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Crime, Law & Justice Studies

Wyatt Hall, Room 130

Director

Tanya Erzen
253-879-3577

Administrative Support

Connie Baird
253.879.3745

 

Program Description

Is our criminal legal system just? What is the role of police in a democratic society? What is the difference between law and justice? How has the US criminal legal system defined justice over time and in different contexts? What happens once a person is involved in the criminal legal process, and what role do judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and forensics play in that process? Do prisons administer just punishment?

The Crime, Law, and Justice (CLJ) Interdisciplinary program provides students with an introduction to how crime, policing, and prisons intersect with questions of justice, fairness, and structural inequality in the United States. In the minor, students examine law, policing and carceral systems from multiple disciplines while retaining a critical lens on these systems and institutions. The minor equips students to be leaders, professionals, and agents of change in justice-related institutions and in diverse local and global communities.

Who You Could Be

  • Counselor
  • Educator
  • Advocate
  • Case manager
  • Investigator
  • Restorative Justice Leader
  • Legislator
  • Public Defender
  • Lawyer
  • Non-profit Justice organization program coordinator/ administrator

What You'll Learn

  • How crime, policing, and prisons intersect with questions of justice, fairness and structural inequality in the U.S., present and past
  • How to engage in collaborative policy, practice and research through direct involvement with organizations and people working in the field of crime, law and justice
  • Skills in writing, oral communication, and analysis
  • A deep knowledge of carceral systems and the law, and how individuals experience those systems
SAMPLE COURSES
VIEW ALL COURSES

The U.S. has 2.3 million people in prison with glaring racial and class disparities. Why is this? Is there something distinctive about American culture and/or politics that produces these outcomes? Are we simply a more crime-prone people or a more punitive people who impose exceptionally harsh sanctions? This class will explore changing ideas of crime and punishment in the U.S. through philosophical, historical, religious and social scientific perspectives. Students will also look at the U.S in a comparative context, seeking to understand how different democratic political systems confront problems of crime and punishment. The class looks specifically at issues such as mental health in prison, the death penalty and restorative justice.

Code
Connections 200-400 Level

This course explores the relationship between African Americans and American law, especially but not exclusively American constitutional law. The first part of the course examines important antebellum cases such as Scott v. Sanford (Dred Scott).The second part of the course traces two conflicting trajectories of legal decisions that emerged as the federal courts sought to determine whether and how the fourteenth amendment altered race relations in America. The final part of the course begins with the landmark Brown decision and then examines two important domains of American law: race, law, and American educational practices (e.g. desegregation, busing, affirmative action, school assignment policies) and race, law, and the workplace (e.g. employment discrimination, affirmative action).

Code
Connections 200-400 Level

This course provides students with tools of ethical analysis so that they can think critically about pressing contemporary moral issues through the lens of justice. The course focuses on ethical methods from world Christianity and western philosophy. The course introduces both ethical theories and justice theories, and examines multicultural perspectives of the long-standing religious, theological, and philosophical understanding of justice. It analyzes how social justice concepts have been applied in different cultural contexts, including nonwestern communities. Students examine different models of justice and their implications for contemporary moral issues (e.g. racism, healthcare, social welfare, capital punishment, human rights, immigration, refugees, property rights, and the environment). The class includes interactive lectures on justice theories and students actively participate in discussions on selected case studies. Course readings may include excerpts from Aristotle, Aquinas, Mill, Locke, Calvin, Kant, Rawls, Sandel, Nussbaum, Singer, Cone, Williams, Hauerwas, and Ahn.

Code
Artistic and Humanistic PerspectivesKnowledge, Identity, and Power

Detention is one of the most extreme forms of state control. This class explores the theoretical justifications for state detention, the effectiveness of this policy tool, the politics that lead to its use and acceptance, and the impacts of detention, both on the individual and various communities. Looking at the variation across three policy areas, criminal justice, the war on terror, and immigration, highlights what forces are at work on all three and what pulls the practices of detention in different directions, providing leverage on questions of justice, the balance of power, and the role of identity in public policy formation.

Code
Social Scientific and Historical Perspectives

The field of criminology covers two main areas: (1) analysis of law-breaking and (2) investigation of the ways in which laws are made and enforced by the criminal justice system. The first seeks to answer the question, Why do people break (or follow) the law? The second asks, How is (criminal) law made and enforced? These issues are examined historically and cross-nationally but there is particular attention given to contemporary conditions in the United States, a country with a high rate of offending and probably the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In addition to investigating the variation in offending and victimization, the course examines the extent to which the U.S. criminal justice system is biased against certain classes and groups.

Code
Social Scientific and Historical Perspectives

Why do people commit crimes and what role does forensic science play in determining who is culpable? Using a historical approach, this course examines the development of forensic science and criminology. It focuses on the history of forensic medicine and psychology, fingerprinting, toxicology, blood typing, DNA evidence as well as the role of expert witnesses in homicide investigations. It also includes a discussion of the legal issues surrounding what constitutes admissible evidence and how that has changed over time.

Code
Connections 200-400 Level
1/6

Experiential Learning

Students who minor in CLJ would have the unique opportunity to partner and connect meaningfully with incarcerated students in the Freedom Education Project Liberal Studies BA degree program and the AA degree program inside the Washington Corrections Center for Women, itself an accredited campus of the university in study halls, classes, joint research forums, and as research partners.

Learn more about Freedom Education Project Puget Sound

For the Capstone project, students directly connect with an organization in the field and create a project that examines people-centered, empirically-informed, and sustainable solutions to social problems in communities and/or institutions. These organizations might include: Nonviolent communication in prison, Incarcerated Mothers Project, Common Justice, WA Defender Association, ACLU Washington, West Coast Poverty Law Center, Dignity and Decarceration Coalition, Gender Justice Commission, Civil Survival, The If Project, Yoga Behind Bars, Prisoner Voice Washington, Black Prisoner Caucus, Disability Rights WA, Office of the Omsbuds, National Reentry Council, and the No New Women’s Prison Coalition.

Stories

Read more about Five Questions With Puget Sound Professor Tanya Erzen
Faculty

Five Questions With Puget Sound Professor Tanya Erzen

When Tanya Erzen is not in a university classroom, she can be found in prison. As a co-founder of Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS), Erzen teaches college courses to people serving sentences at the Washington…
Read more about Puget Sound Student Gives a Voice to People Behind Bars
Students

Puget Sound Student Gives a Voice to People Behind Bars

Nola Thury ’22 was a first-year student when they attended their first event at the Northwest Detention Center. Surprised to learn that there was a detention facility holding immigrants only a few miles from University of Puget…
Read more about University of Puget Sound Awarded $109,000 Sustaining Public Engagement Grant
Campus
Faculty

University of Puget Sound Awarded $109,000 Sustaining Public Engagement Grant

TACOMA, Wash. – University of Puget Sound was awarded an ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) Sustaining Public Engagement Grant, part of a $3.5 million responsive funding program made possible by the Sustaining the…
MEET THE FACULTY
Tanya Erzen
Professor, Religion, Spirituality, and Society and Director, Freedom Education Project Puget Sound

Prof. Erzen researches American politics and religion, specializing in criminal justice and social movements.  She teaches courses in religious studies and gender and queer studies, and directs the FEPPS program.

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Chris Kendall
Associate Professor and Chair, Politics and Government

Known for pushing students to think outside the box, Prof. Kendall practiced law before completing his Ph.D. and taking up teaching, specializing in international relations.

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Hajung Lee
Associate Professor, Religion, Spirituality, and Society and Bioethics

With research focused on end-of-life decision-making by ethnic minority immigrants, Prof. Lee teaches courses in both the religious studies department and Bioethics Program.

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Amy Fisher
Associate Professor, Science, Technology, Health, and Society

Prof. Fishers' research focuses on the history and philosophy of the physical sciences, science education, and the relationship between science and gender.

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Robin Jacobson
Professor, Politics and Government

With a focus on immigration, Prof. Jacobson and has published numerous articles and chapters. She teaches on a variety of topics within the context of U.S. politics, including religion, state politics, and race.

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Sara Freeman
Professor, Theatre Arts

Prof. Freeman has published a variety of writings on contemporary playwrights and alternative British theater. She works as a director and dramaturg on campus and is active in local theater communities.

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Richard Anderson-Connolly
Professor, Sociology and Anthropology

Prof. Anderson-Connolly researches topics in comparative sociology and teaches courses on social problems, social order and human freedom, criminology, social stratification, and international political economy.

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Trishna Senapaty
Teaching Fellow, Crime, Law, and Justice

Prof. Senapaty studies the organizing logics of prisons and other institutions of confinement as they intersect with the family, drawing on political and legal anthropology, feminist and carceral studies.

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