Reference no: EM133392604 , Length: 6 pages

The project will consist of a sociological analysis of the legal case you have been assigned to study.

Case: South Carolina v Alex Murdaugh (homicide case)

Your goal will be to predict and/or explain the outcome of your case using sociological principles. (It will NOT be a study of the consequences of your case for society.) In your paper, you will need to do the following things:

Question 1. Describe the case. Who did what to whom? What were the allegations or charges? What stages of the legal process did the case go through? What was the outcome?

Question 2. Present a sociological profile of the people involved in the case. Present as much social information about the main parties as you can. (This includes victims, plaintiffs, defendants, attorneys, witnesses, and legal officials, with most of your information likely to be about the victims/accusers and defendants.) Describe the parties in terms of their social status; education; occupation; family life; degree of social involvement with friends and communities; ethnicity; religion; reputation; whether they are or represent an organization; and anything else about them you find interesting and important.

Question 3. Apply the sociological theory of law to the facts of the case. As we proceed in the course to cover the sociological principles that predict legal outcomes (e.g., social stratification, social morphology, etc.), apply those principles to your case. You can do this step by step as the course proceeds.

Question 4. Assess how well the theory works in your case. What sociological principles does your case illustrate? If your case turned out differently from what you would have expected, state how and try to explain why. If your case fits the theory well, explain how it does. Present any refinements or additions to the sociological theory of law that your case suggests.

The final product will be a 6-8 pages.