AP/CRIM 4662 6.00

Criminal Justice Policy

Crosslisted: AP/SOSC 4662

This seminar course takes an intersectional, critical, and practical approach to Canadian criminal justice policy through theoretical engagement, discursive and practical policy analysis in a highly participatory seminar format. Topics considered include the relationship between criminal and regulatory tools, their enforcement, and social norms; the effects of criminal justice policy on diverse populations; and the politics of criminal justice policymaking. Practically speaking, the aim of policy analysis is to ask: What is the solution? However, the critical standpoint of discourse analysis asks: How is the problem being framed? Building on students’ knowledge of the criminal justice system, this course endeavours to tackle both of these questions through theoretical engagement, policy literacy, discursive and practical policy analysis, as well as policy debates, design, and application, in a highly participatory seminar format. In so doing the course aims to: trouble the myths, stereotypes, and taken-for-granted assumptions embedded in criminal justice policy; teach critical analysis and practical skills applicable in jobs in the criminal justice field; consider the challenges of and discrepancies between policymaking and policy application; examine the impacts of criminal justice policy on diverse populations, including women, drug users, racialized, Indigenous, and sex working communities; and finally, to consider alternatives to criminal justice policy.