MAJ 6621 Law and Social Control

The social control functions of the law will be examined, with a focus upon specific issues of criminal law. The course will evaluate the complex and diverse interests that compete between the subsystems of the criminal justice system and the national social and political agendas. Questions concern how the current issues of social control impact on the passage, enforcement, and review of laws by the courts. Theories of the origin and function of law are challenged through an examination of the assumptions in the relationship between law and order.