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1 SOCY 6004: Criminology Department of Sociology University of Colorado Boulder Professor: David Pyrooz, Ph.D. Office: Institute

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1 SOCY 6004: Criminology Department of Sociology University of Colorado Boulder Professor: David Pyrooz, Ph.D. Office: Institute SOCY 6004: Criminology Department of Sociology University of Colorado Boulder Professor: David Pyrooz, Ph.D. Classroom: KTCH 1B40 Office: Institute of Behavioral Science: 381 Date/Time: M 3:00-5:30pm Phone: 303-492-3241 Office Hours: By appointment Email: [email protected] Course Description and Objectives The purpose of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to leading theories of crime etiology. The primary aim of criminological theory is to explain variability in crime and delinquency between and within individuals and aggregates defined by demographic, geographic, political, or social boundaries. Although they should not be viewed as mutually exclusive, this is a course on criminology rather than criminal justice. The practices of law enforcement, prosecutors and courts, and corrections is relevant to this course to the extent that they influence the distribution of crime across people and places. Although sociology was its parent discipline, criminology is interdisciplinary. Peruse any volume of a top criminological journal and readers will encounter the perspectives and scholarship commonly found in various branches of economics, political science, psychology, and sociology. Criminology has no shortage of theories; each passing year there is more ground to cover to expose students to the leading theories in the discipline. There is a balance that must be struck between the comprehensive aims of this course and the sociological origins of criminology, the latter of which generally emphasizes social sources of crime such as peers, families, institutions, and communities. Accordingly, there are five core objectives in this course: 1. Understand the key assumptions and propositions of leading criminological theories; 2. Trace the intellectual lineage of theories; 3. Evaluate the empirical status of theories; 4. Synthesize knowledge about criminological theories, 5. Identify gaps in knowledge that would benefit from theoretical and empirical analysis, development, and/or synthesis; The aim of this course is not to provide complete coverage of criminological theories. To be sure, this course should not be viewed as a substitute for specialized theoretical training that is found in courses devoted to a single theory (e.g., self-control, social learning), theories associated with a unit of analysis (e.g., communities and crime, co-offending and criminal groups), or perspectives or paradigms of criminological thought (e.g., intersectionality, developmental and life course). Theoretical proficiency in a given substantive area will require extensive reading, an independent study, or a specialized course. 1 Course Requirements Students will be assessed in four ways, and final grades will be determined as follows: (1) class participation (20%) (2) discussion leader (10%) (3) response essays (20%) (4) research paper (40%) (5) paper presentation (10%) Class Participation and Discussion Our class will have 14 meetings where we will discuss substantive issues in criminological theory. Class meetings are viewed as a collaborative exercise. Our time together will consist of focused discussions pertaining directly to the readings, general discussions related to criminology as a discipline and its relationship to sociology, and individual presentations of student papers beginning with initial ideas and ending with formal presentations. All students must be actively involved in these discussions. As a graduate seminar, students must come to class prepared. Readings should be completed prior to class. Notes and questions should be jotted down in preparation for discussion. All students should be thinking about the following questions while covering the assigned readings: (1) What is the research question and why is it important to understand? (2) To what literatures does this research contribute? (3) How did the authors establish the importance of the question? (4) What are the assumptions and propositions of the theory under examination and how are they distinguishable from other theories? (5) What is the logical progression of the front end of the paper and how well does it justify the methods used to test the research question(s)? (6) What aspects of the front end did you find confusing or hard to follow? (7) In what ways could we advance our state of knowledge on the theory with further theoretical or empirical analysis, development, or synthesis? (8) If you were to have written this paper, what, if anything, would you have done differently? For readings that are strictly theoretical, emphasis is placed primarily on logical assumptions, core propositions, and causal pathways. For readings that test theory empirically, emphasis is placed primarily on the framing of the paper (“front end”) and the discussion of the findings (“back end”). Our discussions will certainly address methods of research, such as how to test theories of crime empirically, as well as how the framing of the paper motivated the specific methods employed by researchers. Each week one student will serve as the “discussion leader” for the class period, as determined at the beginning of the class. This student will be responsible for leading the conversation about the readings covered during that week. Handouts to guide the discussion are encouraged, but not required, such as (1) a table that takes stock of the body of knowledge on a topic, (2) a figure that traces the evolution of a theoretical perspective, or (3) a figure that details the causal mechanisms of a theory. Handouts containing extensive notes that summarize the readings are discouraged. Take the readings seriously. They are the foundation for your career, especially for students who intend to pursue employment as a researcher, teacher, or analyst in criminology or criminal justice. In a doctoral 2 course, students must begin to think about how they will put the knowledge they are consuming to work, whether it is for the purposes of designing lectures, writing summary articles, testing theory, or advocating for public policy. It is not unreasonable to budget about two hours per reading; some readings will require more time, some less. The assigned readings provide a good starting point to understand criminological theory, but they should not be viewed as exhaustive. Students should become regular consumers of work published in the leading journals in the field of criminology. These may include Criminology (flagship journal of the ASC), Justice Quarterly (flagship journal of the ACJS), Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology. These are leading generalist outlets, but depending on your substantive interests (e.g., race, gender, policy, methods), there may also be a number of specialty journals that students should follow regularly. Signing up for RSS feeds and Google Scholar alerts is one way to do this. All students should employ bibliographic management software to organize the literature (e.g., Zotero, Mendeley), and must do so for the paper assignments that require in-text citations and a reference section. Response Essays Students are responsible for writing two essays in response to weekly readings of their choosing. The broad parameters of these essays include (1) synthesis of what was learned in the readings and (2) identify gaps in knowledge with the goal of advancing theory or research on the topic. Students have the discretion to focus the essay on the logical or empirical adequacy of the theory, or both. Students may also apply a theory and the associated readings to a topic that has been understudied. These essays should not exceed five double-spaced 8.5” x 11” pages (1” margins all around; 12 point font) of main text and should include a title page with a theme that summarizes the writing, along with a section at the conclusion of the document that includes the references cited in text. The incorporation of additional references independent of the weekly readings is encouraged. Essays should be submitted during the meeting period associated with the readings addressed in the essay. Notify your instructor during class that you intend to write an essay addressing the following week’s readings. Paper and Presentation Journal articles are the “currency of the business” in the sciences, and sociology is no exception. Students are required to write a paper that is the equivalent—in terms of content, quality, and structure—to the “front end” or “framing” of a refereed journal article. The overall goal of this assignment is for students to use this paper as a launch point for a journal article (preferably), conference paper, chapter in an edited volume, fellowship proposal, or even a dissertation. The topic can be anything criminological, including a theory that is not covered in the readings. Research questions requiring qualitative or quantitative data and methods can be proposed. The paper should include: (1) An introductory section that: a. establishes the phenomena of interest and its importance to the field of criminology, b. specifies the ignorance in the literature and the gap that needs to be filled, and c. introduces the research question, data, and methods that will be used to make a contribution to the state of knowledge on the designated topic; (2) A discussion of theory and prior research with which your study is situated, where sections: a. develop a conceptual model through a theoretical framing that establishes the importance of a research question and its contribution to the literature, 3 b. examines
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