AP/CRIM 3658 3.00

Crime, Science, And Technology

Crosslisted: AP/SOSC 3658

This course examines how science and technology have altered the terrain of criminology and criminal justice. It focuses not only on the ways in which criminology has been constructed as a science, but also the ways in which technology has created new crimes, new forms of identity (e.g. data doubles), and new spaces that need to be policed (e.g. cyberspace). Students will critically examine the connections between science and technology on the one hand, and crime, criminality and criminal justice on the other. Using key themes from Science and Technology Studies, the course encourages students to think about the processes through which certain forms of knowledge and practice gain the status of ‘scientific fact’ within criminal justice and come to be perceived as uncontested ‘truths.’ Students are also introduced to the concept of ‘risk society’ whereby crime has been translated into the scientific, probabilistic language of risk. Topics in the course include fingerprinting, DNA testing, biometrics, surveillance technologies, the regulation of mobilities, the use of robots, and cybercrime.