Advanced Criminology

CJS 3302
Fall 2004
Prof. Bruce Jacobs
bruce.jacobs@utdallas.edu
Green Hall 2.114
Office Hours: by appointment

Required Texts

Curran, Daniel and Claire Renzetti, Theories of Crime, 2nd. edition (referred to as
Curran and Renzetti in schedule of readings below and on back side of this page).

Bohm, Robert M., A Primer on crime and delinquency, 2nd edition (referred to as
Bohm in schedule of readings below and on back side of this page).

Course Description
As specified in the University’s online description of courses and reproduced in
this syllabus, CJS 3302 is designed to provide students with an in-depth study of crime,
criminals, and the reaction of the criminal justice system to both. It explores the
interrelationships among law, policy, and societal conditions. The major focus of the
course is theoretical explanations for crime and criminality. Biological, psychological,
and sociological theories will be considered to this end.
Grading
There will be three mid-terms and a final exam. Each exam will be multiple
choice and will constitute one- fourth of your grade. The final exam will not be
cumulative. Make-up exams will be granted only in exigent circumstances where
students can document (e.g., with a letter from a phys ician) that they had no choice but to
miss the exam date. In general, make- up exams will not be given. The few that are will
be essay in nature; essay exams for the material covered in this course tend to be difficult.
There are no extra-credit projects currently assigned for this course, though I may add
one later in the semester.
Students are expected to have read assigned material before each class. See the
readings schedule below and on the back side of this page for assignments. It should be
noted that the readings schedule is not set in stone; we may vary from it depending on the
pace of the course so it is important that students keep abreast of any changes (I will let
you know if there are any). Though readings and lectures will overlap to some extent,
certain issues will be covered in lecture that do not appear in readings--and vice-versa.
Exams will cover material from both lecture and readings. Assigned material is
absolutely essentially for grounding and reinforcing what I discuss in class, so it is
critical that students do their reading.

Exam Dates

Mid-term #1: Sept 14

Mid-term #2: Oct. 12

Mid-term #3: Nov. 9

Final Exam: Thurs., Dec. 2, 2pm

Schedule of readings
Week 1
Introduction to course, Deviance vs. Crime, Requirements of criminal act

Week 2
continued above, what is theory, Read pp. 1-6; 229-230; 236-237 in Curran and Renzetti;
Bohm, ch.1

Week 3
Classical theory, Read pp. 6-15 in Curran and Renzetti and Bohm ch. 2

Week 4
Positivism and physical characteristics, Read pp. 15-17 and ch. 2 in Curran and Renzetti;
Read Bohm, ch. 3; test #1

Week 5
Biological explanations continued, Continue reading chapter 2 Curran and Renzetti;
Bohm, ch. 4

Week 6
Psychological explanations, Read ch. 3 and pp. 160-165 of Curran and Renzetti and
Bohm, ch.5

Week 7
Psychology continued; same two chapters

Week 8
tie up above; test #2

Week 9
Introduction to sociological crime theories; catch up on any readings
Week 10
Durkheim and Anomie, Read p. 99, 110-113 in Curran and Renzetti; pp. 65-67 in Bohm

Week 11
Merton and Anomie, Strain theory, Read pp. 114-119, 123-132 in Curran and Renzetti;
pp. 76-82 in Bohm

Week 12
Control theory, Read pp. 147-158 in Curran and Renzetti; pp. 90-94 in Bohm; Labeling
theory, Read pp. 172-180 in Curran and Renzetti; pp. 105-109 in Bohm; test #3

Week 13
tie up any material from above

Week 14
Radical theory, Read pp. 17-22, 183-185, and 187-197 in Curran and Renzetti; pp. 109-
119 in Bohm.

Week 15
Learning theory and Differential Association, Read pp. 135-146 in Curran and Renzetti;
pp. 82-90 in Bohm

Week 16
lower class culture theory, drift, social disorganization, Read pp. 120-123, 166-169, and
99-110 in Curran and Renzetti; pp. 79-80, 51-52, and 67-73 in Bohm.

***Incremental grading (the plus/minus system) will be used for this course***

Victimless crimes
CJS 4396
Prof. Bruce Jacobs
bruce.jacobs@utdallas.edu

Required Readings

Victimless crimes (Meier and Geis)

Victimless crimes, (Schur and Bedau)
Bringing down the house (Mezrek)
Drug crazy (Gray)
Tricks and Treats (Bernstein-Sycamore)
Tearoom trade (Humphreys)

Course Description
 Victimless crimes, also known as public order crimes, include a variety of
behaviors that are illegal yet generally perceived by those engaging in them to be
legitimate, justified, and acceptable. Many such offenses are illegal only because the
government has said so, especially public order violations where there may be no
identifiable victim. The objective of this course is to develop a thorough understanding
of the complexities and controversies that swirl around these offenses.
A number of questions will be posed and explored to this end. Is there a moral
basis for defining behaviors that people freely participate in, and which seemingly bring
no harm to others, as criminal? Should the government be allowed to tell people what
they can and cannot do? Is it right to curtail individual liberties for a greater social good?
If so, on what basis and under what circumstances? What does the notion of harm really
mean? Key definitions and constructs of public order/victimless crime will be examined.
Three offenses--drug use/distribution, select forms of sexual deviance, and gambling--
will be explored in particular, but there will be wide coverage of other offenses through
student presentations (described below). The social control of these behaviors, and of
public order crimes in general, will be a running theme throughout the course.
Requirements
Two exams on the material covered during the course will be given. Each will be
worth 40% of your grade. The first exam will take place about the eighth week of class.
The second exam (which is the final exam) will take place on the last day of class. This
exam will not be cumulative. Each exam will be a combination of multiple choice and
short answer/essay.
Oral presentations also will be part of the course requirements. Students will
coalesce into groups of three, divide the research and presentation work 50-50, and do the
following:

1. Pick an offense that we did not cover in class that would be considered a public order
or victimless crime. The offense chosen is at the students’ discretion, subject only to the
instructor’s approval.
2. Describe the offense you're presenting. How is it done, by whom, where (if relevant),
and for what reason?
3. Who is being victimized?
4. How did it come to be illegal?
5. Should it be illegal? Why or why not (see reverse side)?

Make sure you provide a summary of your presentation, with sources cited, to
members of the class (one or two pages is probably enough). Also make sure that you
use at least five (5) visual aids in your presentation (typically pictures or graphs on
overhead transparencies or perhaps video clips, if you so choose). The presentation will
be the major part of your participation grade for the class. Participation is worth 20% of
your final grade. Presentations should be 20-25 minutes length.
For graduate students, oral presentations will serve as the basis for a
comprehensive research paper they will turn in at the end of the semester. This paper
will draw from at least 15 academic sources (books, articles, etc. not used in the course)
and be 15 pages in length (double-spaced, one- inch margins all around). This paper
should be of publishable quality and will be worth 1/3 of the graduate student’s final
grade. Undergraduates will not be required to turn in a research paper, but their oral
presentations will require a nontrivial amount of research and preparation, and will be
evaluated on their merit.
This is an advanced seminar and as such, it is intended to be discussion- intensive.
Each week, students will be expected to be active participants. Be prepared to identify
points of significance in the readings and to discuss them.

Violent crime
CJS 4396
Professor Bruce Jacobs
bruce.jacobs@utdallas.edu

Required Readings

Profiling violent crime (Holmes)

Criminal retaliation (Jacobs)
Understanding sexual violence (Scully)
Corporate crime, corporate violence (Frank and Lynch)
Deathwork (Johnson)

Course Description
Violence is pervasive in American society. Rarely does a day go by that violent
crime isn’t featured prominently on the local or national airwaves. Violence grabs our
attention. It shocks and repulses us. It kindles a desire to understand why it happens and
how we can avoid being victimized ourselves. Unlike other forms of criminal behavior,
violence typically is thought to be mala in se--bad in and of itself. Though laws
prohibiting various violent offenses are socially constructed, there is general consensus
that such laws need to exist. The form, content, structure, and control of violent crime
are prominent concerns of this course.
Requirements
Two exams on the material covered during the course will be given. Each will be
worth 40% of your grade. The first exam will take place about the eight week of class.
The second exam will take place on the last day of class. The final exam will not be
cumulative. Each exam will be a combination of multiple choice, short answer/essay.
Oral presentations also will be part of the course requirements. Students will
coalesce into groups, divide the research and presentation work, and do one of two things
(the choice is up to you):

1. pick a violent offense that led to the formation of a specific law or policy designed to
prevent that particular crime from reoccurring. Tell us in detail about the case (what
happened, against whom, by whom, why, where, how, etc.) how the case led to the
formation of the new law, the structure of the law, the consequences of the law for
victims and offenders, and whether you believe the law is beneficial to society (e.g., how
does its desired deterrent effect weigh against its costliness and/or infringements on civil
liberties, among other things).

2. pick a specific form of violence in American society that either is hidden, goes largely
unreported, is not considered a criminal offense, or that is not punished as severely as the
equivalent form of “criminal behavior.” The behavior chosen is at the student’s
discretion, subject only to the instructor’s approval. The presentation will offer a detailed
and informative analysis of the behavior in question. How is it done, by whom, where (if
relevant), and for what reason? What are the consequences of the behavior for victims
and society? If the behavior is not criminalized or criminalized enough, why is this the
case? And why is it necessary for the law to intervene. In the case of hidden behaviors,
is this realistic and if so, what sanctions should be administered?
The presentation will be the major part of your participation grade for the class.
Participation is worth 20% of your final grade. Presentations should be about 15 minutes
length.
For graduate students, oral presentations will serve as the basis for a
comprehensive research paper to be turned in at the end of the semester. This paper will
draw from at least 15 academic sources (books, articles, etc. not used in the course) and
be 15 pages in length (double-spaced, one- inch margins all around). This paper should
be of publishable quality and will be worth 1/4 of the graduate student’s final grade.
Undergraduates will not be required to turn in a research paper, but their oral
presentations will require a nontrivial amount of research and preparation, and will be
evaluated on its merit.
This is an advanced seminar and as such, it is intended to be discussion- intensive.
Each week, students will be expected to be active participants. Be prepared to identify
points of significance in the readings and to discuss them.

Mid-term
Around the 8th week of class (specific date to be announced).

Final exam

Last day of class.

Order of readings (chapter numbers provided in class)

weeks 1 and 2 Profiling violent crime (Holmes)

weeks 3 and 4 Profiling violent crime (Holmes)

weeks 5 and 6 Criminal retaliation (Jacobs)

weeks 7 and 8 Understanding sexual violence (Scully)

weeks 9 and 10 Understanding sexual violence (Scully)

weeks 11 and 12 Corporate crime, corporate violence (Frank and Lynch)

weeks 13 and 14 Deathwork (Johnson)

weeks 15 and 16 Deathwork (Johnson)

Etiology of Crime and Criminality

POEC 6303
Spring 2005
Prof. Bruce Jacobs
bruce.jacobs@utdallas.edu
Green Hall 2.114
Office Hours: by appointment

Required Texts

Akers and Sellers, Criminological Theories

Tittle, Control Balance

Course Description
As specified in the University’s online description of courses and reproduced in
this syllabus, POEC 6303 is designed to examine the history of criminological thought by
assessing the major works of theorists such as Bentham, Beccaria, Marx, Durkheim,
Lombroso, Shaw and McKay, Sutherland, Becker, Merton, and others. The course is
designed to introduce graduate students to the theories that anchor the discipline of
criminology. The course will explore the causal structure of these theories, the level of
analysis at which they reside, the assumptions that underlie them, their strengths and
weaknesses, and their policy implicatio ns.

Grading
There will be two exams: one mid-term and a final. Both will be short
answer/essay. Each will be worth 40% of the student’s grade. Students will also be
required to do oral presentations throughout the semester. These presentations will occur
each week and will be described in greater detail in class. The oral presentation part of
the student’s grade will constitute 20% of the student’s final grade.

Other requirements
Students are expected to have read assigned material before each class. I will
assign material orally each week to allow maximum flexibility in the pace at which we
move through the course. Readings and lectures will overlap to some extent, but certain
issues will be covered in lecture that do not appear in readings, and vice-versa. Exams
will cover material from both lecture and readings. Assigned reading material is
absolutely essentially for grounding and reinforcing what I discuss in class, so it is
critical that students do their reading.

Exam dates

To be announced.

Essay due date

Last class day.

Violent crime
POEC 6315
Professor Bruce Jacobs
bruce.jacobs@utdallas.edu

This is a PhD-level Criminology course. This course may not be suitable for students
who lack adequate grounding in the core concepts of criminology.

As a seminar, this course will be discussion- intensive and student-driven. Each week, a
different form of violent crime will be explored. Topics include street violence, drug
violence, violence beyond the law, sexual violence, white collar violence, and state
violence. Two students will present during each session. The student presenter’s job is
to highlight key findings in the readings and specify relevant analytic points for class
discussion. All students are expected to have read the assigned material regardless of
whether they are presenting. Students’ class participation grade is partly a function of
their contribution to general discussion on the days they are not presenting.

Students will receive their particular reading assignments at least one class session prior
to their presentation day.

Each class session will be divided into two segments. The first segment will involve
student readings presentations. The second segment will be devoted to discussion of
students’ emerging research papers. This paper constitutes 60% of the student’s final
grade; class participation counts toward the other 40%. These papers are designed to
familiarize students with the basic process of doing violence research. Students are free
to choose any topic they wish within the field of violence. The student is encouraged to
choose a topic that interests him or her or that s/he likely will pursue in future graduate-
level research (e.g., the dissertation or thesis). The research paper will do the following:
1. Introduction
What are you studying and why is it important? (1-2 pages)

2. Literature review
What research has been conducted on the topic? What have these studies found? (12
pages). What are the significance of these findings. Be careful how you write this
section. The best way to write a good literature review is to model it stylistically on
published literature reviews that have impressed you, that make sense, and that are
organized.

3. Identification of research gap

What have none of these studies looked at that you believe needs to be looked at? Why is
the gap you’ve identified worthy of exploring? In other words, what is the compelling
empirical and/or conceptual reason to focus on the issue you’ve identified? (2-3 pages) .
This is where you step back, look at your literature review, and try to make sense of what
you want to do and why you want to do it.

The research process is, by definition, collaborative. Discussion of other students’

research papers is intended to directly benefit all students, not just those who are
discussing their project. Since class discussion of research papers is designed to identify
emerging problems, clarify objectives, and stimulate ideas, look at this as free advice
from your colleagues. Insights gained from others during this part of the class should
ultimately be reflected in each student’s final paper.

Because the summer session is relatively short, students should begin research and/or
writing their papers early on. Though I will not require segments of your emerging paper
to be turned in weekly, I encourage students who wish to submit drafts to me to do so. If
you do not choose to submit drafts, you will not be penalized. Keep in mind, however,
that the best papers are those that are polished, organized, and clearly articulated. My
comments may be helpful in this regard along the way. Regardless of whether you
decide to turn in sequential drafts to me, the timetable for discussion is the following:

Week 2 topic selection (what do you want to study and what do

you expect to find?)
Week 3 literature search (what have you found and where?)
Week 4 & 5 preliminary literature review and assessment (what’s the
general gist of existing research?)
Weeks 6 & 7 formal review and assessment of research gap
Week 8 paper submission

Grading
Research papers will be turned in on the final day of class. As mentioned earlier, they are
worth 60% of your final grade. Class participation is worth 40% of your final grade.

Course Readings

1. Crime is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America. Zimring, Franklin E., Hawkins,
Gordon. pp. 3-20.

2. The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs,
Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road rage, and So
Much More. Glassner, Barry. pp. 28-49.

3. Crime Profiles: The Anatomy of Dangerous Persons, Places, and Situations. Miethe,
Terance D., McCorkle, Richard. pp. 19-53.

4. Criminal homicide as a situated transaction. D. Luckenbill, pp. 29-38.

5. Crime as social control. Black, Donald.

pp. 27-41.

6. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. Anderson,
Elijah. pp. 32-34, 66-106.

7. Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence Beyond the Law. Jacobs, Bruce.

pp. 23-72.

8. The police and the black male. E. Anderson, pp. 339-352.

9. Firearms and violence; Zimring and Hawkins, pp. 264-281.

10. Understanding Sexual Violence: A Study of Convicted Rapists. Scully, Diana.

pp. 97-160.

11. Fraternities and rape on campus. Martin and Hummer, pp. 523-537.

12. Acquaintance gang rape on campus. O’Sullivan, pp. 101-112.

13. Profit Without Honor: White-Collar Crime and the Looting of America: 2nd Edition.
Rosoff, Stephen M., Pontell, Henry N., Tillman, Robert H. pp. 90-123.
14. Corporate Crime, Corporate Violence. Frank, Nancy K. and Michael J. Lynch, pp. 1-
11; 18-35; 52-96.

15. The crash of Valujet 592. Matthews and Kauzlarich, pp. 324-336.

16. Death Work: A Study of the Modern Execution Process. Johnson, Robert, pp. 63-119.
Advances in criminological theory
POEC 7300
Fall 2005
Prof. Bruce Jacobs
bruce.jacobs@utdallas.edu
Green Hall 2.114
Office Hours: by appointment

Required Texts

Cullen, F. and R. Agnew. 2003. Criminological theory: Past to present . Los Angeles: Roxbury.

Course Description
As specified in the University’s online description of courses, POEC 7300 examines the current state of
contemporary criminological theory. The course is designed to explore the causal structure, historical lineage, and
underlying assumptions of major contemporary approaches to crime causation. Particular focus is placed on the degree
to which research provides empirical validation for prevailing explanations of crime and criminality.

As a seminar, this course will be discussion-intensive and student-driven. Specific theories will be explored
each week. These include integrated theory, power-control theory, institutional anomie theory, life course criminology,
coercion theory, feminist criminology, and rational choice theory, among others. Two students will present each week.
The student presenter’s job is to highlight key findings in the readings and specify relevant analytic points for class
discussion. All students are expected to have read the assigned material regardless of whether they are presenting.
Students’ class participation grade is partly a function of their contribution to general discussion on the days they
are not presenting. Class participation is worth 40% of your grade.

Students will receive their reading assignments at least one week prior to their presentation day. Some of
these assignments will be based on the text. Others will be located by students assigned to cover specific theories in the
particular week those theories are covered. I will tell you what you need to do in class.

Final paper
Students will submit a comprehensive research paper, 15-20 pages in length (double-spaced, 1 inch margins),
at the end of the semester. In this paper, students will:

1. Select one theory explored in the course. Synthesize its core tenets. Tell the reader how and why the theory is
important (2 pages)

2. Perform a literature review of the theory. What has been said about it? How has it been tested? To what empirical
contexts has it been applied and with what results? (12-14 pages). At least 20 sources should be referenced, perhaps
more. It depends on the theory you select.

3. What questions persist about the theory? Identify the most significant gap in the theory’s understanding. Obviously
critical to identifying this gap is the overview provided in the previous section. This is the part of the paper where you
step back, look at your literature review, and try to make sense of what is missing and why it’s important (2-3 pages).

The student is encouraged to choose a theory that interests him or her and that synergizes with a likely dissertation
and/or thesis topic.

Pace
Students will submit one and a half written pages of their final paper, each week, until the end of the semester.
Submissions will begin during week 3. By week 15, therefore, approximately 18 pages will have been submitted.
Think of these weekly submissions as preliminary drafts of the component pieces of your final paper. You will revise
them throughout the course of the semester. The pace of those revisions is up to you. My concern is that the paper
evolve sequentially and that it be polished by the end of the semester.

The paper is worth 60% of your final grade.