3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” According to ask.com, this common expression was made popular in the 1970s by the theme song for the television show “Beretta.” Aside from amusing us with the irony that the star of “Beretta” was Robert Blake who was later charged with the murder of Bony Lee Bakely, the expression raises a profound issue: What is the relationship between punishment and time? This course will explore that question. Topics to be discussed include different philosophical understandings and experiences of time, views of mortality and fate, theories of punishment, specific punishments in the U.S. (including sentences of juveniles, life, death, and LWOP), as well as punishments that are not specifically meted out but are known to be the consequences of political, social, and economic circumstance. Students will read texts in criminology, political theory, philosophy, and jurisprudence, as well as a selection of Supreme Court cases, novels, and short stories. This writing intensive course is limited to undergraduates who have taken at least one “Classics of Political Thought” course (190.280, 190.281, 190.282, or 190.283).