Categories: Criminal Law
Instructor(s) Smith, Michael, Dickey, Walter
What purposes should the state's sentencing power over the
individual serve? What are the most effective means of achieving those purposes?
How well do various criminal justice administration systems serve those
purposes now? What alternatives might be employed to serve those purposes
better? Attempting to answer these questions will
lead us to examine purposes such as public safety, punishment, vengeance, and
the expression of social values; means such as death, incarceration,
supervision, restitution and shaming; systems such as truth-in-sentencing, sentencing
guidelines, 'supermax' prisons, and community supervision; and a host of
possible alternatives. Students will be
assigned weekly readings for discussion, and may choose to write a number of
short papers or one long paper. Topics must be approved by the instructor.
