Juvenile Law and Deviance
Description:One of our biggest problems as a society is that we become so preoccupied with our own lives, beliefs, and values that we tend to disregard how situations and environments affect other people. There is more to understanding others, for example, than knowing that they're poor or noticing their lack of education. A person's life is constructed and shaped by so many different factors that it can be difficult to pinpoint why individuals make the decisions they do, and further why groups of people make the decisions that they do.
This major seeks to understand people on an individual level and collectively. In particular, it explores how insensitivity and narrow-mindedness are having significant negative effects on the development and societal functioning of adolescents: what influences their decisions; what affects societal beliefs that lead to how people as individuals then shape themselves; and what factors lead to the decision-making and opinions of individuals who are part of the same society. The major studies how the environment in which a child grows up (or to which he or she is exposed on a daily basis), such as school, can affect his or her education and behavior.
Through this course of study, the student also applies her acquired understanding of people to law, exploring such questions as how fair is our justice system, and how do stereotypes and discrimination affect people's actions, which in turn affect the way the judicial system makes a decision?
The major incorporates fieldwork - exposure with urban students specifically – which will then inform the capstone project. The fieldwork will develop analytical skills and proper instructional skills for working with at-risk learners from various backgrounds, and also offers opportunities for case study work (a major aspect of the capstone).
Related Courses:| Internship |
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| ASSC-210 Lancaster Crime, Poverty, and Social Security | |
| SOC 212 Deviance, Diversity, and Difference | |
| PSYCH 221 Basic Dynamics of Personality | |
| EDUC 220 Urban Education | |
| PSYCH 225 Developmental Psychology: Infancy & Childhood | |
| LAW 250 Criminal Justice | |
| SOC 302 Research Methods | |
| SOC 315 Theories of Self | |
| LAW 316 Lancaster Immigration & Asylum Law | |
| AFS 367 Black Men, White Law | |
| IDS 464 Individualized Study |