California State University Bakersfield s4
California State University Bakersfield
Victims and the Criminal Justice System
CRJU 430
Winter 2009
Professor: Dr. Doris Hall (McPhetridge) CSUB Class Location: ITV Studio C
Office: DDH-C117 Antelope Valley Location: LUC 210
Phone: (661) 654-3121 Class Time: MW 12:20 - 2:25 p.m.
Email: Office Hours: MWF 8:45-9:20 a.m. & MW 11-12:15
Website: www.csub.edu/~dhall MW 2:30 – 3:05 p.m. or by appointment
Required Texts:
De Becker, G. (1997). The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Students are expected to complete the readings by the day they are assigned on the syllabus. Students will be called upon frequently to participate in class discussions. The professor reserves the right to give pop-quizzes to encourage completing the readings on time.
Required Readings:
In addition to the required texts there are several articles on reserve at the Walter W. Stiern Library. Students are expected to have completed these articles on the date that they are to be discussed. The following articles are required readings:
Alvarez, A. (2008). Stranger danger. In Violence: The Enduring Problem (pp. 157-182). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Bancroft, L. & Silverman, J. (2002). Shock waves: The batterer’s impact on the home. In The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics (pp. 54-38). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Barnett, O., Miller-Perrin, C. & Perrin, R. (2005). Child neglect. In Family violence Across the Lifespan (pp. 126-150). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Bartlett, P. (2007). Killing gay men, 1976-2001. British Journal of Criminology 47: 573-595.
Bourbonnais, R., Jauvin, N., Dussault, J. & Vezine, M. (2007). Psychosocial work environment, interpersonal violence at work and mental health among correctional officers. International Journal of Law & Psychiatry 30: 355-368.
Caffaro, J. & Conn-Caffaro, A. (2005). Treating sibling abuse families. Aggression & Violent Behavior 10: 604-623.
Combalbert, N. & Vitry, M. (2007). Psychological assistance to victims throughout difficult trials. International Journal of Law & Psychiatry 30: 467-471.
Davies, M. (2002). Male sexual assault victims: A selective review of the literature and implications for support services. Aggression and Violent Behaviors 7: 203-214.
Hines, D. & Malley-Morrison, K. (2005). Cultural contexts of family violence. In Family Violence in the United States (pp. 31-54). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Kaysen, D., Resick, P., & Wise, D. (2003). Living in danger: The impact of chronic traumatization and traumatic context of post traumatic stress disorder. Trauma, Violence & Abuse 7(4): 247-264.
Koss, M, Bachar, K., Hopkins, C., & Carlson, C. (2004). Expanding a community’s justice response to sex crimes through advocacy, prosecutorial, and public health collaboration: Introducing the RESTORE program. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 19(12): 1435-1463.
Krischer, M. & Sevecke, K. (2008). Early traumatization and psychopathy in female and male juvenile offenders. International Journal of Law & Psychiatry 31: 253-262.
Lynch, M. & Stretsky, P. (2003). The meaning of green: Contrasting criminological perspectives. Theoretical Criminology 7(2): 217-238.
Mayhew, C. & Chappell, D. (2007). Workplace violence: An overview of patterns of risk and emotional/stress consequences on targets. International Journal of Law & Psychiatry 30: 327-339.
Noll, J., Horowitz, L., Bonanno, G., Trickett, P., & Putnam, F. (2003). Revictimization and self harm in women who experienced childhood sexual abuse: Results from a prospective study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 12(8): 1452-1471.
Peter, T. (2006). Mad, bad or victim? Making sense of mother-daughter sexual abuse. Feminist Criminology 10(1): 283-302.
Phillips, D. (2007). Punking and bullying. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 22(2): 158-178.
Reviere, s. Farber, E., Twomey, H., Okun, A., Jackson, E., Zanville, H., & Kaslow, N. (2007). Intimate partner violence and suicidality in low-income African American women: A multimethod assessment of coping factors. Violence Against Women 13(11): 1113-1129.
Setoodeh, R. (28 July 2008). Young, gay and murdered. In Newsweek Magazine: 41-46.
Shankle, R. (2001). A physician’s guide to treating aggression in dementia. In Marcell, J. (Ed.) Elder Rage: Take My Father…Please! (pp. 306-329). Irvine, CA: Impressive Press.
Straus, M. (2005b). Women’s violence toward men is a serious social problem. In Loseke, D., Gelles, R. & Cavanaugh, M. (Eds.), Current Controversies on Family Violence (2nd ed.) (pp. 55-77). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Symonds, M. (1980). The “Second Injury” to victims. Evaluation and Change: 36-38.
Timmerman, S. (2006). The fifty-one percent rule of suicide. In Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths (pp. 74-112). Chicago: The University of Chicago.
Washington, P. (1999). Second assault of male survivors of sexual violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 14(7): 713-730.
Weaver, T., Chard, K., Mechanic, M. & Etzel, J. (2004). Self-injurious behaviors, PTSD arousal and general health complaints within a treatment-seeking sexually abused women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 19(5): 558-575.
Zimbardo, P. (2007). For goodness’ sake. The Oprah Magazine: 199-201.
Course Description:
This course is designed to introduce the student to the numerous issues surrounding the victims of crime. Primary concentration will be on cultural and societal assumptions about gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexual orientation. These issues will underlie the discussion of the history of victimology, the influence of mass media on crime myths, the characteristics of crime victims, the victim's role in crime, the relationship between crime victims and the criminal justice system, victim compensation, and victim assistance programs. Special emphasis will be placed on victims traditionally overlooked by the media, public, and criminal justice system, such as male victims of rape, male and same-sex victims of domestic violence, victims of torture, and transgender and homosexual targets of hate crimes, the aged, children sexually assaulted by women, the disabled, sibling abuse and environment crimes.
Course Objectives:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the critical role played by gender, race, and ethnicity and class in the definitions, theories, and strategies for dealing with victims.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the roots, social and cultural assumptions and their effect on the victims of crime from marginalized populations or non-dominant social groups, such as child abuse, male rape, partner abuse, elder abuse, disabled abuse, hate crimes, stalking, homicide, fraud, environmental crimes, suicide, and street crimes.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of post traumatic stress disorder on crime victims, including but not limited to re-victimization, self-harm and suicide.
3. Demonstrate an ability to critically analyze the traditional systems of domination and subordination and social injustice, including the criminal justice system and the impact it has on victim related issues and policies.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the historic Eurocentric roots of victimology, including implicit and explicit assumptions on gender, race, class and ethnicity.
5. Demonstrate an ability to describe the contemporary cross cultural scenarios of discrimination, inequality and social injustice surrounding crime victims.
6. Demonstrate an ability to describe the image of the victim and how that image has changed throughout recent years. Emphasis will be why society feels more comfortable with certain groups in the role of the victim.
7. Demonstrate an understanding of the use and abuse of statistics in the study of victims.
8. Demonstrate the ability to think critically and raise relevant questions when reading written material in existing literature that address victimology. Demonstrate the ability to problem solves when addressing issues and obstacles crime victims in our society face.
9. Demonstrate an understanding of the use of restorative justice as a form of problem solving and in the creation of equity and social justice in dealing with crime victims, offenders and society.
10. Demonstrate an ability to discuss other possibilities for creation of equity and social justice with regards to crime victims.
11. Demonstrate the application of critical thinking skills and teaching methodologies that enable students to engage in dialogues exploring and analyzing current contemporary discourses on race, ethnicity, and gender with regards to crime victims. Students will also demonstrate the ability to examine their own attitudes and the attitudes of others.
12. Students must be able to demonstrate the appropriate writing style practiced in social sciences.
13. Demonstrate the ability to complete course assignments in a grammatically correct and structurally sound way, without spelling errors, and following the format used by the Department of Criminal Justice.
14. Classify terminology unique to the criminal justice system.
Teaching Methodology:
A. Lectures
B. Guest speakers
C. Films
D. Class participation
E. Group activities
F. In-class activities
Course Requirements and Grading:
Midterm 25%
Final exam 25%
Gift of Fear paper 25%
Team Project: 15%
In class writings, group assignments & pop quizzes 10%
100%
GRADING BREAKDOWN
100 % -94.00 % A 76.99 %-73.00 % C
93.99 %-90.00 % A- 72.99 %-70.00 % C-
89.99 %-87.00 % B+ 69.99 %-67.00 % D+
86.99 %-83.00 % B 66.99 %-63.00 % D
82.99 %-80.00 % B- 62.99 %-60.00 % D-
79.99 %-77.00 % C+ 59.99 % or less F
There will be one midterm and one final required for this course. Exams will consist of multiple choice, true-false, fill in, short answer, and essay questions. Exams will cover assigned readings (whether or not the professor covers it in class), lectures, films, and presentations by guest-speakers. The midterm is worth 25% of your overall grade and the final exam is worth 25%, for a total of 50%.
There are two papers required for this course. All papers are to be typed, double-spaced with standard margins of one inch. Note: Please make sure to keep separate copies of all your papers that have been turned in for a grade.
The Gift of Fear paper:
This paper is based on Gavin DeBecker’s book, The Gift of Fear. This paper consists of two parts. For part one, the students are to interview a person who has used their “gift of fear” in a serious situation. Examples are police or correctional officers in their line of work, crime victims or social workers. The interview is to cover the specific situation and any PINs, survival signals, and/or messengers of intuition that the subject used. In Part Two the students will have to answer specific questions based on DeBecker’s findings. These questions will be given to the students in class and then posted on my website. This paper is not to exceed eight pages in length. More details on this assignment will be given in class. This paper is subject to the late policy outlined in the following section. This paper is due March 2nd at the beginning of class.
.
Team project:
Students in groups of two to four humans maximum will present to the class their findings on a specific Victimology topic. The team will list four topics which they are interested in presenting. Students are not allowed to present on topics which are covered in class readings. Every effort will be made to select one of the topics listed by the team. Only one group can present on a topic per class. This list is due January 19, 2009 and the group selections will be returned no later than January 26, 2009. Examples of topics include, but are not limited to: recent crime victim related legislation (Jessica’s law, Jeannie Cleary law, etc...), changes in college campus security procedures, and crime victim organizations such as The Doris Tate Bureau. The team's presentation is to be 10-15 minutes** in length and must use Power Point. **Only three minutes total can be from video/DVD. Also, teams are to provide a short summary of their topic with all of the sources used in this project. This summary is not to exceed seven pages in length. While the team will receive a grade on the project, peer evaluations will be used to adjust each individual's grade on the project. More details on this project will be discussed in class. This project is worth 15% of the student’s grade.
SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENTS
Assignments are to be submitted at the beginning of class on the day they are due, papers submitted after the beginning of class are LATE and will be penalized. With the exception of in class assignments, all assignments must be TYPED, unless instructed otherwise. There will be no make up for in class assignments and pop quizzes.
Two copies of class papers must be provided to the instructor on the due date. A hard copy must be received by the beginning of class on the due date. The second copy must be submitted by the end of the day. One copy must be a hard copy, and the second must be submitted to Turnitin.com. Both copies must be received on the due date. Failure to provide two copies on the due date will result in a deduction.
Turnitin.com
All students must submit their Reaction/Position Paper to turnitin.com for review. Failure to do so will result in a grade reduction. You will need the following information in order to submit your paper to the site:
Class name: CRJU430W2009
Enrollment password: victims
Class ID number: 2543148
Late Papers
If your paper is not turned in on or before the due date, it will be marked down. Each day that the paper is late will result in a five point deduction from the total score. After seven days, the assignment is worth 0 points. Additionally, when you turn in a late paper you must turn it in to the Criminal Justice Department Coordinator (DDH D107) or hand it to the professor personally (before class begins), so that the date and time can be noted on the paper. Please note: I will not accept any papers that are left under my office door.
Academic Honesty
CSUB is a community of scholars where the pursuit of truth and honesty are fundamental. The University expects that both faculty and students will honor these principles and in doing so will protect the integrity of all academic work and student grades. Students are expected to do all work assigned to them without unauthorized assistance. Faculty members are responsible for exercising care in the planning and supervision of academic work so that honest efforts will be positively encouraged.
There are certain forms of conduct that violate this community’s principles. CHEATING is a broad category of actions that use fraud and deception to improve a grade or obtain course credit. Cheating is not limited to examination situations alone, but arises whenever students attempt to gain an unearned academic advantage. PLAGERISM is a specific form of academic dishonesty (cheating) that consists of the misuse of published or unpublished works of another by claiming them as one’s own. It may consist of handing in someone else’s work, copying or purchasing a composition, using ideas, paragraphs, sentences, or phrases written by another, using data and/or statistics compiled by another without giving citation. Another example of academic dishonesty (cheating) is the SUBMISSION OF THE SAME, or essentially the same, paper or other assignment for credit in two different courses without prior approval.