Robert Sampson
First-Year Seminar 73S | 4 Credits (Fall 2024) | CANVAS SITE
Monday, 3:00 PM–5:00 PM
This seminar examines key changes in crime and the criminal justice system over the last half-century, including the dramatic rise in violence starting in the 1960s, mass incarceration starting in the mid-1970s, the unexpected crime decline in the 1990s, the policing crisis heightened by George Floyd’s murder in 2020, and historic rises in gun violence during the pandemic era. We will explore these important changes in light of competing explanations of crime and punishment. Inequalities by neighborhood, race, class, and birth cohort will be emphasized, and strategies to promote safety and reform the criminal justice system will be debated.
The seminar will emphasize group discussion and learning experiences in the greater Boston area. In one session, the Chief of the Harvard University Police will visit the class and engage with students in discussions about crime and community, including safety at Harvard and its relationship to Cambridge and Boston. In another session, students will report on in-person or virtual visits to neighborhoods in the local area that are of significance for issues we are studying. And in another class, we will interact with a local group of ex-prisoners from the Transformational Prison Project seeking to promote safety healing, and criminal justice reform.