Criminal offending and society’s reaction to crime
Directions: Each student should develop an essay response to both exam questions.
Appropriate internal and external citations should be included for each essay. The whole exam
should be no longer than 8 pages (excluding external references) when typed and employing 1
and ½ or double spacing. See the “exam” link on bb to learn a few additional expectations.
Section One—ILLUSTRATING KNOWLEDGE OF BASIC CONCEPTS: For 20 points, answer the
following making sure to integrate at least 5 of the 16 of the readings thus far discussed in support of your argument.
The purpose of the course, to:
focus on a series of questions such as: How does the social construction of gender influence criminal offending and society’s reaction to crime? How does an intersectional approach help better answer the above question? Which theories best explain female offending? How is punishment differentially experienced or applied depending on the gender of the offender (more specifically: What is the experience of prison and interaction with the criminal justice system like for women)? How does
gender &/or sexual orientation affect crime portrayal, experience with the system, and
the experience of institutionalization specifically?
To begin, select one of the three questions appearing above in bold. Next, use material from Mod 1 to describe a “type of evidence” or “way of knowing” which you believe would best allow us to answer the question you have selected. Finally, answer the question using course material being sure to critically examine the quality of that answer based on the evidence used in the material you incorporate. FYI, it is fine to blend your 1) answer to the question and 2)
the type of information you believe is appropriate to support the argument you make.
Section Two—APPLYING KNOWLEDGE OF COURSE CONCEPTS: For 30 points, answer the
following making sure to integrate at least 8 of the 16 readings thus far discussed.
Gender Gap: Based on the material presented thus far, offer an explanation for the “gender
gap.” Specifically, after using course material to describe the phenomenon of “gender gap,” I
expect your argument to integrate course material pertaining to both “the structure of
society/crime” (Lorber, Lenning, Belknap, Messerschmidt, etc.) and the bio social approach
introduced in Week 5.
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