Core Concepts in Criminology, Race, and Legal Philosophy
Foundational Concepts in Law and Criminology
1. Comparing Natural Law and Legal Positivism
Compare the Natural Law paradigm to the Legal Positivist paradigm. Briefly list some strengths and weaknesses of each perspective. Where does the ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ fit among these two perspectives?
Natural Law Paradigm:
- Core Idea: A law is only valid if it aligns with higher principles (like justice, morality, or universal human rights).
- Strengths: Provides a basis for challenging unjust laws and connects law to universal human rights.
- Weaknesses: Morality is subjective, leading to potential inconsistency and lack of clarity.
Legal Positivist Paradigm:
- Core Idea: A law is valid if it was created through the correct process by the legitimate authority, regardless of its moral content.
- Strengths: Makes laws clear and predictable; separates personal moral opinions from legal validity.
- Weaknesses: Can allow unfair and harmful laws, provided they followed the proper enactment process.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ aligns closely with the Natural Law perspective. King distinguishes between just and unjust laws, arguing that a just law “squares with the moral law or the law of God.” He also ties law to morality and democracy:
“Also, a law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law” (King 40).
2. The Positivist School of Criminology
What is the Positivist School of Criminology, and what is its relevance in understanding the relationship between race, social control, and scientific claims?
The Positivist School of Criminology emphasizes that criminal behavior is determined by factors beyond individual choice, such as biology, psychology, and social environment, rather than moral failings. Its relevance to race and social control lies in how early positivist approaches often made scientific claims that linked race to criminality. This provided justification for discriminatory policies and reinforced systemic racial inequalities, highlighting the dangers of using “scientific” reasoning to legitimize social control over marginalized groups.
3. The Classical School of Criminology
What is the Classical School of Criminology? How does it contrast with the Positivist School?
The Classical School of Criminology argues that people possess free will and commit crimes after a rational calculation of risks and rewards. It contrasts sharply with the Positivist School, which views criminal behavior as determined by biological, psychological, or social factors beyond individual control, emphasizing causation over choice. Essentially, Classical theory focuses on moral responsibility and punishment as deterrence, while Positivist theory focuses on understanding underlying causes to prevent crime.
4. Cesare Lombroso and Cesare Beccaria
Why do Cesare Lombroso and Cesare Beccaria feature prominently in our lecture materials? What do they offer us in terms of understanding crime?
5. Defining the Three C’s
What are the “Three C’s”? List/define each and provide a brief (one sentence/phrase) application or example for each. How do our course readings relate to these terms, or challenge how we think of these terms?
- Crime: An act that breaks the law.
- Example: Robbery or assault.
- Criminality: The tendency or behavior of engaging in crime.
- Example: Someone who often steals from stores shows criminality.
- Criminalization: The process by which behaviors are made illegal.
- Example: Laws that make certain drugs illegal are acts of criminalization.
Course Readings and the Three C’s
Crime → “Code of the Street 25 Years Later” (Fader & León)
This reading is strong for crime because Anderson’s framework shows how structural disadvantage and neighborhood conditions influence acts that get legally defined as crime.
Criminality → “A Critical and Comprehensive Sociological Theory of Race and Racism” (Golash-Boza)
This one works for criminality because it explains how race and racism shape ideas about who is considered criminal, tying directly to the construction of “criminal types.”
Criminalization → “The Mass Criminalization of Black Americans: A Historical Overview” (Hinton & Cook)
Perfect for criminalization since it traces how U.S. policies, from slavery to mass incarceration, systematically criminalized Black communities.
6. Race as a Social Construct
How is race “made,” as opposed to being “found”? Reference a minimum of two readings in your response.
“The idea of ‘race’ includes the socially constructed belief that the human race can be divided into biologically discrete and exclusive groups based on physical and cultural traits. … Race is a modern concept and a product of colonial encounters.” (Golash-Boza, 2016, p. 131)
This quote directly states that race is socially constructed, rooted in history and colonialism, not something natural or pre-existing.
“Understanding contemporary mass incarceration as one historical moment within a much longer and larger antiblack punitive tradition is critical for grasping the insidious manifestations of criminal justice discrimination in modern-day America. The defining feature of this tradition, we argue, is the habitual surveillance and incapacitation of racialized individuals and communities” (Hinton & Cook 2021, p. 263).
This demonstrates how race is historically constructed through systems of punishment, surveillance, and policy, showing that race is actively made through institutional practices.
7. Racism Converted into Race
Using at least two course readings to support your response, how would you articulate the ways in which racism has been converted into race?
Racism is converted into race when discriminatory structures and practices (racism) create and solidify the categories and meanings of race itself. Hinton and Cook show the mechanism:
“The defining feature of this tradition is the habitual surveillance and incapacitation of racialized individuals and communities.” (Hinton & Cook, 2021, p. 262)
This habitual surveillance (a racist structure) produces the idea of a “racialized individual” inherently subject to control. Golash-Boza reinforces this analytical connection:
“A comprehensive theory of race and racism should bring race and racism together into the same analytical framework because we cannot separate the construction of race from the reproduction of racism.” (Golash-Boza, 2016, p. 132)
This illustrates that race is not an independent entity but emerges from the structures, practices, and ideologies of racism.
8. Issues with Subcultural Theories of Violence
According to Fader and León, what are two issues with subcultural theories of violence? Using one substantive example: how does this reading historically contextualize the code of the street?
Fader and León identify two issues with subcultural theories of violence:
- They often reduce structural inequities to individual or group traits (transmuting structural inequities into psychosocial pathologies).
- They conflate types of people with types of violence, ignoring broader social forces.
Historically, the reading contextualizes the Code of the Street by showing how it is a cultural adaptation to systemic exclusion and mistrust of institutions:
“The code of the street is actually a cultural adaptation to a profound lack of faith in the police and the judicial system” (Anderson 1999/2000, p. 34).
9. The Impact of Place on Justice
How does place (e.g., geography; jurisdiction; nation-state sovereignty) affect basic ideas of justice? Use two course readings to anchor your response.
Place shapes justice by influencing who is policed and how laws are applied. Using Hinton and Cook alongside Gaston et al., we see that local jurisdiction and neighborhood composition reproduce racial disparities. For example, even in Newark, a majority-Black city, Black residents faced disproportionate arrests, especially in areas with more White and Hispanic residents:
“Officers tend to arrest Blacks in communities with greater White and Hispanic residents,” (Gaston et al., 2020, p. 1416).
This demonstrates that justice is not uniform across space but is structured by geography and institutional practices, reinforcing racial disparities based on local jurisdiction.
10. Code of the Street and Legal Philosophy
How does “the code of the street” map onto course materials concerning legal philosophy?
11. Procedural and Distributive Justice
Define procedural and distributive justice, and provide one example for each.
Procedural Justice
This refers to the perceived fairness of the processes and methods used to make decisions or resolve disputes. It emphasizes transparency, consistency, impartiality, and giving people a voice in the process.
- Example: A police department holds a public hearing before implementing new community policing policies, allowing residents to provide input and ask questions.
Distributive Justice
This refers to the perceived fairness of the outcomes or distribution of resources, benefits, or punishments. It focuses on whether people receive what they deserve or need.
- Example: A city allocates funding for schools based on student population and need, so under-resourced schools receive more support to achieve equity.
12. Natural Law and Legal Positivism: Real-World Application
Define the natural law and the legal positivist paradigm. Provide a real-world example, topic, or controversy, and briefly describe how each paradigm would approach the given issue.
Natural Law holds that laws should reflect universal moral principles, so actions that violate these principles are inherently unjust. Legal Positivism views law as rules created and enforced by the state, regardless of morality.
For example, in the abortion debate, natural law proponents would focus on the inherent moral rights of the unborn, arguing that laws protecting life are morally necessary. Legal positivism, conversely, would focus solely on the current legal status, following the laws and court rulings established by the governing authority, irrespective of personal moral beliefs.
14. Hinton and Cook on Police Reforms
How does the Hinton and Cook reading inform our understanding of police reforms and police-centric approaches to addressing crime and social harm?
Hinton and Cook (2021) highlight that contemporary policing is embedded in a long history of racialized surveillance and control, showing that:
“The defining feature of this tradition…is the habitual surveillance and incapacitation of racialized individuals and communities” (p. 262).
This historical context suggests that police reforms and police-centric approaches may have limited effectiveness in addressing crime and social harm, because they often operate within structures that reproduce racial and social inequalities rather than resolving the underlying causes of harm.
15. Race and Systems of Stratification
How are categories of race fundamentally tied to other categories/systems of stratification? Cite and integrate at least two course readings in your response.
Race is fundamentally tied to other systems of stratification because it does not operate in isolation but intersects with structures like class and gender to maintain social hierarchies. Golash-Boza emphasizes this intersectionality:
“An examination of these facets of white supremacy renders it evident that an understanding of racial ideology must be clearly articulated with other structures of domination, such as capitalism and patriarchy.” (Golash-Boza, p. 134)
Similarly, Hinton and Cook (2021) highlight how racial categorization is embedded in the legal system, which is a key mechanism of stratification:
“Understanding contemporary mass incarceration as one historical moment within a much longer and larger antiblack punitive tradition is critical for grasping the insidious manifestations of criminal justice discrimination in modern-day America.” (Hinton & Cook, p. 262)
Together, these quotes illustrate that race interacts with economic, legal, and gendered systems to structure inequality across multiple domains of society.
16. Before/With/Against the Law
What does it mean to be “Before/With/Against” the law? How does this typology relate to our course materials? Cite/integrate two course readings OR examples in your response.
The typology of being “Before/With/Against” the law reflects how individuals experience legal systems differently based on their social position and systemic inequality. It suggests that some people stand *Before* the law (treated neutrally), some are *With* the law (benefiting from it), and others are perpetually *Against* the law (subject to its punitive force).
Golash-Boza’s framework relates to this by arguing that race and racism are inseparable, meaning that the legal system cannot treat all individuals neutrally:
“A comprehensive theory of race and racism should bring race and racism together into the same analytical framework because we cannot separate the construction of race from the reproduction of racism.” (Golash-Boza p. 131)
Michelle Alexander illustrates the *Against* position in practice, showing how legal systems can marginalize people of color:
“Alexander is commonly credited for popularizing the premise that over the past half-century in America, mass incarceration has functioned as ‘a new racial caste system,’ fueled by a calculated and seemingly colorblind system of disenfranchisement, destruction, and death.” (2010, p. 11; cited in Hinton & Cook, p. 262)
17. Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Describe (or illustrate) the relationship between inductive and deductive reasoning. Where does empirical scholarship “fit”?
Deductive reasoning starts with a general theory or hypothesis and tests it against specific observations. Inductive reasoning starts with specific observations and uses them to develop broader generalizations or theories. Empirical scholarship fits by utilizing both methods: it often uses deduction to test existing theories through data collection, and induction to generate new theories based on observed patterns in the data.
Inductive Reasoning Example
Select any ONE course reading and describe how it meets the criteria of inductive reasoning.
“Despite Newark being a majority–minority city, Black Americans are grossly over-represented in drug arrests to a degree similar to that in other contexts” (Gaston et al., 2020, p. 1421).
This observation illustrates inductive reasoning because researchers observed a specific, unexpected pattern (racialized policing persists despite the majority-minority context) and used this specific finding to challenge or refine general theories (like racial conflict theories).
Deductive Reasoning Example
Select any ONE course reading and describe how it meets the criteria of deductive reasoning.
“Despite reasons for doubt, leading theoretical explanations, such as racial conflict theories, imply that racialized policing should lessen in contexts where citizens and officers of colour are the majority.” (Gaston et al., 2020, p. 1417).
This shows deductive reasoning because it starts from a general theory (racial conflict theories predict less racialized policing in majority–minority contexts) and applies it to the specific context of Newark, NJ, to generate a testable expectation.