Nov 22, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
SOC 3620 - Ethics in Law, Crime, and Justice
This course invites students to combine sociological reasoning with ethical theory to analyze and respond to ethical concerns prevalent in the practice of law, criminology, and criminal justice. Sociological reasoning allows students to analyze the contexts in which ethical problems arise and assess the impact of social inequality and institutional discrimination. Ethical theory provides frameworks for decision-making and evaluating appropriate responses to situational dilemmas faced by policy-makers and justice practitioners. Topics explored will include ethical issues in the making of law and public policy and ethical decision-making by actors practicing in justice institutions. Students will investigate contemporary cases of judicial misconduct, police brutality, treatment of prisoners, and the use of experimental drugs in executions, among many other topics.
Requisites: SOC 2600
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Bridge: Ethics and Reasoning
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to recognize their own ethical core beliefs, and how they shape ethical conduct and thinking about law, crime, and justice.
- Students will be able to apply utilitarianism and deontology, two major perspectives of ethical decision-making, to historical and contemporary cases in law and criminology/criminal justice.
- Students will be able to evaluate the ethics of legal and criminology/criminal justice practices and policies using sociological research and perspectives of ethics.
- Students will be able to argue for or against the ethics of a legal or criminology/criminal justice issue using sociological research and perspectives of ethics.
- Students will be able to create a professional code of ethics to guide their intended career in a law-related field or criminology/criminal justice.
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