Graduate Program in Criminology & Deviance
The sociology of crime and deviance is the study of the making, breaking, and enforcing of criminal laws and social norms. Its aim is to understand empirically and to develop and test theories explaining criminal and deviant behavior, the formation and enforcement of laws, and the operation of criminal processing systems.
The Program in Criminology & Deviance at CU Boulder examines questions fundamental to any criminological study: What causes crime? Why do some people violate norms? What can or should be done about such acts for both the offenders and the victims? Why do we have the laws that we do and how are they enforced? What empirical research exists on these issues?
A Critical Edge
CU’s Program in Criminology & Deviance further develops these standard questions with both theoretical and empirical attention to issues of social justice. The Program’s particular strength lies in its diverse array of theoretical and methodological approaches to the sociology of crime, deviance, and justice. Its faculty combines both sophisticated quantitative and innovative qualitative research methodologies to advance analyses of law, criminal and social justice, and deviance.
State Responses to Crime & Violence
Areas of specialty include research on the implementation of the death penalty; police abuse of force; international human rights violations; state constructions of, and responses to, juvenile crime; and the complex relationships between law and violence.
Developmental Criminology
A hallmark of CU’s Program is its emphasis on developmental and life course issues in the study of crime and deviance. The program is home to some of the most influential longitudinal studies of criminal behavior, including the Rochester Youth Development Study, the Denver Youth Survey, and the National Youth Survey. All of these studies trace the causes and consequences of offending across the life course.
Identity, Inequalities & Law
Research conducted by faculty in the Criminology & Deviance Program is especially attentive to the ways in which legal and criminal processing systems construct, maintain, and reflect structures of societal inequality. Emphases within the department include racial disparities in sentencing outcomes; feminist and critical race jurisprudence; law and society; bias crime; and gendered criminality and laws.
Research Opportunities
Opportunities for graduate students to be involved in major research projects abound, both in the department and in the affiliated Research Program on Problem Behavior that is part of CU’s Institute of Behavioral Science. All of the longitudinal studies mentioned above are part of the Problem Behavior Program, as are projects on domestic violence and the award-winning Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. These diverse projects offer many opportunities for research experience on both basic and applied topics.
Graduate Seminars
· Theories of Crime & Justice
· Patterns of Criminal Behavior
· Institutions of Social Control
· Societal Reactions to Crime
· Special Topics Seminars
Faculty Profiles:
Adler, Patricia A. (Ph.D., California-San Diego, 1984) Adler specializes in interpretive sociology, qualitative research methods, deviant behavior, drugs, sociology of children, and sociology of sport
Belknap, Joanne E. (Ph.D., Michigan State, 1986) Belknap's research offers a feminist perspective on gender and crime, including the intersection of sexism with racism and classism. Her most recent projects are on delinquent girls and how the system responds to woman battering.
Elliott, Delbert S. (Ph.D., University of Washington, 1961) Elliott's research focuses on youth violence, delinquency, drug use and other forms of problem behavior. This research addresses the etiology and epidemiology of these forms of behavior as well as their prevention.
Potter, Hillary. (Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, 2004) Potter's research interests include examining the intersection of race, gender, class, and crime; intimate partner violence; and correctional sanctions and programs for convicted offenders.
Radelet, Michael L. (Ph.D., Purdue, 1977). Radelet's research focuses on Human Rights, the politics of punishment, prisons, and capital punishment.
Regoli, Robert M. (Ph.D. Washington State 1975). Regoli's work focuses on juvenile delinquency and on how societies transmit racist ideology beyond their borders He is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship Award and is a Fellow and past-President of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.
Rosga, AnnJanette (Ph.D., History of Consciousness, California-Santa Cruz, 1998). Rosga's research is on international human rights training for police in emergent democracies. Additional areas of specialty include multi-site ethnography, bias crime, feminist post-structuralist and critical race theories, violence, and cultural studies.
Steen, Sara (Ph.D., University of Washington, 1998). Steen's research focuses on discretionary decision-making in the criminal and juvenile justice systems, and on organizational responses to sentencing reforms.
Thornberry, Terence P. (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1971) Thornberry's research focuses on developing and testing life-course explanations for delinquency, drug use, and related problem behaviors.
