensure that you also tie your discussion to critical and conflict criminologies. Define and explain the social structure and social process perspectives on crime and criminality. Compare and contrast these perspectives and, based on examples provided in the course text (i.e., O’Grady), evaluate which of these two perspectives better explains crime/criminality. Why are Indigenous people over-represented in the Canadian criminal justice system? Explain and illustrate your explanation with examples from both in-class and the required course text. Ensure your response demonstrates both historical and contemporary understanding of these issues. Discuss the relationship between public fear of crime and how crime is depicted in the mass media. Further, identify and describe the core components of fear of crime and the implications of each component. Define and explain the concepts of “deviance” and “crime,” and explain how deviance and crime are social constructions. Further, discuss how these social constructions are 1) situational and 2) potentially harmful. Illustrate your response using examples from the course.