Reference no: EM132443815

LS 202 - Criminal Law - St. Jerome's University

Objectives:

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to
• demonstrate familiarity with key terms, debates, and theoretical approaches in criminal law and criminal law scholarship
• identify and critically analyze popular and scholarly conceptions of criminal law and of the roles criminal law plays in society
• situate individual criminal laws and criminal acts in key historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts
• critically discuss the relationships between the concepts of criminal law and justice; legal guilt and factual guilt; and ‘innocent' and ‘criminal'

Assignment 1: Critical Media Analysis

Format 2-3 pages double spaced

Details This short assignment involves writing a critical analysis of how the perpetrator of a criminal act is represented in one mainstream news article.

You will begin the assignment by identifying a criminal ‘act' or ‘event' (current or past) that relates to one of the course topics (we will discuss how to do this in class). Find one news article about this event from a major news outlet (for example, CBC, CTV, CP24, Toronto Sun, CNN, New York Times, Daily Mail). The news article must not be an opinion piece (for example, it must not be an editorial, an op-ed, or written by a columnist). The article must clearly identify a crime and a perpetrator of that crime (whether the perpetrator is alleged, accused, or convicted), as well as quotations from at least two people.

Once you have selected your article, you will research the event and write a short paper (two to three pages double spaced) presenting your critical analysis of the way that the event is represented in the article. To do this, you will want to think about the way that the different actors involved (e.g., the ‘victim', the ‘perpetrator', the police) are represented in the headline and the body of the article; the language used by the reporter to refer to the victim and the language used to refer to the other actors involved (for instance, who is the reporter presenting as the most authoritative source and how can you tell? whose experiences is the reporter validating and how? whose personal history and character details are shared?); the language used by those quoted in the article; whom the article quotes first and how far down in the article each actor is quoted; whether the article contains a photograph and who is included in the photograph, what they are doing, and what image of that person / those people is conveyed; how many views of the incident are represented in the article; whose voices are not included in the article and which theoretical approaches discussed in class are included or not included; what facts about the event are left out of the article; how are any concerns with the way the perpetrator was treated, with the criminal justice system, or with other actors involved framed (for example, isolated problems? systemic problems?) and what kinds of solutions are discussed and implied or not discussed and implied; how does the representation of the perpetrator reproduce or challenge common assumptions discussed in class; and how does the representation of the perpetrator in the article shape the way the event in question is likely to be perceived by the reader.

In your critical analysis of how the perpetrator of the crime is represented in the article, you will want to analyze these aspects of the article (as relevant) and relate them to relevant course themes, class discussions, and course readings. It is important that your paper be analytical rather than just descriptive. Your analysis should be supported by references to outside research and course material.

Format the paper as a short essay or report with an introduction (outlining the main points you will make and how you will proceed), a conclusion (summarizing your main points and what you discussed), and a works cited (including complete bibliographic information for the news article you selected and any secondary sources, including citations for all the ideas or other information you referred to that were not your own). You will want to do some background research on the event the article is about and any broader patterns it relates to. Be sure to include citations for this research. Include a printed copy of the news article when you submit the hard copy of your paper.

Assignment 2: Final Paper

6 pages double spaced

Details You will choose the topic for this six-page paper from a list of topics to be posted on LEARN. Your analysis will illustrate how the particular event mentioned in the topic you chose is related to one or more of the major themes and debates in criminal law scholarship that we discuss in the course. You will use the concepts and tools developed in the course to evaluate different positions taken in discussion of this event and to build your own argument with reference to relevant scholarly analysis.

You will be asked to refer to the readings and also to at least five other sources, at least three of which must be academic articles.

Attachment:- Criminal Law.rar