SOCIOLOGY 38107: JUSTICE, LAW AND SOCIETY

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 am

Spring 2019
NAC 5/150

Professor Leslie Paik

Department of Sociology
Office: NA6/127
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1 pm – 3 pm or by appointment
E-mail: Lpaik@ccny.cuny.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION
What is the law? How do people view the law and its role in their lives? This course considers
both of those questions in more depth, looking at the philosophical understandings of law (e.g.
theories about the law), the practical application of law (e.g. justice system) and peoples’ lay
perceptions of the law (e,g, individuals’ sense of justice and “right vs. wrong”). We will pay
particular attention to one area of social life in which the law has played a significant role over
time: race. The course goal is to understand how those views of the law often differ from one
another and to consider the implications of those gaps in understandings. Additional course goals
are for students to be able to:
1) Understand different sociological perspectives and be able to apply these to specific
topics discussed in this course.
2) Communicate effectively about various sociological issues in written and/or oral form.

REQUIRED BOOKS
There are four required books for this course. There also are book chapters and articles on
Blackboard in the Content section that are marked on the syllabus with an asterisk (*). I expect
you to read the assigned readings BEFORE the class.
1. Calavita, Kitty. 2010. Invitation to Law and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
2. Ewick, Patricia and Susan Silbey. 1998. The Common Place of Law. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
3. Lopez, Ian Haney. 2006. White by Law. New York: New York University Press.
4. Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic. 2012. Critical Race Theory: an Introduction. 2nd
edition. New York: New York University Press.
5. *Selected journal articles and book chapters

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Attendance is mandatory. If you come in late (15 minutes or more), your attendance will not be
counted for that day but you are still required to attend. Also, you are expected to read the
assigned articles prior to class so that you can participate fully in the discussions.

Most importantly, I expect you to come to see/talk to me if you are having any problems
pertaining to this course (e.g. completing the course work, understanding lectures/course
readings). I want you all to do the best you can in this course and will do what I can to help you
all achieve that goal. What that requires from you is that you let me know in advance what is
going on with you that may affect your ability to do the work required for this course. Your
grade will be based on 100 points, distributed as follows:
2 Short Papers: 50 points
Research Paper: 40 points
Class Attendance/Participation: 10 points
You can keep track of your grade by adding up your points and dividing them by the total
number of points for those assignments. For example, if you got 20 points on the first paper (out
of 25 possible points), then your grade would be 80% or a B-. If you got 22 points on the next
paper (out of 25 possible points), your cumulative grade to that point would be 84% or a B (42
divided by 50 points).

The short papers will be 4-6 pages long. The research paper will be 12-15 pages long. More
detailed instructions will be distributed in lecture. NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE
ACCEPTED UNLESS I GRANT YOU AN EXTENSION BEFORE THE PAPER IS DUE.

You will not be graded on a competitive basis (e.g. curve). If you are dissatisfied with any grade
that you receive, you must submit a written request for a review of the grade, including a defense
of why you think it should be reviewed, no later than one week after the work is handed back to
the class. By requesting a review of the grade you receive, you invite the possibility that the new
grade might be lower than the original grade.

STANDARDS OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Students are expected to conform to the highest ethical standards regarding academic integrity.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated; any student who is caught plagiarizing will automatically fail
that assignment. The College defines plagiarism as “the presentation of someone else’s ideas,
words, or artistic or technical work as one’s own creation. Using the ideas or work of another is
permissible only when the original author is identified. Paraphrasing and summarizing, as well as
direct quotations, require citations to the original source.” Some examples of plagiarism are:
 Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes
attributing the words to their source.
 Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging
the source.
 Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source.
Finally, Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers,
paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, and “cutting &
pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.

COURSE SCHEDULE
All readings are noted by the author and assigned chapter(s) for that class. Readings that start
with an asterisk (*) are on Blackboard (under Content).

January 29: Introduction to Course

January 31: What is Law and Society?

*Calavita, Chapter 1-2
February 5: Where is Law in Society? The Big Picture
*Calavita, Chapter 7

February 7: Where is Law in Society?

Calavita, Chapters 3, 5

February 12: NO CLASS

February 14: Where is Law in Society? The Everyday Picture

Ewing and Silbey, Chapters 1-2

February 19: Legal Consciousness

Ewing and Silbey, Chapter 3, pp 64-74, 108-120, 165-173

February 21: Legal Consciousness

1. Ewing and Silbey, pp 74-107
2. *O’Barr, William and John Conley. 1988. Lay Expectations of the Civil Justice System. Law
and Society Review. 22 (1): 137-162

February 26: Legal Consciousness

Ewing and Silbey, pg 129-164

February 28: Legal Consciousness

Ewing and Silbey, Chapter 6

March 5: Legal System at Work: Theory and Practice

Calavita, Chapter 6

March 7: Legal System at Work: Police

PAPER #1 DUE
1. *Hunt, Jennifer. 1986. Police Uses of ‘Normal Force.’
2. *Eberhardt, Jennifer, Goff, Phillip, Purdie, Valerie, & Paul Davies. 2004. “Seeing Black: Race,
Crime, and Visual Processing.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87: 876 – 893

March 12: Legal System at Work: Decision-Making/Courtroom Workgroup

1. *Emerson, Robert. 1983. “Holistic Effects in Social Control Decision-Making.” Law &
Society Review 17 (3): 425-456
2. *Sudnow, David. 1965. “Normal Crimes: Sociological Features of the Penal Code in a Public
Defender Office.” Social Problems. 12 (3): 255-276

March 14: Legal System at Work: Typologies and Categorizations

1. *Frohmann, Lisa. 1997. “Convictability and Discordant Locales: Reproducing Race, Class,
& Gender Ideology in Prosecutorial Decisionmaking.” Law & Society Review 31:531-55.
2. *Selections from Gonzalez Van Cleve, Nicole. 2016. Crook County: Racism and Injustice in
America’s Largest Criminal Court, Chapter 2 only
March 19: Legal System at Work: Fines and Fees
*Harris, Alexes, Heather Evans, and Katherine Beckett. 2010. “Drawing Blood from Stones:
Legal Debt and Social Inequality in the Contemporary United.” American Journal of Sociology
115(6): 1753-1799

March 21: Race and the Law: Overview

Calavita, Chapter 4

March 26: Race and the Law: Overview

1. *Calavita, Kitty. 2000. “The Paradoxes of Race, Class, Identity, and "Passing": Enforcing the
Chinese Exclusion Acts, 1882-1910.” Law & Social Inquiry 25 (1): 1-40

March 28: Critical Race Theory

Delgado, Richard & Jean Stefancic. 2012. Critical Race Theory: an Introduction, Chapters 1-4

April 2: Critical Race Theory

1. Delgado, Richard & Jean Stefancic. 2012. Critical Race Theory: an Introduction,
Chapter 6
2. *Bell, Derrick. “Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma”
3. *Williams, Patricia J. “Alchemical Notes: Reconstructed Ideals from Deconstructed
Rights.”
4. Williams, Robert A. “Documents of Barbarism: the Contemporary Legacy of European
Racism and Colonialism in the Narrative Traditions of Federal Indian Law.”

April 4: Race and the Law

Lopez, Chapters 2-4

April 9: Race and the Law

Lopez, Chapters 5-6

April 11: Race and the Law

Lopez, Chapter 8
Delgado, Richard & Jean Stefancic. 2012. Critical Race Theory: an Introduction, Chapter 7-8

April 16: Race, Law and Work

PAPER #2 DUE
*Gleeson, Shannon. 2016. Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace
Protections in the United States. Oakland, University of California Press. Chapters 3-4

April 18: Race, Law and Work

*Gleeson, Shannon. 2016. Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace
Protections in the United States. Oakland, University of California Press. Chapters 5-6

April 23-25: NO CLASS

April 30: Race, Immigration and Law
*Armenta, Amada. 2017. Protect, Serve, and Deport. Oakland: University of California Press,
Chapters 1-2

May 2: Race, Immigration and Law

*Armenta, Amada. 2017. Protect, Serve, and Deport. Oakland: University of California Press,
Chapters 3-4

May 7: Race, Immigration and Law

*Armenta, Amada. 2017. Protect, Serve, and Deport. Oakland: University of California Press,
Chapters 5-6

May 9: Race, Immigration and Law

*Selections from Abrego, Leisy. 2014. Sacrificing Families. Palo Alto: Stanford University
Press

May 14: Course Wrap-Up

Ewing and Silbey, Chapter 7-8
Calavita, Chapter 8

FINAL PAPERS ARE DUE ON MAY 21st at 5 pm.