2024-25 Edition

Criminology, Law and Society, B.A.

The major in Criminology, Law and Society is designed to provide students with an overview of the American legal system and in-depth focus on the regulation of behavior, the problem of crime, and responses to crime within this system. Students explore these topics through multiple disciplinary perspectives, including anthropological, economic, historical, political, and sociological approaches to the study of law, behavior, and institutions of social control. In addition to learning to apply social science techniques to analyzing social problems, students in this course of study will be especially well-prepared for careers in criminal justice and regulatory agencies, public policy organizations, and direct service provision to people involved with the legal system as well as for pursuing graduate studies in law, sociology, criminology, and criminal justice.

Requirements for the B.A. in Criminology, Law and Society
All students must meet the University Requirements.
All students must meet the School Requirements.

Eleven courses (44 units) as specified below:

A. Complete one lower-division gateway course:
CRM/LAW C10 Fundamentals of Criminology, Law and Society
B. Select one course from each of the following three groups:
(1) The Legal System, Law and Society
American Law
Introduction to the Comparative Study of Legal Cultures
US Legal Thought
Sociology of Law
Psychology and the Law
Theories of Punishment
Legal Sanctions and Social Control
Constitutional Law
Family Law
Anthropology of Law
Criminal Law
The Death Penalty
Extreme Punishment
Social Media and The Law
(2) Crime and Criminology
Crime and Public Policy
Deviance
Criminological Theory
Juvenile Delinquency
Community Context of Crime
Prisons, Punishment, and Corrections
Imprisonment and Reentry
Homicide and Suicide
Police and Change
Crime Hotspots
Social Control of Delinquency
Spatial Criminology
Crime Measurement
(3) Justice and Inequalities
Gender and Social Control
Miscarriages of Justice
Race, Ethnicity, and Social Control
Law and Inequality
Hate Crimes
Mass Incarceration and Social Inequality in America
White-Collar Crime
Crimes of the State
Immigration and Crime
Critical Race Theory
Race and Incarceration
C. Seven upper-division elective courses (28 units). 1
Select from courses numbered CRM/LAW C100–C191.
1

Courses taken to satisfy requirement B may not also be used to satisfy requirement C.