Course Code: CRIM 4005
Academic Year: 2025-2026
This course introduces students to policy-making and policy analysis, and focuses their attention on policy fields where social policy and criminal justice policy intersect or influence one another. To do so, it uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws insights from sociology, criminology, social work, political economy, health policy, and public administration. In lectures and simulations, the course considers how social and criminal justice problems are conceptualized and come to the attention of policymakers. Throughout the course we pay attention to the larger forces shaping policy development and implementation, and to the ways in which policy consequences (intended or not) are understood and resisted. Students are invited to make policy themselves, and to explore the space available for future policy-making and practice given existing constraints.