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Penology: It's a Thing
Aug. 30th, 2012 11:01 pmI'm taking a course called "Faith-Based Programs in Criminal Justice: A Critical Examination," but the professor who teaches it specializes in the sociology of punishment, so... I am taking a course in the sociology of punishment. Which is fine, because the material is interesting, and the guy is the chair of the department, so he can pretty much do whatever the hell he wants. He's obviously very invested in it and knows all there is to know about the sociology of punishment. Unfortunately, he seems to be trying to teach it to us it all at once. So tonight the lecture veered from King Henry II and English common law to the "crisis of penal modernity" to the doctrine of deterrence to the importance of lacrosse practice to instrumental vs. expressive punishment to salsa dancing to informal social control systems to sources of prison overcrowding to the price of beer.
I have a hard enough time following my own train of thought half the time. Hopefully this guy settles down and I won't leave every class feeling like my brain just went through the spin cycle. Oy.
Having studied in several disciplines now, I find the gender breakdown of each one interesting. Somewhat surprisingly, my criminal justice classmates are mostly female: only two guys in a class of eleven and one in a class of five (that class started with eight students -- guess which class it is). Haven't counted the guys in my online class, but there aren't many. Rhetoric and composition was actually fairly evenly split. Philosophy was a total boy's club -- I had some female professors, but there were only two other female students in the department, one other major and one minor. The rest were guys. (Not that it did me any damn good; I was friends with the girl who was minoring in it, and she once complained [quite accurately], "These stupid philosophy boys just want to talk about love and all I want to do is jump 'em.")
Did I have a point? My linear thinking capabilities have been temporarily compromised. This semester is going to be all about punishment and deviance. You have been warned.
Penal modernity.
I have a hard enough time following my own train of thought half the time. Hopefully this guy settles down and I won't leave every class feeling like my brain just went through the spin cycle. Oy.
Having studied in several disciplines now, I find the gender breakdown of each one interesting. Somewhat surprisingly, my criminal justice classmates are mostly female: only two guys in a class of eleven and one in a class of five (that class started with eight students -- guess which class it is). Haven't counted the guys in my online class, but there aren't many. Rhetoric and composition was actually fairly evenly split. Philosophy was a total boy's club -- I had some female professors, but there were only two other female students in the department, one other major and one minor. The rest were guys. (Not that it did me any damn good; I was friends with the girl who was minoring in it, and she once complained [quite accurately], "These stupid philosophy boys just want to talk about love and all I want to do is jump 'em.")
Did I have a point? My linear thinking capabilities have been temporarily compromised. This semester is going to be all about punishment and deviance. You have been warned.
Penal modernity.
