Criminal Law and Vice (Metcalf)
Additional Information
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Expository Writing
Grading
30% Participation,
40% Paper,
30% Other (Students will complete a mid-term paper during the sixth week of class. )
No
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- Class sessions are regularly recorded. If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can send you an email with instructions for accessing the recording for the class session(s) you missed.
Meeting Times/Location
M 4:30PM - 6:20PM
Silverman Hall 245A
Category
Upper-Level
Credits
2.0
The course will examine whether the criminalization of “vice” offenses—drugs, prostitution, gambling, and other offenses—are an appropriate state function to regulate public safety or impose moral policy. Students will analyze the theoretical footing for criminally regulating behavior that only directly affects the actor or a consenting participant, while always analyzing the premise that such behavior is indeed “victimless.” The study of these issues will invoke broader philosophical themes of the criminal law, including the tension between individual liberty and collective security, the legitimacy of morals qua morals as a police function, and the concept of externalities as a basis for criminal regulation.
Attendance: Mandatory. Please notify the lecturer in advance for an excused absence.
Grading: In-Class Participation (30%); Midterm Paper (30%); Final Paper (40%). Student participation is a crucial component of the course as the class will resemble more seminar than lecture.
There will be no class the sixth week of the calendar. Instead, students will complete a mid-term paper.
Suggested Prerequisite: Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure.
Course Materials: In addition to a textbook, mandatory class reading materials will be posted on the course portal.
Depending on class enrollment, the format will combine Socratic lecture with interactive discussion/debate.
Criminal Law and Procedure Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of criminal law and procedure; Perform legal analysis in the context of criminal law and procedure; Communicate effectively on topics related to criminal law and procedure; Demonstrate an understanding of the role criminal law and procedure play in society and their impact on other areas of law and society.
Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Textbooks
"Criminal Law and the Regulation of Vice" by Harcourt & Zimring |